When examining any art movement, pinpointing its beginning and end is often difficult. Mail Art, also called Correspondence Art or Postal Art, is no less challenging to anchor to a specific time frame.

Ray Johnson & the Birth of Mail Art

Ray Johnson is most often credited as the father of Mail Art. In 1962, he held the first meeting of what he called The New York Correspondence School. Inspired by the randomness of the Dada movement, he later called it The New York Correspondance School, referencing dance but leaving the term open to interpretation.

Ray Johnson, Untitled (Mail Art), mixed-media assemblage in cardboard box, 1960. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

As was the case with much of the art that flowed through the postal system, there were many inside jokes, wordplay, and homoerotic humor. Many of the participants in Mail Art were marginalized people in society and, at times, in the art world. Queer culture in New York was celebrated, but within specific settings. Sending art through the postal system was an ingenious way to connect, exchange ideas, and avoid the critical eye of a sometimes-fickle art world.

Ray Johnson’s nod to Dada is seen in his mixed-media work (left) while also adapting to the age of Pop Art and the American industrial complex. This box contains an antibiotic medication bottle, wood, a hinge, and other objects carefully filling the interior space, yet they seem randomly selected. Purpose without reason.

Fluxus Artists

In the early 1960s, George Maciunas began an Anti-Art or Neo-Dada movement called Fluxus. The Fluxus artists were affiliated less by artistic styles and media, and more so by a state of mind. Their performances and art production can trace their inspiration to the free-thinking ideas of John Cage, as expressed to his students at The New School of Social Research beginning in 1950.

George Brecht, Tern Man Caned (Fluxbox / Fluxkit), mixed-media assemblage, circa 1960. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

George Brecht and other Fluxus artists used the postal system as part of their Fluxus performances. Tern Man Caned (Fluxbox / Fluxkit), circa 1960, is an excellent example of the Neo-Dada Mail Art presented by Brecht in the 1960s.

Found Objects & Stamps

Ray Johnson utilized found objects, mixed-media collage, and ink stamps among his many media. Other artists coined phrases and art terms that would adorn their works in the form of stamps, often not accompanied by the more typical artist’s signature. John Evans often stamped his Mail Art items with “Avenue B School.”

Joe Brainard

Joe Brainard also created a wide array of art in varied media, with Mail Art being a large part of his oeuvre. Often, his art appeared on the faces of his custom-printed postcards, as in Untitled, Bang! 

Joe Brainard, Untitled, Bang!, ink and collage on postcard. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Many artists from the Mail Art era are no longer with us, having tragically died too young. George Maciunas’ death in 1978 is often cited as the end of the Fluxus movement. Still, a more realistic view is to recognize that no art movement stands alone, and art and the creative process are in constant flux, evolving with and lending guidance to human society.