archives & collections

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• A1 WASTE PAPER
• Archive of mail art 1970 onwards. The collection is curated by Michael Leigh.

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• THE ADMINISTRATION CENTER

• The Administration Archive
  The Administration Archive, the archive of the Administration Centre founded by Guy Bleus, is broken into three sections. By far the largest is the incoming correspondence broken down by country, and then alphabetically by the artists name. Box numbers and correspondent are matched by the computer, and although the system does not allow for casual browsing, it is a structure allowing easy access to the materials. From the incoming correspondence certain items are isolated into separate categories, including mail art catalogs, artist postage stamps, posters, specific mail art events (i.e., congresses), and Bleus' own numerous, and legendary curated projects ... " (cit. from John Held Jr.). More information visite the website.
  • [publication] John Held Jr., Guy Bleus. Global Administration.

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• ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART

• Bett Esman Papers
  The Betty Esman Papers, 1926-1980 consist primarily correspondence, mail art, and printed material documenting Esman's career and her personal and professional relationships with artists Ray Johnson, Rufino Tamayo, Jacques Lipchitz and others.

• Gertrude Kasle Gallery
  The bulk of the Gertrude Kasle Gallery Records, 1960-1983 are artists' files with some additional correspondence from the firm of Kasle/Colby Art Consultants (1976- ). The files contain correspondence with the artists, price lists, printed material, and some photographs and art works. Artists include Ray Johnson.

• Ultra Violet
  The Ultra Violet Papers, 1959-1969 include ca. 200 personal letters and notes to Ultra Violet from John Graham, Ray Johnson, and John Chamberlain; a few photographs of Graham and Johnson; a few sketches by each of the three artists; and miscellaneous clippings, magazine articles, and exhibition announcements.

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• BELKIN ART GALLERY

• Morris/Trasov Archive
  The Morris/Trasov Archive, housed at the Belkin Art Gallery, is an extensive collection related to the art practices of Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov predominantly from 1969-74, consisting of mail art, documents and ephemera related to Mr. Peanut, Colour Bars, Babyland, Art's Birthday, Decca Dance, Robert Filliou, Ray Johnson, Image Bank, Fluxus, and General Idea.

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• GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

• Lawrence Alloway Papers
  Papers of art critic, art historian, and curator Lawrence Alloway including correspondence (including that with Sylvia Sleigh), project files, teaching notes, and manuscripts. In addition are publications by Alloway, family papers, etc. Subjects covered include debates over public art; art movements such as Cobra, Fluxus, and Zero; and the role of the critic in society. Highlights include a transcript of Alloway's interview with Henry Geldzahler, mail-art by Ray Johnson, and a corrected typescript of the 1969 discussion between Alloway and Allan Kaprow.
  • [finding aid] Preliminary inventory available in the repository; folder level control.

• Jean Brown Papers
  Jean Brown and her husband Leonard, were early collectors of Dada and surrealistic ephemera. When Leonard died in 1971 and Jean moved to Massachusetts, her collection grew rapidly. Upon exhausting Dada and Surrealist sources, Brown acquired materials from those movements, especially Fluxus, mail art and concrete poetry, which grew out of Dada and Surrealism. Many of these artists worked on the fringes of the established museum and gallery system and showed their work in alternative spaces or created alternative distribution systems.
  Brown maintained close friendships with many of the artists whose work she collected, including George Maciunas, Dick Higgins, Ken Friedman, Peter Frank, and Rimma and Valery Gerlovin, to name a few. Brown became a part of the international mail art network. Every major mail artist sent her examples of their work. Eventually, she found it impossible to keep up with the quantity of mail she was receiving and by the mid-1980s had stopped answering their letters.
  After her dead in 1994 the collection was acquired by the Getty Center for the arts and Humanities.
  • [finding aid] Inventory of the Jean Brown Papers, 1815-1995 (Bulk 1916-1985) / prepared by Lynda Bunting (1997).

• Bern Porter Mail Art Collection
  Porter was one of the founders of the mail art network, sending visual poetry, letters, one-of-a-kind postcards and altered images to international correspondents as early as the 1950s. He consistently participated in mail art exhibitions organized by younger artists and curators who sought out his work. In addition, Porter maintained an extensive literary career, in which he wrote over 80 books and published over 400, including Miller's first work in the United States.
  • [finding aid] Inventory of the Bern Porter Mail Art Collection, 1953-1992 (bulk 1978-1992) / comp. by Lynda Bunting.

• Lon Spiegelman Collection
  Collection of mail art and mail art documentation, ca. 1978-1991, 1978-1987. Collection includes a comprehensive sampling of mail art sent to Lon Spiegelman in Los Angeles. In addition are: correspondence files, over 500 sheets of artists’ postage stamps, over 1000 mail art catalogs and posters, over 1000 mail art periodicals, and over 400 artists’ books. In addition are audio tape interviews, videos, and mail art recordings. Participants include well known artists such as Ray Johnson, Dieter Roth, and Nam June Paik.
  • [finding aid] Preliminary inventory available in the repository; box level control.

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• NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

• Art Metropole Collection
  Art Metropole is an artist run-centre founded in 1974 by General Idea (1968-1994). One of the first artist-run centres in Canada, Art Metropole is part of the international network of parallel galleries committed to conceptual art. The art work (artists' books, audio tapes, videotapes, and multiples) produced and documentation about this movement was collected. In 1996, Art Metropole ceased its collecting activities in order to focus on its exhibition, publication, and distribution programs. In 1999, the art work, documentation and archival collections collected and preserved by Art Metropole were donated to the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
  • [finding aid] Ray Johnson Mail Art, Art Metropole Collection.

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• KARL ERNST OSTHAUS-MUSEUM

• The Museum of Museums
  Johan van Geluwe founded the Museum of Museums in 1975 as a private institution, independent of politico-cultural and commercial constraints. Since then, he has taken part in various exhibition projects with his real museum fiction. Through the Curator's Gallery, which became part of the permanent collection of the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen after Open Box - an Exhibition to Expand the Term "Museum" in 1991, he gave the collection an expository role within an officially established museum context.
  • [publication] Michael Fehr, On Johan van Geluwe's "Archive of the Museum of Museums" (1999).
  • [publication] Klaudija Kosanovic, The Archive of the Museum of Museums (1999).

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• HARRY RANSOM HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTER

• Charles Henri Ford Papers
  The Correspondence series contains both outgoing and incoming correspondence (arranged in two subseries, each arranged alphabetically), including postcards and clippings. The incoming correspondence includes among its significant correspondents Conrad Aiken, Ronnie Burk, William S. Burroughs, Jean Cocteau, Ray Johnson, and others.
  • [finding aid] Charles Henri Ford Papers Finding Aid (Last modified: 27 April 2005 ).

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• STAATSGALERIE STUTTGART

• Archiv Sohm
  "Das seit 1981 in der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart beheimatete Archiv Sohm ist keine »Kunstsammlung«, sondern eine umfassende Zeitdokumentation aus Korrespondenzen, Fotos, Büchern, Katalogen, Zeitschriften, Filmen, Videos, Aktionsrelikten und Objektkunst.
  Hanns Sohm (1921-1999) konservierte durch das Aufheben von authentischen, nirgendwo sonst bewahrten Dokumenten jene heute oftmals als »Neo-Dada« bezeichnete Gegenkultur, die in den 1960er und 1970er-Jahren ihr weitestes Spektrum erlangte. Zeugnisse intermediärer Phänomene wie Beat-Szene, Happening, Fluxus, Wiener Aktionismus, Konkrete Poesie, die multimediale Produktion Dieter Roths, Zero, Undergroundliteratur und Künstlerbücher sind im Archiv ebenso einzusehen wie die über die Protestbewegungen Situationismus, Gruppe »Spur« und »Subversive Aktion« erfolgte Grenzüberschreitung der Kunst ins politische Handeln der »68er«."

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• WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

• John M. Bennett Papers
  A large portion of the John M. Bennett Papers, housed at the Washington University Library, Department of Special Collections, consists of mail or correspondence art, a unique blend of painting, drawing, stickers, rubber stamp work, found objects, poetry clippings, collage, etc., which are then sent through the postal system. Like all mail artists, Bennett is also a recipient of mail art, and his Papers include hundreds of examples of the work of many of the leading correspondence artists.
  • [finding aid] Finding-Aid for the John Bennett Papers

• Carol Bergé Papers
  Extensive correspondence with contemporary literary figures. Correspondents include John Bennett, Dick Higgins, Ray Johnson, Richard Kostelanetz, and others.
  • [finding aid] Finding-Aid for the Carol Bergé Papers.
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