Mail Art

Art sent through the post: collaged letters, envelopes, rubber stamps, artist stamps and postcards swapped across informal international networks.

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About

Mail art turns the postal system into both medium and meeting place. From the late 1950s Ray Johnson posted collages, drawings and instructions to friends and strangers, asking them to add something and send it on; the loose circle took the misspelt name New York Correspondance School. Fluxus artists printed their own postage and postcards, and by the 1970s open networks spanned continents, promising no jury, no fees and a show for everything received.

The exchange mattered most where other channels were closed. Clemente Padín in Uruguay and Edgardo Antonio Vigo in Argentina used the post to circulate visual poetry and protest under military rule, and artists in Poland, Hungary and East Germany kept contact across the Iron Curtain. Donald Evans painted tiny watercolour stamps for imaginary countries. Look for rubber stamps, invented postage, cancellation marks and handwriting from several people: the journey is part of the piece.