Ray Johnson - Scheibler Mitte - Berlin

through January 28th 2012

Ray Johnson (1927–1995) needed but a few simple forms to create his icons - the bunny heads, snakes and stylized skulls that are among the characters peopling his collages. They represent him but also at times people, objects and themes that interested him and functioned in his work as a kind of label. Dubbed the “most famous unknown artist in New York” by The New York Times, Johnson is considered the founder of Mail Art and the initiator of the New York Correspondance [sic] School. His collages, which he began distributing worldwide in the 1950s, were seminal for Pop Art. His performances have been referred to as the first informal happenings; he called him “nothings”. He staged his suicide on a Friday the 13th in January 1995, which resulted in numerous speculations and a downright Johnson cult.

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