CCS BARD

Ray Johnson: The Dover Street Years provides the occasion for a new understanding and appreciation of the artist’s most significant early achievements. Composed of nearly 40 works, the exhibition will present a selection of collages from the years 1953-1960 when Johnson lived and worked at 2 Dover Street in Lower Manhattan.

American artist Ray Johnson (1927-1995) played a central role in the development and critique of American aesthetics in the 1950s. Prior to the advent of his New York Correspondance School and related mail art activities for which he is best known, Johnson produced a large body of experimental work through which he tested the boundaries of modernism. Termed “moticos” by Johnson himself, these works have been rarely seen, generally overlooked, and often misunderstood. The quality of the existent early work from the 1950s is truly extraordinary and represents a significant contribution to the field of art history. No exhibition to date has focused exclusively on this period of his work.” – Anastasia Rygle