Ray Johnson: Please Add and Return

Appropriately named "New York's most famous unknown artist," Ray Johnson is making a resurgence, slowly but surely, back onto the radar of the contemporary art market. A versatile artist and performer, Johnson is most known for his enigmatic collage work and as a pioneer of "mail art," a conceptually simple but intricate and spontaneous genre. Johnson himself, remains a puzzle, not to be unraveled anytime in the near future.

After the watershed week during which Warhol was shot and Johnson himself was mugged, Ray seemed to slip underground so to speak, refusing to sell any of his work nor distribute it beyond the pieces presented to close friends as gifts, or mailed as portions of "please add and return" projects.

Sadly, Johnson's remained true to this threat until his body was found floating in Sag Harbor, NY on January 13, 1995. Since then, Princeton faculty member Andrew Moore and filmmaker John Walter have paid homage to Johnson with an award-winning documentary, aptly entitled "How to Draw a Bunny," after the quirky cartoon bunnies that plague some of Johnson's most profound pieces.

Leading the charge these days is Alex Sainsbury, who has mounted a tremendous Johnson retrospective, the best to date, as the inaugural exhibit in his brilliant new exhibition space "Raven Row" off Artillery Lane in London. With the help of Bill Wilson, Johnson's close confident, as well as Clive Phillpot, and Frances Beatty, to name a few, the exhibition has caused quite a stir. Be on the look out for further Johnson work but for now, be inspired, let your imagination run wild, maybe even start with drawing a bunny...[AHLA]