John Held, Jr. Papers Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Key to the Collection: Correspondence 1976-1995 Part V Harris, Dorothy [Arto Posto] (Atlanta, Georgia} Just so no one thinks I've donated these papers as a puff piece bolstering my reputation, I offer this file as counterpoint. I regarded my initial relationship with Dorothy Harris as a nurturing one, educating someone with obvious talent about the history and subtleties of the medium. One of the finest artists creating artist postage stamps on the computer, Harris established one of the first Mail Art "chat groups" on Prodigy. This seemed to accelerate various controversies, and Harris came to a epitomize political correctness in Mail Art, centered around the old Mail Art maxim, "Mail Art and Money Don't Mix," and the "rules" of Mail Art exhibitions (no jury, no fee, documentation to all). These guidelines, first propagated by Lon Spiegelman (see file United States) as a general standard, became an unbending dictum under Harris. "I have just recently received a call from The Children's Museum in Chicago. Held is to be there. What puzzles me is that it says: 'Documentation to all participants selected for the exhibit.' This, of course, is in direct violation of what I have come to understand as the 'rules' of Mail Art. In other words, one of the very basic tenants of Mail Art is that there will be NO JURY. When one selects work for display and selects it for receipt of documentation, it is flying in the face of the very most basic traditions. Maybe John held Jr. feels comfortable with this, or has not noticed the detailed words of the mailing or??? I don't mean to be the Mail Art Police, but both The Bag Lady and I intend to write to the Chicago Children's Museum about this, and to Held." (January 30, 1993). 13 letters 6 postcards 1990-1994 Held, Margaret [Mrs. John Held, Jr.] (Clinton, Connecticut) I was beginning a lecture, but before I began speaking a hand went up in the audience. "Do you mind entertaining a question before you begin?," I was asked. "Not at all, " I replied. "Are you related to the cartoonist John Held, Jr.?" I looked around at the expectant faces. "Yes," I replied, "he was my grandfather." To my astonishment, they began applauding. At the end of the lecture, a friend came up to talk to me. "I didn't know you were related to John Held, Jr." "I'm not, I just hated to disappoint the crowd." She was crestfallen. My given name is Jonathan Held. When I began Mail Art, like many practitioners, I took a pseudonym. What better name then one so close, yet so far removed. John Held, Jr. was a noted cartoonist in the twenties, producing covers for Life and The New Yorker. I wrote John Held, Jr.'s widow, mentioning how much I admired her late husband's work, and that I often played off his imagery. Her response takes me to task, threatening a lawsuit. "Thank you again for writing to me, and I will look forward to hearing from you regarding pictures and parts you have already used, and in what regard, without permission." 1 letter 1979 Huebert, Jennifer M. (Rifton, New York) Anyone can come into the Mail Art network and make a splash in a very short time. Witness Jennifer Huebert. About the time of the 1992 Networker Congresses, she became active and began taking on the "Mail Art Establishment," about their exclusion of women. For a medium that prides itself on its' openness, this created quite a stir. Huebert began editing a Mail Art zine, Herd, that confronted the issue straight on. We corresponded several times on this subject, focusing on the role of the historian in documenting the medium, without excluding any one segment. "I really believe in learning about the history of any medium I love, knowing it inside & out; but I'm wary of historians. many times they're not artists or artisans and have a limited understanding of the medium they're preserving for posterity. Yikes! Also because art history has so successively excluded women. I am extra-wary of someone who is writing a big (or small) book on "The History of --- Art," unless I know their take on the subject, and they have done a fair & equal job researching. I suppose it is difficult to figure out just how many people are doing m.a. and how many women and how many men, so one could represent an accurate sample of the artists, but I really feel that is the responsibility of the mail art historian" (August 3, 1993). 4 letters 2 loose notes 1992-1993 Higgins, Dick (Barrytown, New York) Meeting people like the late Dick Higgins is one of the primary reasons I've devoted myself to art over the years. My introduction to Higgins by Jean Brown (see file United States), has been one of the highlights of my life. I found him warm, unpretentious, and more than willing to embrace a newcomer. One of the pioneering Fluxus artists, Higgins coined the term "intermedia" in describing the new art attitude of the  sixties. His death in 1998, while attending a performance festival in Quebec, Canada, was a shock and loss to all that knew him. While a Public Library Consultant for the Mid-York Library System in Utica, New York, I arranged for Higgins to give a series of poetry readings, along with Madeline Gins and Jackson McLow. Higgins was also helpful in arranging for my first Mail Art project (which never came to fruition), editing a special issue on Mail Art for the magazine, Visible Language. 8 letters 2 postcards 2 loose notes 1977-1995 Hofacker, Janet [Illustrated Woman] (Thousand Oaks, California) One of the best known rubber stamp/collage artists in the rubber stamp medium, Hofacker has been featured in most magazines covering the field. Her postcards are finely crafted, an excellent example of the direction rubber stamp usage headed to in the nineties. 6 postcards 1992-1994 Hoffberg, Judith A. (Pasadena, California) The founder of the Art Librarians Society of North America (ARLIS), and editor of Umbrella, a magazine specializing on reviews and news of artists' books, mail art and other alternative art genres, Hoffberg has provided an important service for librarians and artists interested in these fields. An avid reader and contributor, I have asked Hoffberg for advise in researching various subjects. 11 letters 1 postcard 2 loose notes 1980-1994   Hogan, Matt (Syracuse, New York) An archivist at Franklin Furnace (see file United States), New York, Hogan latter continued his studies at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies. Hogan and I met several times and shared information on a bibliography he was preparing on Ken Friedman (see file USA). 4 letters 1988-1991 Holmes, Mimi [Art Missionary] (Florence, Alabama) An elementary school teacher, who often involved her students in Mail Art, Holmes organized a number of Mail Art shows on a variety of subjects. 7 letters 1986-1989 Hompson, Davi Det [David E. Thompson] (Richmond, Virginia) A participant in Fluxus, as well as an early Mail Artist, who organized the influential 1973 exhibition, An International Cyclopedic of Plans and Occurrences, the late Davi Det Hompson was a skilled and witty practitioner of artists' books and visual poetry. Included in the file is an unpublished article Hompson wrote, "Printed Matters," for the ill-fated Visible Language project. Our latter correspondence discusses a show of his at Modern Realism in 1993. 8 letters 1 loose note 1981-1994 Honoria [Madelyn Starbuck] (Austin, Texas) Organizer of the 1990 Kiss Mail Art exhibition at Mexi-Arte in Austin, Honoria became a regular participant in the various events I hosted in Dallas. She is currently (2000) a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin researching a thesis on Mail Art and the Internet. 3 letters 1989-1991 Hunt, Jerry (Canton, Texas) One of the few avant-gardists working out of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the late composer and sound artist Jerry Hunt, became a friend while I was residing in Dallas. While there, an art group named DARE formed to stimulate research in the experimental arts, and brought Hunt and myself into closer contact. 3 letters 1991-1993 Inter-Dada 80 (Ukiah, California) The program for this seminal meeting of Mail Artists, which featured an appearance by Cavellini (see file Italy), details a fashion show, dance contest, sound poetry, performance evening and parade. Many Bay Area Dadaists were involved in the event including Anna Banana, Buster Cleveland (see file USA), Geoffrey Cook (see file United States), Bill Gaglione (see file United States), Polly Esther Nation, Rockola (see file United States) and Pat Tavenner. Others attending included Judith Hoffberg (see file United States), Monty Cantsin/Istvan Kantor (see file Canada), Bradley Lastname (see file United States) and buZ blurr (see file United States). 1 loose note 1980 Inter Dada 84 (San Francisco, California) Following the success of Inter-Dada 80, Ginny Lloyd (see file United States) and Terrence McMahon organized another festival bringing together many of the same individuals involved in the preceding event. The file includes the official program, plus a number of flyers for individual events. These include a film festival, sound events, a publication party for Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity, photography exhibition, slide show, poetry reading, fashion show, dance contest, a turtle race, and performances by L. Aliens, Ginny Lloyd, Anna Banana and Virginia Kirby, G. X. Jupitter-Larsen (see file USA) and Group Rockola (see file United States). I wrote a complete report of my activities at Inter Dada 84, "On the Road with Jon Held at Interdada 84," for the November/December 1984 issue of Rubberstampmadness.      29 loose notes 1984 Jackson, Leavenworth (San Francisco, California) One of the first artists to own and operate her own rubber stamp company, Jackson was the subject of a 1984 Modern Realism exhibition. Active in Mail Art at one point, her activities in the late eighties became curtailed. A letter in the file explains the reasons for this. 3 letters 3 postcards 2 loose notes 1984-1988 Jacobs, John P. [Hype] (New York, New York) A photographer, Jacob became interested in Mail Art and did a number of projects combining the two interests. His photo booth rubber stamps, commemorated meetings with a number of Mail Artists, and he organized a portfolio of Eastern European photography. Jacob also contributed the essay, "Mailart: In Theory," to the catalog I produced for my March 1984 exhibition, Mail Art About Mail Art. Although Jacob's participation in Mail Art was short, he played a significant role in the 1984 Franklin Furnace/Artists Talk on Art controversy, in which art critic Dr. Ronny Cohen, who had published a major article on Mail Art, "Art and Letters: Please Mr. Postman Look and See...Is There a Work of Art For Me?," in the December 1981 issue of Art News, curated a 1984 exhibition on Mail Art at Franklin Furnace Archives (see file United States), New York, which Mail Artists challenged because of her failure to show all work submitted, as stated in the exhibition invitation. Dr. Cohen was chosen to moderate a panel on Mail Art for the Artists Talk on Art series, and was asked to step down by the Mail Artists on the panel (including myself) for her failure to live up to the principles of the medium. Jacob played a prominent role in these developments, and published the transcript of the Artists Talk on Art panel in his Hype magazine. Letters in these files discuss the controversy. 5 letters 2 postcards 3 loose notes 1983-1987 Johnson, Ray (Locust Valley, New York) The undisputed "Father of Mail Art," as early as 1955 the Village Voice quoted Johnson, "I send lists to either people I think would be interested or to people I think won't be interested." A student at Black Mountain Collage from 1945 through 1948, where he studied color, design, painting and drawing with Josef Albers, Johnson was exposed to the emerging cream of a new generation of artists that would go on to challenge the prevailing Abstract Expressionist hold over the art world. By the time he left Black Mountain, the staff included John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Beaumont Newall, and Buckminister Fuller. Moving to New York City, Johnson was involved in a circle of friends that had attended Black Mountain including Cage, Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, Normon Solomon (see file United States), and Cy Twombly. In 1996, Rauschenberg remembered, "I never knew where he was coming from, but he certainly was there. Later we became close friends." (Black Mountain College Dossiers: Ray Johnson, 1997) Although a talented painter (Albers arranged for him to do the cover of the November 1947 issue of Interiors magazine), Johnson soon turned to collage, calling them "moticos," and began mailing them out to friends and unwitting strangers alike. He continued this practice until his death by drowning on January 13, 1995. By 1962, this activity was given the name The New York Correspondence School of Art by correspondent E. M. Plunkett (see file USA). In 1970, Johnson and Whitney Museum of American Art curator Marcia Tucker organized an exhibition of mailings from Johnson's cohorts. In the early seventies, Johnson's mailings captured the attention of a new generation of artists, as word of his activities were publicized by the Canadian art collective General Idea in their "megazine" FILE. Articles in Rolling Stone and Art in America also helped the spread of the medium, and Johnson's prominent place in it. In 1976, I was given Johnson's name and address by Bizarro Rubber Stamp company owner Kenn Spicer, and a correspondence developed between us lasting until the final years of his life. The small sample of our correspondence in the file reflects Johnson's modus operandi; personal typewritten letters with photocopied enclosures reflecting his current interests and activities. Johnson had a natural propensity to introduce his correspondents to one another, setting up a number of New York Correspondence School Meetings, admonishing his correspondents to "add and pass" his missives, and arranging private meetings between friends he thought would interest one another. As a young artist, I was greatly influenced by Johnson's consideration in providing me introductions to established artists as William Copley (Cply), Arakawa and Madeline Gins. Johnson and I met on several occasions, the first time in connection with a 1977 performance and exhibition he had at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. In 1980, I visited Johnson at his home in Locust Valley, New York. In 1982, I curated a show of Johnson's letters at Modern Realism in Dallas, Texas. I was dropped from the New York Correspondence School of Art in 1985. Despite this, we continued to correspond until shortly before his death in 1995. A collection of Johnson's letters to me were exhibited at the 1999 Johnson retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and are currently on loan to the Wexner Art Center, Columbus, Ohio, where the exhibition is slated to be reinstalled in 2000. 7 letters 3 loose notes 1977-1990 Jupitter-Larsen, Gerald X. (Fremont, California) A Mail Artist in the Industrial Culture mold, continuing the tradition of Genesis P-Orridge and Monte Cazzaza, noise artist Jupitter-Larsen, is noted for his non-events: black photocopied portraits, blank records, performances that he fails to attend, and vacant lots as public sculpture. In 1984, I curated a non-performance by Jupitter-Larsen at Modern Realism in Dallas. Jupitter-Larsen was assigned by Pawel Petasz (see file Poland) to coordinate the Commonpress project, which he promptly turned into a "nothing." 6 letters 1 postcard 2 loose notes 1981-1991 Kirkman, Bob (Chico, California) An artist dealing with eroticism, Kirkman was the subject of a 1993 exhibition at Modern Realism. He visited Yugoslavia, becoming a close corespondent of Dobrica Kamperelic (see file Yugoslavia), and our correspondence often mentions our mutual respect for Kamperelic's activities. 5 letters 2 postcards 1984-1994 Kostelanetz, Richard (New York, New York) One of the great historians of the contemporary avant-garde and author of Dictionary of the Avant-Grades (a cappella books, 1993), Kostelanetz wrote to me while I was a librarian at the Mid-York Library System, Utica, New York, at the behest of Ray Johnson (see file United States). This lead to my participation in Kostelanetz's Assembling publications, writing my first article on the alternative arts, "Information Science and the Art of Communication," for his A Critical (Ninth) Assembling (Precisely: 6789) (Assembling Press, 1979. 6 letters 4 postcards 1978-1989  Kover, Jonas [JK Post] (Utica, New York) When I was living in Utica, New York, Kover lived across the street from me. A reporter for the local paper, he did an article on my Mail Art activities, which caused him to became interested in Mail Art some years later, eventually organizing exhibitions on the medium at Munson-Williams- Proctor Institute School of Art and Utica College of Syracuse University (our mutual alma mater). A painter, Kover saw Mail Art as an extension of his visual interests, and his postcards and letters are graphic gems. Leaving Utica in somewhat of a rush, and not knowing the full implications of my early participation in Mail Art, most of my correspondence was left behind in an attic. At a future point, Kover retrieved some of these materials for me. I have included the full extent of his correspondence to me, not only because of it's intrinsic value, but because it reflects a personal knowledge of my activities previous to my entry into Mail Art. 21 letters 10 postcards 1983-1995' Lastname, Bradley (Chicago, Illinois) Editor of BILE magazine, Lastname played off the magazine titles of FILE and VILE, which in turn, influenced the naming of variously edited SMILE magazines. Lastname attended the Inter Dada 80 (see file USA) festival in Ukiah, California.  1 letter 1 loose note circa 1991 Laughter, Gene (Richmond, Virginia) Laughter was one of the first artists I'm familiar with to use an Apple Macintosh computer to create graphics in the Mail Art community. A prolific designer of artist postage stamps (the sheets have been pulled from the letters and reside in a separate collection), several can be found on his envelopes and postcards. Several letters in the file concern the Dr. Ronny Cohen/Franklin Furnace/Artist Talk on Art controversy of 1984. Several graphic homage's to Ray Johnson (see file United States) are also illustrated. 12 letters 4 postcards 1984-1986 Leiber, Steven (San Francisco, California) A San Francisco art dealer specializing in Fluxus and Conceptual Art, Leiber brokered the sale of Jeff Berner's Fluxus material to the Walker Art Center, resulting in the exhibition, In the Spirit of Fluxus. Leiber is one of the few dealers interested in Mail Art, focusing on material from the seventies and earlier. For a description of Leiber's interest in the field, Tim Mancusi (see file USA) writes a detailed letter listing the items Leiber was interested in when choosing from his collection. An expert appraiser in the field of the contemporary avant-garde, Leiber has worked with artists Claus Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, and the archives of General Idea. The postcard in the file comments on Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography. 1 postcard 1991 Levy, Toby (Utica, New York) A college friend, while attending Utica College of Syracuse University, Levy was the editor of the Pygmy Orange, a mimeograph zine originally begun to challenge the college administration, latter serving to link far-flung graduates. Levy was also editor of The Death Game, a zine listing current deaths and awarding points to players that foretold the event. This letter is of a personal nature, commenting on events following my first marriage. "As a correspondance artiste you send out letters to dozens of people you never have and never will see. So why not correspond with me." 1 letter 1984 Library of Congress (Washington, D. C.) Papers relating to my application for an ISSN for Bibliozine from the National Serials Data Program. Bibliozine was a two-page occasional zine commenting on publications in the field of the alternative arts, which I began publishing after Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1991) appeared. Sixty-five issues were published between 1992 and 1999. 2 letters 1995 Light Work (Syracuse, New York) A non-profit photography gallery on the campus of Syracuse University, Light Work staged an exhibition of artists working with rubber stamps in 1981, featuring a talk by Lowry Thompson (see file United States), original editor of Rubberstampmadness. I was included in the exhibition, along with artists Carlo Pittore (see file United States), Kihm Winship, Bruce Wood and Barton Benes. 1 letter 1 postcard 1981 Lloyd, Ginny  (San Francisco, California) The organizer of Inter Dada 84 (see file United States), Lloyd was an early color photocopy artist and creator of artist postage stamps. The file contains a copy of a submission made to enter a videotape, The Vanishing World of Correspondence, in the Inter Dada 84 film festival. A letter following the event, thanks me for writing an article about Inter Dada 84 for Rubberstampmadness. Four years later, Lloyd writes in regard to Inter Dada 88. 4 letters 1984-1988 Lowe, Michael (Cincinnati, Ohio) An art dealer specializing in "Artist's Books, Conceptual Art, Concrete Poetry, Graphics, Multiples and Performance Documentation," Lowe wrote of his  interest in trading item related to Mail Art. "I have a lot of mail art 60s-80s. I have purchased a number of collections." Lowe often collaborates with San Francisco art dealer Steven Leiber (see file United States) in acquiring large Mail Art collections. 1 letter 1993 Mancusi, Tim (Rohnert Park, California) A founding member of the Bay Area Dada group (with cousin Bill Gaglione [see file United States], Charles Chickadel and Steven Caravello), Mancusi roomed with Zippy the Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith when he first moved to San Francisco in the late sixties. Mancusi, who also did underground comics, has strong drawing, graphic design and print production skills. Mancusi took over the editorship of the New York Weekly Breeder from Stu Horn in 1972, who had inherited editing responsibilities from Ken Friedman (see file United States). In a letter from 1992, Mancusi outlines Breeder history in connection with a twentieth anniversary issue. Another letter from the same year discusses a visit from art dealer Steven Leiber (see file USA), detailing Leiber's interest in certain items from Mancusi's Mail Art collection. 4 letters 2 postcards 1992-1995 Marsh, Stanley 3 (Amarillo, Texas) An icon of Southwest Art patronage, Marsh has sponsored projects by Ant Farm (Cadillac Ranch, which literally put Marsh on the Rand McNally map), Robert Smithson (the ill fated Amarillo Ramp, which took the artists' life as he surveyed the site) and my trip to Cuba in 1995 (to curate the exhibition Havana Mail Art 95 at the National Museum of Fine Arts). The letter in this file is a copy of a letter Abelardo Mena (see file Cuba), Curator of Foreign Art, National Museum of Fine Art, Havana, wrote to Marsh about the Cuban Mail Art show. 1 letter 1994 Misery Research Center (Fremont, California) A pamphlet titled, Mail-Art Stardom, asks the question, "Who needs mail-art?" If answering "yes" to any of the questions put forth, some solutions are offered: become an artist, make up a name for yourself, get some rubber stamps made, learn to love xerography, write to everyone, send to all the mail-art shows. "And you will never be alone again." 1 loose note circa 1990 Modern Realism (Dallas, Texas) I opened Modern Realism gallery in Dallas, Texas, in 1981, to expose my new hometown to the experimental arts, many  of which were outgrowths of my interest in Mail Art. It's named after a rubber stamp I found at the Dallas Public Library, warning adults that the book their child is reading may deal with such provocative themes as sex, drugs, and rock music. First located at 1910 Young Street, in the smallest building in downtown Dallas, the gallery was moved after two years to my primary residence, which had a vacant space my wife, Paul Barber, and I devoted to the gallery. It was surprisingly successful, in regard to the amount of press it generated. Included in this file are some letters to the gallery, exhibition announcements, a press release and notes made for various shows. A larger selection of Modern Realism material will be made available to the Archives of American Art at a later date. 4 letters 5 postcards 3 loose notes 1984-1992 Moore, Barbara (New York, New York) A participant in Fluxus with her late husband Peter, one of the outstanding photo documentarians of the avant-garde, Moore went on to become the primary dealer of Fluxus materials in the mid-seventies. Backworks, which she ran with Jon Hendricks, was a place I haunted whenever I visited New York. Hendricks went on to become the curator of the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, and the author of the Fluxus Codex (Abrams, 1988), while Moore opened a new space, Bound and Unbound.  Included in the file are Christmas cards, sales bills, and Moore's comments on Mail Art; An Annotated Bibliography. 5 letters 1 postcard 1 loose note Morgan, Robert C. (Rochester, New York) The author of Commentaries on the New Media Arts: Fluxus & Conceptual Art, Artists'' Books, Correspondence Art, Audio & Video Art (Umbrella Productions, 1992), Morgan is one of the few mainstream art critics to seriously involve himself in Mail Art. In 1983, he published the article, "Mail Art is Not Correspondence Art," in Umbrella (September 1983). This generated a fair bit of controversy in Mail Art circles, with some objecting to excessive hairsplitting. I corresponded with Morgan, who I met during a symposium on Allan Kaprow at the University of Texas at Arlington, about the possibility of co-authoring an article on Mail Art for a major art magazine. The correspondence in the file follows these discussions, which eventually came to naught. "...Mail Art has every evidence of being a highly sophisticated art forum/form in the genre of or a sub-genre of conceptual art, but not necessarily systemic (although that is implied somewhat in the postal exchange network, metaphorically and literally, as many mail artists and commentators have pointed out). I think what is brilliant about some Mail Art and not so brilliant about others forms the basis of some criteria; that, in fact, Mail Art is a qualitative endeavor as much as a quantitative one. Being sensitive to the critical discourse of art, I cannot help but see difference in quality, that is, the systemic/qualitative aspect of some Mail Art is simply more significant than others...Democracy needs qualifiers or it is simply morass and ripe for fascist futurist riots-and that is not what interests me in this genre." Also included in the file is an unpublished essay by Morgan, "The Marking of the Mail: An Exegesis on the Criminal Pursuit of an Art Genre." 6 letters 3 postcards 1988-1991 Ms. Pitts (Eureka, California) Sending a Mail Art postcard incorporating rubber stamps and thread, Ms. Pitt's work, when compared to an envelope of similar media sent by Polish artist Pawel Petasz (see file Poland), reveals a world of difference between Mail Art in the United States and Eastern Europe. Whereas this work by Ms. Pitts is purely decorative, Petasz's use of thread to deter censorship portrays an entirely different context of art production. 1 postcard 1981 National Stampagraphic (North Valley Stream, New York) One of the magazines that has published articles of mine on a consistent basis over the years, the file on National Stampagraphic includes editorial correspondence relating to articles I authored on the Dallas Public Library Their Indelible Mark: Rubber Stamps and Libraries exhibition, and the death of Ray Johnson. Editors Melody and Franklin Stein supported Mail Art with articles, regular listings of Mail Art shows, and book reviews of publications in the field. 6 letters 1983-1995 Oisteanu, Valery (New York, New York) A Romanian artist who claims to have, "started mail art movement behind iron curtain in 1963," Oisteanu moved to New York City in the seventies. He has written about Mail Art for many alternative art magazines in New York over the years. In this postcard, he also claims to have, "Invented rubbage, illegal mail art and video mail art." 1 postcard 1985                                                                                                                   Continue to Part VI