Robert Watts, Part II

John Held Jr.

The central images for Yamflug/5 Post 5 are portraits of both men and women. Some are taken from photographs, others from engravings and drawings. Some are collaged, and in one instance (ninth row, eight across) a woman is wearing a saucepan for a hat. Although there are occasional uses of nudity (first row, eight across; and tenth row, ten across), there is little of the pornographic content found in the stamp sheets of the two previous years. As noted previously, the left and right border of the stamps, composed of women seeking dates, are indistinguishable in this reduction from the original size.

The manner of stamp separation for Yamflug/5 Post 5 differ from the two previous sheets as well. In this issue, the sheet is perforated (in the manner of regular United States postage stamps) rather then rouletted as Safe Post/K.U.K. Feldpost/Jockpost and Safe Post/K.U.K. Feldpost/Jockpost (1962).

The top and side borders of the sheet are not perforated, although the bottom is between the last row of stamps and the plate block. Therefore, the entire first row, and the first and last stamps in rows 2-10 are only perforated on three sides.
In 1964, Watts published his fourth postage stamp sheet in four years. His former experience with the medium culminated in producing one of the masterpieces of his career: Fluxpost/17-17. He had sharpened his production techniques since his first encounter with the postage stamp format.

Previous to Fluxpost/17-17, his borders were blurred or lost in the reductive process between original composition and final completion. In Yamflug/5 Post 5, the borders bear no resemblance to what was initially intended. The borders of Fluxpost/17-17, on the other hand, are sharp and more closely follow Watts' original conception.

The central images of the 100 different stamps on the sheet are also more visually intelligible. The almost childlike compulsion to shock his audience with crude erotic imagery, so dominant in the first two works, and carried forth in Yamflug/5 Post 5, is muted in Fluxpost/17-17.15a There is a pleasing mix of the abstract and figurative from sources as diverse as photography, drawing, and engraving. The ground of Fluxpost/17-17 is better conceived then Yamflug/ 5 Post 5, muddied by the reprographic halftone dots lingering in the background. Fluxpost/17-17, on the other hand, seems to leap out at the viewer, be it in it's black and white, or blue and white printing.

The original paste-up for Fluxpost/ 17-17 is in the Darlene Domel Collection, San Francisco, California. Upon close examination it yields the following information. Many of the images that contain faces have been photostated. They are of a similar color, come from half-tone reproduction, and most telling, have a glossy sheen to them.

The photostatic images that I can identify include: Row one (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8). Row two (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10). Row three (1, 2, [3]16 , 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). Row four (1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 7, 8, 10). Row five (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, [10]). Row six (2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, [8]). Row seven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [8], [9]). Row eight 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). Row nine (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, [9], [10]). Row ten (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, [9], [10].

Engraved images from their original source are found in the following positions: Row 1 (7, 9, 10). Row two (6, 9). Row Three (10). Row four (6, 10). Row five (5, 9). Row six ([10]). Row nine (8, 10). Row ten (6).

Row six (9) is left blank. But there is a residue of glue indicating the possibility of there having been an image there at one time. The fact that 13 images are currently missing from the original collage shows that Watt's adhering technique was not entirely successful, perhaps not even from the beginning. The blank stamp may not just have been a whim on Watts' part, but a necessity from unsuccessful mounting, whose unexpected effect he decided to incorporate into the final product. If so, it is entirely within keeping of a Post-Cage Flux aesthetic.

It is obvious that Yamflug/5 Post 5 prefigured Fluxpost/17-17. There is a singular border design common to the 100 postage stamps, all with different center designs, arranged in a sheet of ten rows containing ten stamps each. Fluxpost 17/17, like Yamflug/5 Post 5, has a plate number in the lower right hand corner. And like all masterpieces, which tend to have a somehow presage the future, the plate block number reads DIY12W70640, portending the DIY, or Do-It-Yourself generation of the late eighties and nineties.

Fluxpost/17-17 is perforated more symmetrically then the previous years issue. Whereas Yamflug/5 Post 5 lacked a top line of perforation, Fl uxpost/17-17 is better situated on the page allowing for a balanced look. Watts had secured a successful method of production and the integrated look he has sought for his work in the genre. And then for some inexplicable reason, he discontinued his production of postage stamps for the next twenty years.

His foray back into the field was an especially impressive one. Airmail Luna, published in 1984, is one of the finest looking artist postage stamp sheets ever produced. The 10 7/8 x 8 ¼ inch composition is laid out in ten rows consisting of five stamps apiece. Each stamp bears the inscription Airmail Luna 1984 in black lettering on the bottom portion of the stamp.

The first and last rows of the sheet are entirely blue, except for the black lettering previously described. The deep blue pigment is not unlike the I.K.B (International Klein Blue) used by Yves Klein in the creation of his Blue Stamp in 1957. The other stamps on rows two through nine bear at least some part of the lunar design that spreads from the middle of the sheet toward, but not to, the edges.

The moon is silver and white with craters and other apparent lunar features. Like Yamflug/5 Post 5 and Fluxpost/17-17 issues, Airmail Luna bears a plate number (19WO40840). Unlike the previously cited issues, it is signed in the plate (R. Watts '84), a practice Watts would henceforth repeat.

The most unusual feature about Airmail Luna is its "allover" feature. This is the only postage stamp sheet Watts would produce that departed from the standard postage stamp sheet format of identical, or nearly identical stamps, gathered in a grid format.

Watts' next stamp sheet was Blink produced in 1986. This is an 8 ½ x 11 inch sheet of stamps with 63 individual stamps, all bearing the same image. It is printed brown on tan paper, and is rouletted in the same style as Watt's earlier Safe Post/KU.K. Feldpost/Jockpost stamp sheets. The work is also signed in the plate and bears the margin number Ow19631/12/86, referring one assumes to the fact that the image was first produced in 1963 and subsequently modified in 1986.

The image was produced anonymously with Alison Knowles and George Brecht for a 1963 exhibition at Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Forty-one of the images were silk-screened by Knowles and presented along with a model, Lette Eisenhauer, who modeled the image on clothing.

In a phone conversation I had with Alison Knowles on January 11, 1996, she explained that the three-tiered work was a collective undertaking, with each artist responsible for a certain section. The top section was done by Watts and represents a Balinese wedding. George Brecht contributed the word BLINK, that breaks up the field. The three scissors, their blades opened, closed, and fully extended, were created by Alison Knowles.
Blink was first issued in 1963 by Watts as an imperforate sheet of stamps. That is, there are no perforations of any kind between the images. Sara Seagull in a phone conversation with me in January 1996 stated that these were often cut up and used as stamps. But with no perforations, and no philatelic traces, such as distinguishing denomination or issuing agency, placing this earlier issue of Blink into Watts' postage stamp oeuvre is contentious.

Watts created another stamp sheet in 1986, Commemorative FBI Most Wanted. It consists of fifty stamps in five rows of ten stamps across. It is printed black ink on gummed goldenrod (or yellow) paper. The photographic images are taken from FBI Most Wanted posters, commonly found in United States Post Office buildings. Each stamp depicts a different fugitive with a pair of fingerprints to the left of the portrait. To the top and bottom of the stamp, one finds a hand-drawn gun. To the right of each portrait FBI Most Wanted is written vertically. The 100 guns on the sheet are all from a common source, perhaps drawn by Watts himself. The sheet titled, Commemorative FBI most wanted, is given the plate number O2w10a86tO, and is signed Robert Watts 86.

Although Commemorative FBI most wanted appears nothing like his earlier Yamflug/5 Post 5 and Fluxpost/17-17 issues, the newer work is related in that it is composed of found images from sources in popular culture. Watts, therefore, continued his interest in Pop, late into his career, just two years before his death in 1988.
During the eighties, Watts, in the manner of the Blink stamp, continued to issue additional stamp sheets based on his previous designs. Sara Seagull states that, "He issued restrikes and compilations during the 1980s. This was in part to satisfy the demand from patrons and collectors,and partly to satisfy his curiosity about using different ink colors."17 Three sheets were produced based on his Safepost/K.U.K. Feldpost/Jockpost issues of 1961 and 1962. One such sheet is composed of 40 images of W.C. Fields in four rows of 10 stamps each, all in magenta. It is the same image as used in the 1961 issue, but has become muddied. The Safe Post logo, which graced the top of the image, has been obliterated in a wash of magenta. The U and S found in the bottom left and right corners are also less distinct then the original. The perforations are like those of the original, scored rather then the more conventional pin-hole perforations. To the left of the horizontal sheet, is Watts' signature in the plate, and the number 0W9-1961n12-8-86. As in the Blink stamp, this appears to signify that the work was originally created in 1961, and re-struck December 8, 1986.

Another sheet of similar appearance is also constructed from the Safepost/K.U.K. Feldpost/Jockpost issue of 1961. In this re-strike, the image of W.C. Fields (Safepost), is joined by the same K.U.K. Feldpost and Jockpost images of the original sheet. There are six horizontal rows of ten stamps each.

The first row is composed entirely of Safepost stamps depicting W. C. Fields.

The second and third rows contain K.U.K Feldpost and Jockpost issues in unique configurations.

The fourth row again is composed of the Safepost stamps.

The fifth and sixth rows again contain K.U.K Feldpost and Jockpost stamps in unique configurations with no apparent internal order. They possess, as do the second and third rows, both negative and positive images of the stamps. This repeats the same technique Watts used in the original issue of 1961.

Watts' final restrike from the sixties produced in the eighties, is a composite sheet using elements from Safepost, K.U.K Feldpost, Jockpost (1962). The quality of the sheet is, again, a degradation of the original, more indistinguishable and muddied. While the original 1962 stamp sheet contained 15 stamps and measured 5 ½ x 4 ½ inches, the re-strike from the eighties is composed of 60 stamps and measures 10 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches.
In essence, the re-strike is doubled from the original. Instead of a single row of 5 unique Safepost images, there are now two rows of 10 stamps across, 1-5 remain in the same order as the original, and then are repeated in positions 6-10.

The next four rows are composed of K.U.K. Feldpost and Jockpost stamps in exactly the same configuration as the original 1962 sheet, but doubled as in the previous two rows. The sheet, like the other restrikes, are offset printed. This particular sheet is printed in turquoise. A plate number appears in the margins to the left of the sheet bearing the inscription, 04 w 019062, cluing us to the original issue date. Watts' signature is signed in the plate without a date accompanying it.

Over the years, Watts' postage stamp sheets have been shown in exhibitions of Pop Art, Fluxus, Minimal Art, Serial Art, Mail Art, and Artist Postage Stamps. They are a perfect expression of various art tendencies central to the era in which they were created.

Watt's postage stamp sheets have had a continuing life since his death in 1988. In 1993, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, organized the exhibition, In the Spirit of Fluxus, which subsequently traveled both nationally (The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Columbus, Ohio; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and internationally (Fundació Antoni Tápies, Barcelona, Spain). A popular feature of the exhibition was the dispensing of Watts' postage stamps from a modified U. S. government postage stamp machine. In addition the Walker Art Center produced a sheet of stamps compiled from Safepost/K.U.K Feldpost/Jockpost (1961 and 1962), Yamflug/5 Post 5, Fluxpost/17-17, and Commemorative FBI Most Wanted. The sheet was sold throughout the duration of the touring exhibition.

The stamp sheet is copyrighted 1993 by the Robert Watts Studio Archive. Sara Seagull and Larry Miller, who were both students of Watts in the sixties, have done much to perpetuate Watts' memory and work.
The ever increasing popularity of the postage stamp format can be linked in part to the unending information the format is capable of conveying. It is both a conceptual and visual art medium. The fact that it parodies official postal authority has great significance to the many mail artists that create within the format. Indeed, there have been many instances, where artists, including Watts, have tested the postal system in an attempt to have their works "authenticated" by the government.

Within the mail art genre, where works are often of a conceptual nature and not primarily constructed for the sake of appearance, the artist postage stamp sheet is often a much sought after item, because it is one of the few products within the network composed with design qualities in mind. This is one reason why there are so many shows featuring artist postage stamps. Whenever an established museum decides to exhibit Mail Art, they often turn to the genre of artist postage stamps, because they convey the social, pol itical, and personal concerns of the artists, as well as their artistic merits. Exhibitions at the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Postal Museums of France and Switzerland, have featured artist postage stamp sheets to great effect.

Central to any exhibition, and to any history of the medium of artist postage stamp sheets, is the inclusion of Robert Watts' philatelic oeuvre. He is the pioneer of the field. Watts' stamp sheets are an integral part of Mail Art's lore and a cornerstone of it's evolving history.

John Held, Jr.

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