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Bibliozine Bibliozine, Part IX STEPHEN RONAN: TAMPON TROUVÉ (THE FOUND STAMP). 1995. 18 Pages. "Object Trouvé or found object refers to the act of an artist declaring a pre-existing or 'readymade' object, which he did not create, to be his work of art." An essay by San Francisco artist Stephen Ronan on the aim of his actions accompany the stamped works. "I want to alert others working in this medium to the idea that nearly anything can be a 'rubber stamp'." KURT SCHWITTERS: STAMP DRAWING 1918-23. 1995. 26 Pages. The German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters, an early practitioner of the collage medium, was perhaps the first Modernist artist to incorporate rubber stamp impressions in his work. The Stamp Art Gallery gathered his impressions from various sources for the exhibition Kurt Schwitters: Stamp Drawings 1918-1923. The catalog reproduces these works along with a translation by Charlotte Eisner of various accounts (previously available only in German) describing Schwitter's stamp activity. Geoffrey Cook also contributes an essay on the subject. A nice example of the Stamp Art Gallery's attempt to bring the history of rubber stamp art into focus. SERGE SEGAY. n.d. 34 Pages. The hand-carved stamps of this active Russian mail artist are reproduced following an interview with the artist in ND Magazine, and the artist's essay, "Rubber Trip Over the Whole World. ENDRE TOT. 1995. 46 Pages. Hungarian artist Endre Tot was an enthusiastic rubber stamper and mail artist in the seventies. In many ways he raised the awareness of the medium as a conceptual tool. The catalog reproduces many of his stamps, includes a special perforated stampsheet, and provides introductory biographical material. The show at Stamp Art Gallery was held from September 2-26, 1995.
Bibliozine is an irregular review periodical published in connection with the editors' research on international networker culture. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for books and articles on networking and it's various aspects: zines, mail art, electronic telecommunication, fax, cassette culture, photocopy, performance, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, fluxus, and other aspects of collaborative avant-garde cultures. Some Recent European Mail Art Publications: Caló, Emanuele, editor. Mostra Internazionale di Arte Postal. Museo R. Valentino, Castellaneta, Italy. August 30-September 5, 1995. 69 Pages. (for ordering information write to Museo R. Valentino, Via Municipio 19, Castellaneta, Italy) Can I get on my soapbox, please? Why is it that European
mail art show organizers can find institutions willing to produce excellent
documentation of their projects and American organizers go begging?
Here is an excellent example of a professionally produced mail art catalog.
It contains introductory essays (in Italian only) by organizer Caló,
Italian Guru Netman Vittore Baroni ("Enter Networld"), and
the omnipresent Guy Bleus ("Mail-Art Durante Quest'Ultimo Decennio").
Not only does it go on to reproduce much of the work submitted by the
70 artists from 21 countries, but it gives concise biographical information
on each. In the United States this catalog would cost $10,000 to produce,
and it seems like there are no more grants around, or curators brave
enough to champion mail art to their directors. Somehow the Europeans
can still manage it. I don't know if mail art is more respected in Europe,
or that printing is cheaper, or the fact that their mail art curators
have a better structure into which they can input. American mail art
curators need to take a firmer stand when confronted with the question
of documenting their projects. Mail art shows have always been regarded
as cheap shows to mount in the United States. Perhaps this needs to
be modified. Editor Ceccotto is establishing himself as a new powerhouse on the Italian Mail Art scene. His Mail Art Archive productions have been issuing several titles in recent years, having so far produced 130 different issues of such titles as Transfusion, and Performedia, which I also received in the same delivery. Transfusion contains a wealth of current information about the international networking scene including: The Ravenna Event, a performance gathering which brought together networking artists from Italy (Giovanni and Renata Strada, Ceccotto, and many others), Yugoslavia (Nenad Bogdanovic), and Japan (Mayumi Handa, Yoyoi Yoshitome, Reika Yamamoto); an essay by Serbian artist Nenad Bogdanovic on his Networker Gallery, a reprint of Bibliozine #37; an essay by Clemente Padin of Uruguay on, The Ideological Character of Network; Ruud Janssen's newsletter for his very important Mail-Interview Project; as well as lots of announcements for networking and mail art projects around the world. Janssen, Ruud, editor. Mail-Interview Projects. Eight Volumes. TAM Archive, Tilburg, Holland. September 1995. (Each interview costs $3. Send to: TAM, PO Box 10388, 5000 JJ Tilburg) Ruud Janssen has been an active mail artist and important networker for over a decade and has been especially active in the interface between mail and computer arts. The Mail-Interview Project "started in 1994 where mail-artists are interviewed through different communications forms like mail, fax, cassettes and E-mail. The results are published in printed form..." To date, interviews have been published with Klaus Groh, Michael Leigh, Rod Summers, Michael Lumb, Arto Posto, Dobrica Kamperelic, Henning Mittendorf, and Chuck Welch. These in-depth insights are an important contribution to our understanding of the networking experience. Highly recommended. Joki, editor. S'Mail: Global Network-Zine. Number 6. August 1995. $6. (Order from: Joki, PO Box 2631, D-32383, Minden Germany.) This latest issue of S'Mail (the past five issues are still available at a similar price), a zine devoted to artist postage stamps, features artistamps done in tribute to the late Ray Johnson, a special report on the prolific stamp activity of Seattle artist Dogfish, and reproduces the work of fifteen artists active in the field. The color xerox cover and several color reproduction within make this an attractive and informative fixture on the international artistamp scene. Artists represented in S'Mail hail from Argentina, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, the Untied States and Yugoslavia. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this exploding genre within the mail art network. Ruch, Günther, editor. CH - Gegenfluss/1995. Out-Press, Genéve-Peney, Switzerland. 1995. Edition of 100. (For availablility, write to the editor at : Günther Ruch, 315 Route de Peney, 1242 Genéve-Peney, Switzerland). A cooperative booklet edited by Günther Ruch (Geneva), including the work of H. R. Fricker (Trogen), Peter W. Kaufmann (Ebmatingen), M. Vänçi Stirnemann (Zürich), and Marcel Stüssi (Basel). Although the work contains helpful texts on the background of the artists, the real wonder of the book is it's construction which includes "Copy Art, Mail Art, Visual Poetry, and Stamp Art." The perforated sheets, stickers, envelopes, postcards, and even book covers from Ruch's previous, M-A Congress 86, make this an imaginative work giving an overview of the current Swiss Mail Art scene. Bibliozine #40 (November 1995) Bibliozine is an irregular review periodical published in connection with the editors' research on international networker culture. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for books and articles on networking and it's various aspects: zines, mail art, telecommunication, computer bulletin boards, fax, cassette culture, photocopy, performance, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, fluxus, and other aspects of collaborative avant-garde cultures. Copies of the editor's book, Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1991. 582 pages), are now available directly from Bibliozine at half-price. Send $25 cash or check to: John Held, Jr., PO Box 410837, SF< CA 94141-0837. Shipping and handling $3.50 (U. S. & Canada). Foreign orders add $5 surface or $10 airmail).
This is the first issue of Bibliozine from our new San Francisco address, one shared with Ashley Parker Owens of Global Mail. On November 1, 1995, I began work at the Stamp Art Gallery, with Creative Director Picasso Gaglione. The Gallery is a showcase for rubber stamp art , and associated forms, such as artistamps and artist's bookworks. My first assignment at the Gallery was to write an introductory text for a catalog on Ken Friedman and his rubber stamp activity. The youngest member of Fluxus, joining when he was sixteen in 1966, Friedman was able to bridge alternative art movements, including Fluxus, the New York Correspondence School of Ray Johnson, and the developing amalgam of networking artists in the seventies. He was both a practitioner of the artform and one of it's earliest and foremost critics and historians. The following bibliography are texts I used in the writing of the introduction to the catalog essay. Crane, Michael, and Stofflet, Mary. Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity. Contemporary Art Press, San Francisco, California. 1984. Contains the essay, "Stamp and Stamp Art," contributed by Friedman and Georg M. Gugelberger, a professor of Language and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Riverside. This was reprinted from a 1976 issue of Front magazine, which served as the catalog for the La Mamelle Art Center (San Francisco) International Rubber Stamp Exhibition. The essay contains much historic information as to seals and medieval woodcuts, however, the subject is quickly brought up to date by a discussion of artists using the medium in such mid-century avant-garde movements as Fluxus, Nouveau Realism, and Mail Art. Friedman also makes a strong contribution by informing the reader of previous writings on rubber stamp art by Hervé Fisher, J. H. Kocman, and Timm Ulrichs. All in all, an important essay in the development of the genre, extending the author's thinking on the subject from his writing earlier in the decade. Fischer, Hervé. Art et Communication Marginale (Art and Marginal Communication). Balland, Paris, France. 1974. This is an important book, which was the first extensive survey of rubber stamp art as used by an international array of artists. Friedman contributes an untitled essay, in which he outlines some of the uses of the rubber stamp in his own work, as well as others. "Rubber stamps offer a unique lexicon of images, a vocabulary of aesthetic ideology which can be used to obtain rapid results in areas of form and technique which are not so accessible to more traditional media, such as drawing, painting or sculpture. While it can be easily argued that the other media offer us deeper access to certain areas of our human experience, when we seek experience in planar and linear modes best south through repeatable images, or flat images -or both- rubber stamps offer an unparalleled and unique opportunity." Nagiscarde, Sophie, editor. L'Art du Tampon (Art of the Rubber Stamp). Musée de la Poste, Paris, France. 1995. The catalog, published earlier in the year, marks an important advancement in the developing history of rubber stamp art criticism. Included in the work is an essay by Jon Hendricks, noted historian of Fluxus, who contributes, "Rubber Stamps as an Aspect of Fluxus." Hendricks concedes, that despite the large number of Fluxus artists that used the medium, "Ken Friedman was probably the Fluxus artist with the greatest sustained interest in rubber stamps from the mid 60's onwards." In addition to Friedman, Hendricks discusses the rubber stamp activity of Ben Vautier, George Maciunas, Robert Watts, George Brecht, and Nam June Paik in detail. Phillips, Albert. Ken Friedman's Stamp Work, 1956-1979. Stempelplaats, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1979. Written for an exhibition at Stempelplaats Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland, in 1979, the author notes a number of areas in which Friedman has used the rubber stamp in his work. While noting that rubber stamps were never a major focus of Friedman's work, "his influence on the medium and on the artists who work within it has been profound." Phillips goes on to enumerate some of the ways in which Friedman used rubber stamps including his mail art, Rubber Stamp Archive, and Monography, almost all of which is used as a sculptural element.
Bibliozine is an irregular review periodical published in connection with the editors' research on international networker culture. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for books and articles on networking and it's various aspects: zines, mail art, telecommunication, computer bulletin boards, fax, cassette culture, photocopy, performance, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, fluxus, and other aspects of collaborative avant-garde cultures. Ackerman, Al. Maitre Ling & Autres Histories. Plein Chant Editions, Bassac, France. 78 Pages. 72 Francs (about $20). (For ordering information write Al Ackerman, 2407 Maryland #1, Baltimore, MD 212180) I don't know, but seeing Al Ackerman's work in French sends me into gales of laughter. God only knows what it does to the French. Mon Dieu. This is a very handsome paperback book translated by networker Philippe Billé. It contains several short pieces, including Ackerman's explanation of the origins of Neoism, a portrait of poet John Bennett, and a parody of the Situationists. It concludes with a letter by Géza Perneczky on Ackerman's wide ranging influence, and a bibliography of the master's work. Banco de Ideas Z. Havana '95 International Mail Art Show. Museo Nacional Palacio de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. 1995. 61 Pages. (For ordering information write BIZ, Calle 19 No. 1362, Apto. 15 e/24 y 26, Vedado, Habana 4 CP, 10400 Cuba. Or e-mail at ideasz@tinored.cu) The catalog from the first mail art exhibition in a
National Museum of Fine Arts. It is also one of the largest ever with
some 900 participants from 40 countries. Contains an introduction by
Abelardo Mena, Curator at the National Museum, and an essay by John
Held, Jr, entitled, "The Open World of Netland." If you ever
doubted the reach of mail art, doubt no more. There is no one more active, or better organized, in the mail art world then Guy Bleus. Having curated a major artistamp exhibition this summer, Bleus has since organized this major exhibition of mail art books, artistamps, periodicals, rubber stamps, postcards, objects, stickers, catalogs, and more, for his country's National Postal Museum. From the photographs in the catalog, the show looks truly amazing. Held in the Grand Salon of the Museum, with crystal chandeliers and frescoes surrounding the glass exhibition cases, it's a far cry from the normal push-pinned mail art show. The show catalog is a listing of the items on display, and it reflects the most innovative work of the 80s and 90s. Bleus was just included in a group show, Dialogues, which featured conceptual artists such as Lawrence Weiner and Alighiero E Boetti, and he is doing more then anyone in Europe at this time to convince mainstream curators that mail art is an important artform worthy of their consideration. Pütz, Claudia, Ed. Pips: Magazine for UnZeitgeist & UnComMerz. Pips-Dada Corporation, Bonn, Germany. (For ordering information and submission policy write: Claudia Pütz, Prinz Albet-Str. 31, D-53113 Bonn, Germany) I kept hearing from other networkers about this assembling project and I was finally able to see one for myself at the Underground Press Conference (see Bibliozine #37). Every issue contains mail art works by about thirty to forty artists and poets, and each contribution is signed and numbered. A variety of techniques are used. The contributions are then distributed in a very nice boxed set. This is definitely one of the most beautiful mail art projects currently distributed, and has "collector's item" written all over it. Upcoming issues include the Aquarius Box (January '96), the Planetarium Box (February '96), and the Original and Forgery Box (March '96). Janssen, Ruud. Mail-Interview Project. TAM Archives, Tilburg, Holland. ($3 per issue. (Write Ruud Janssen, PO Box 10388, 5000 JJ Tilburg, Holand) Ruud has been an active mail artist throughout the eighties and nineties. He has organized several excellent projects, including his editorship of the TAM (Travelling Art Mail) Bulletin , the curatorship of the TAM Rubberstamp Archive, and documenting the explosive growth of computer activity in the mail art network. In 1994 Ruud began yet another project, the Mail-Interviews. I'm very excited about this project, because for the first time in a systematic manner, mail artists are being interviewed in depth by someone with an insightful understanding of the medium. The interviews are conducted by fax, mail, e-mail, the exchange of cassettes and diskettes, even personal delivery. So far interviews with Klaus Groh, Michael Leigh, Rod Summers, Michael Lumb, Arto Posto, John Held, Jr., Dobrica Kamperelic, Henning Mittendorf, Robin Crozier, Anna Banana, and Carlo Pittore are available, with more on the way. Booklets average around 15 pages. Each starts with the standard question, "How did you get started in mail art?" From that point on the interview proceedes according to the answers provided. This project is very highly recommended, and the price of the booklets, which barely covers the production costs, could not be more fair. Bibliozine #42 (December 1995) Bibliozine is an irregular review periodical published in connection with the editors' research on international networker culture. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for books and articles on networking and it's various aspects: zines, mail art, telecommunication, computer bulletin boards, fax, cassette culture, photocopy, performance, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, fluxus, and other aspects of collaborative avant-garde cultures. Copies of the editor's book, Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1991. 582 pages), are now available directly from Bibliozine at half-price. Send $25 , cash or check to: John Held, Jr., PO Box 410837, S.F. CA 94141-0837. Shipping and handling $3.50 (U. S. & Canada). Foreign orders add $5 surface or $10 airmail). The Blue Stamp of Yves Klein In 1957 French New Realist painter and conceptualist Yves Klein created his smallest monochrome blue paintings. He perforated them and used them to grace an invitation for dual exhibitions he was presenting in May of 1957 at the Iris Clert and Colette Allendy Galleries in Paris. The invitations (listing both shows) were then taken to the post office where Klein had them cancelled by a sympathetic postal worker. He carefully instructed the postal clerk to place the cancel over the stamps so that their authenticity would be assured. The Blue Stamp was one of the first artist postage stamps, and the process of having it mailed was an early and important postal art action. In researching Klein's stamp of blue, I used the following sources. The results of this research will be presented in the exhibition, "Yves Klein/The Blue Stamp," at the Stamp Art Gallery, 466 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, from January 6-31, 1996. A catalog will accompany the show. Write for details. Crane, Michael, and Stofflet, Mary, eds. Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity. Contemporary Arts Press, San Francisco, CA. 1984. 522 Pages. The book is notable for using the Blue Stamp on the work's cover. It's publication made Klein's creation an instant icon of the mail art movement. It is regrettable, however, that the two essays in the book on artist postage stamps both contain factual errors regarding the work. James Warren Felter's, "Stamp Art," mentions that the stamp was issued during a postal strike, for which I can find no supporting evidence. In Peter Frank's "Postal Modernism: Artists' Stamps and Stamp Images," the author notes that the stamp was created in 1959 for Klein's exhibition, "La Vide." In truth, the show was presented in 1958, and the stamps were issued for previous shows in 1957. Frank also asserts that the stamp was "a regular postage stamp painted with 'International Klein Blue.'" This overpainting cannot be verified. Institute for the Arts, Rice University. Yves Klein: 1928-1962 A Retrospective. The Arts Publisher, Inc., New York, New York. 1982. 350 Pages. (ISBN 0-914412-27-2) This is the exhibition catalog for the Klein exhibition that originated at Rice University, Houston, Texas in February 1982, and traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Pompidou Centre, Paris. The informative texts are by Pierre Restany (who was instrumental in forming the New Realists and a close friend of Klein), Thomas McEvilley, and Nan Rosenthal; all leading Klein scholars. It also includes a section on selected writings by Klein. The work is profusely illustrated with reproductions of Klein's paintings, associated works, and performance actions. It includes several reproductions of the Blue Stamp; an illustration of an envelope which he mailed to himself in 1959, and an exhibition announcement of the Clert/Allendy shows pictured with a partial sheet of the stamps taken from Klein's 1957 journal. Nan Rosenthal provides an especially insightful inquiry of the Blue stamp, placing it in the context of his painting. Restany, Pierre. Yves Klein. Harry N. Abrams, New York. 1982. An important work, especially since Restany was so close to Klein. They first met when Restany favorably reviewed one of Klein's first shows at the Club des Solitaires in October 1955. On October 27, 1960, the New Realist (Les Nouveaux Réalistes) group was founded by Restany in Klein's apartment with Arman, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse, François Dufréne, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and Jacques de la Villegié. The book also reproduces an additional use of the Blue Stamp on the occasion of Klein's exhibition, "The Specialization of Sensitivity in the State of Prime Matter as Stabilized Pictorial Sensitivity." The show, better known as, "The Void," opened April 28, 1958, to a hailstorm of publicity and controversy. The text of the invitation was composed by Restany, and once again, featured the Blue Stamp. Stich, Sidra. Yves Klein. Cantz Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, 1994. 291 Pages. (ISBN 3-89322-657-5) Another deluxe exhibition catalog for a show that toured Germany, England, and Spain (closing in August 1995). The sustained narrative and impressive scholarship provided by Stich contains a wealth of information about Klein's life, his painting, performance, sound work, sculpture, leaps into the void, etc., all of which is put into an historical context. Contains a helpful description of the Blue Stamp, and an excellent reproduction of the Clert/Allendy invitation.
Bibliozine is an irregular review periodical published in connection with the editors' research on international networker culture. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project, please send them to the above address. Especially looking for books and articles on networking and it's various aspects: zines, mail art, e-mail art, fax, DIY culture, photocopy, performance, artist collectives, artistamps, rubber stamp art, fluxus, and other aspects of collaborative avant-garde cultures. Copies of the editor's book, Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1991. 582 pages), are now available directly from Bibliozine at half-price. Send $25 , cash or check to: John Held, Jr., PO Box 410837, S.F. CA 94141-0837. Shipping and handling $3.50 (U. S. & Canada). Foreign orders add $5 surface or $10 airmail). Robert Watts: Robert Watts was central to the mix of Post-Cage, pre-Fluxus artists that circulated in New York during the late fifties. He went to college at Columbia University with Allan Kaprow. He taught at Rutgers University with Roy Lichtenstein, and exhibited at Castelli Gallery with other Pop artists. In 1963 Watts co-organized the Yam Festival with George Brecht, which brought together many active creative figures of the era in a series of real time events and through the post in an early manifestation of Mail Art community. Shortly thereafter, Watts joined forces with Fluxus and George Maciunas becoming one the Flux maestro's staunchest allies. In return, Maciunas published a variety of Watts material from postage stamp sheets to boxed sets of event cards, placemats, temporary tattoo decals, t-shirts, and underpants. In a series of actions that continue to hold the attention
of mail artists and admirers of artist postage stamps, Watts created
a series of four stamp sheets in four years, culminating in the publishing
of Fluxpost/17-17 in 1964. These sheets of stamps was used by Fluxus
in publications and multiples for the course of their activities. The forthcoming catalog on Watts' stamp sheets being published by The Stamp Art Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Robert Watts: The Complete Postage Stamp Sheets, February 3-29, 1996, will include my overview of Watts' career and a comprehensive chronology of Watts' postal art activity including his postage stamp sheets, printed postcards, stationary, envelopes, sculpture, events, exhibitions, and artistamps. The following sources helped me with my research. They were either in my possession or the collections of Darlene Domel and Steven Leiber. I also wish to thank the staff of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Library, Eugenie Candau and Mary Marsh, who have proved very helpful in my transition from Dallas to San Francisco. Phone conversations with Sara Seagull and Larry Miller, of the Robert Watts Studio Archive Estate, and Alison Knowles, collaborator with Watts on the Blink postage stamp sheet (1963-1986), also proved very helpful. Research References. (Bound and Unbound) Barbara Moore. The Book is in the Mail. Bound and Unbound, 1990. (Castelli) Castelli Gallery. Robert Watts. Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, New York. 1990. (Flux Med) Robert Watts. Flux Med. Obra Grafica, Madrid, Spain. 1987. (Fluxus Addenda 1) Jon Hendricks. Fluxus Etc. Addenda I. Ink &, New York. 1983. (Fluxus Codex) Jon Hendricks. Fluxus Codex. Abrams, New York. 1982 (Fluxus Etc.) Jon Hendricks. Fluxus Etc. Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. 1981. (Leiber). A checklist for the San Francisco Museum of Art venue for the In the Spirit of Fluxus exhibition, examined in the collection of San Francisco collector Steven Leiber. (MOMA Fluxus) Phillpot, Clive, and Hendricks, Jon. Fluxus: Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York. 1988. (Seagull) Seagull, Sara. "Robert Watts Stamp Rememorative." Artistamp News, February 1993. (Ubi Fluxus) Oliva, Achille Bonito. Ubi Fluxus idi motus 1990-1962. Mazzotta, Milan, Italy. 1990. (Wiesbaden) 1962 Wiesbaden Fluxus 1982. Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, Berlin, Germany. 1982. (Zabriskie) Galerie Zabriskie. Robert Watts: L'objet Photographique et Autres Oeuvres. Galerie Zabriskie, Paris, France. 1990. Bibliozine #44 (February 1996) Bibliozine is an irregular review periodical published
in connection with the editors' research on international networker
culture. If you have materials that may be of interest to the project,
please send them to the above address. Especially looking for books
and articles on networking and it's various aspects: zines, mail art,
e-mail art, fax, DIY culture, photocopy, performance, artist collectives,
artistamps, rubber stamp art, fluxus, and other aspects of collaborative
avant-garde cultures.
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