John Held papers relating to mail art

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

John Held papers relating to mail art

bulk 1973-2013

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw93dd2159c-b4cd-4edd-9e2f-9b0b78cc5bf6

The papers of rubberstamp and artistamp artist, performance artist, collector of mail art, and fine arts librarian John Held, Jr. date from 1947-2018, bulk 1973-2013, and measure 12.9 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical material, 18 printed diaries, letters received by Held from mail artists around the world, art work consisting of artistamps designed by miscellaneous mail artists, interview transcripts, writings, project and event files, printed material, and mail art sent for the Gutai Historical Survey Exhibition held at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2013.Scattered biographical material consists primarily of miscellanous biographical writings and accounts. Eighteen printed diaries provide very brief descriptions of daily activities and more detailed descriptions of art mail events, conferences, and travel experiences.Letters comprise the largest and most significant series in the collection. Letters received by John Held, Jr. are from an extensive number of national and international mail artists, including Mark Bloch, Hans Braumüller, Jean Brown, William Gaglione (a.k.a. Picasso Gaglione), Dick Higgins, Ray Johnson, Shozo Shimamoto, Ryosuke Cohen, Michael Leigh, Guglielmo Cavellini, and Rod Summers. There are also scattered letters from Carl Andre and Clement Greenberg, typescripts of letters sent by Held, and a file of letters exchanged with Steve Durland. There are twelve folders of artistamps, non-official or pseudo-postage stamps designed by miscellaneous participants in the international mail art network.Transcripts are of interviews conducted by John Held, Jr. with some of the more notable artists involved with the mail art movement including Al Ackerman, John Cage, Ray Johnson, and Allan Kaprow. There are also interviews with John Held, Jr., William (Picasso) Gaglione, and Milan Knizak, including an interview with Held conducted by Ruud Janssen. Extensive writings by John Held, Jr. consist of catalog essays, miscellaneous essays, bibliographies, miscellaneous box set texts, and miscellaneous typescripts. Project and event files concern miscellaneous projects, tours, lectures, and exhibitions with which John Held, Jr. was involved. Printed material consists primarily of printouts of <emph render="italic">Bibliozone</emph> issues, a newsletter, exhibition catalogs, and press releases concerning mail art. The Gutai exhibition project files include printed material related to the 2013 <emph render="italic">Experimental Exhibition of Modern Art to Challenge the mid-Winter Burning Sun: Gutai Historical Survey and Contemporary Response</emph> held at the San Francisco Art Institute. The bulk of the series consists of mail art created by over 135 artists who were asked to submit work inspired by Gutai and the artist Shozo Shimamoto. The Mail Art Study Day Material consists of mostly biographical material regarding John Held, presented by him at the Archives of American Art’s Mail Art Study Day on November 9, 2018. This assortment of largely printed material (news clippings, invitations, and programs) as well as select correspondence and photographs, each representing a year in the life of the artist, accompanied by a key for around 450 items dating from 1947-2018. They serve to document his career with regard to creating and disseminating Mail Art.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630533

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 21 Entities related to this resource.

Held, John, 1947-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v127rf (person)

[Not to be confused with illustrator John Held, 1889-1958].) John Held, Jr. (the "Jr." is an appropriated addition) was born in 1947. He matured as an artist in the mid-seventies, and became involved in the international Mail Art network, mentored by Fluxus collector Jean Brown and the artist Ray Johnson. He holds a M.L.S. (1972) from the Syracuse University School of Information Science, and has combined his interests in information science and alternative art to form the largest archive of Mai...

Knížák, Milan.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cv6chd (person)

Czech artist born 1940. Knížák influenced Czech underground music, especially with his rock project Aktual, was a member of Fluxus in the 1960s and 1970s, and served as Director of the National Gallery in Czechslovakia, 1967-1971. From the description of Destroyed music, 1963-1979. (Getty Research Institute). WorldCat record id: 419263495 ...

Durland, Steven

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j10w71 (person)

Modern Realism Archive and Gallery,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6359bkn (corporateBody)

Brown, Jean, 1911-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bd4nr9 (person)

Jean Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York, 20 December 1911. Her father, Irving Levy, was a rare book dealer. During the Depression Brown worked in a library in Springfield, Massachusetts where she was trained in library cataloging. Brown amassed a significant and rich body of materials by many of the most influential and challenging artists of the 20th century. The initial inspiration for the collection was provided by Dada painters and poets: an anthology, 1951, edited by Robert Motherwell....

Held, John, 1889-1958

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69s1tg4 (person)

John Held, 1889-1958, was an illustrator, Westport, Conn. and Palm Beach, Fla. He was most famous for his Jazz Age era illustrations for the New Yorker. He also produced watercolor landscapes and sculpture. [Not to be confused with John Held, Jr., b. 1947, associated with Mail Art]. From the description of John Held, Jr. papers, 1917-1958. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122291275 Epithet: of Beeley, yeoman British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Pers...

Kaprow, Allan

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gq72hm (person)

Allan Kaprow, Painter, educator of Pasadena, Calif. From the description of Oral history interview with Allan Kaprow, 1968 Sept. 10. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 657039358 From the description of Allan Kaprow interview, 1968 Sept. 10. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220186948 Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) was a painter and educator from Pasadena, Calif. From the description of Oral history interview with Allan Kaprow, 1968 Sept. 10. (Unknown). WorldCat recor...

Johnson, Ray, 1927-1995

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63n2610 (person)

Ray Johnson (1927-1995) was a painter from Locust Valley, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Ray Johnson, 1968 Apr. 17 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82223586 Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Ray Johnson is frequently referred to as the "father of mail art." He attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina from 1945 to 1948, then moved to New York. Although he worked as an abstract painter for several years, by 1953 Johnson h...

Durland, Steve

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67j4k4v (person)

André, Carl 1935-...

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6st7z5q (person)

Sculptor (New York, N.Y.). From the description of Carl Andre interviews, 1972 Sept. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220178198 Sculptor; New York, N.Y. From the description of Carl Andre interview, 1972. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220199022 Carl Andre (1935-) is a sculptor from New York, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Carl Andre, 1972 Sept. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 495595034 ...

Janssen, Ruud, 1959-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66j1z3h (person)

Cavellini, Guglielmo Achille, 1914-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bz83tm (person)

Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sf2xzx (person)

Clement Greenberg, for many years America's most influential art critic, helped to create an audience and market for New York School artists such as Pollock, Newman, and David Smith. Greenberg wrote for Partisan review in the late 1930s and began writing art reviews for The Nation in the 1940s. Beginning in the 1950s, he abandoned regular reviewing in favor of the occasional article, organized exhibitions, lectured around the world, and served as a consultant for galleries, museums, and dealers....

Higgins, Dick, 1938-1998

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bv7mjt (person)

American artist, poet, writer, publisher, composer, and educator. From the description of Dick Higgins papers, ca. 1960-1994 (bulk 1972-1993). (Getty Research Institute). WorldCat record id: 146003268 Artist, poet, publisher, and composer; New York and Barrytown, NY. Member of the artists' group, Fluxus. Died Oct. 25, 1998. From the description of Dick Higgins papers, 1958-1997. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79005545 D. October 25, 1998. Fro...

Cage, John, 1912-1992

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r030xw (person)

John Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912. He studied composition with Richard Buhlig, Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss, and Arnold Schoenberg. In 1938 he began working as an accompanist for dance and a teacher at the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. It was here that he first met the dancer Merce Cunningham, with whom he would have a lifelong working relationship. Together they were responsible for a number of radical innovations in musical and choreographic compositions, such as the...

Blaster Al

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rg391s (person)

Shimamoto, Shōzō, 1928-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63g23xp (person)

Braumüller, Hans, 1966-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tf7c8j (person)

Bloch, Mark, 1956-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6384q15 (person)

Knizák, Milan

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p97cjh (person)

Gaglione, Bill

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61g0t37 (person)