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Knowing Ray's old friendship with poet Robert Creeley (both Black Mountain college alumni) I sent Ray a poem of Creeley's that I thought caught the tone of Ray's work. Ray was never linear in his thinking nor did he invite (at least to his face) serious analysis, so I never received a reply to the poem. It's called The Conspiracy. It says, in part, "You send me your poems, I'll send you mine. Things tend to awaken even through random communication." Well, randomly, the collages I received in the mail from Ray in the late 50s and early 60s were sharings between us. I'd send him a poem, he'd send a collage. Other times not. Sometimes they referenced shared experiences. For instance, the lion's mouth with a feather came after we had seen a Bruce Connor construction of feathers and matting at MoMA. Lindy's Restaurant referred not only to Lucky Lindy which started our back-and-forth but to the showbiz deli because I worked for Columbia Pictures. And sometimes, as in the lady saying "Oh! Oh!" because one of her Lucky emblems is missing is just a bit of mild mockery -- as in the Creeley poem which goes on to say, "And jeer at the others, all the others."
Gerald Ayres
Property from the Private Collection of Gerald Ayres
Ray Johnson (1927-1995)
Untitled (Lucky Strike, Lindy's Restaurant and Big Spoon)
Details
Ray Johnson (1927-1995)
Untitled (Lucky Strike, Lindy's Restaurant and Big Spoon)
printed paper and gouache on cardboard
7 1/8 x 3½ in. (18 x 8.9 cm.)
Executed circa 1960.
Untitled (Lucky Strike, Lindy's Restaurant and Big Spoon)
printed paper and gouache on cardboard
7 1/8 x 3½ in. (18 x 8.9 cm.)
Executed circa 1960.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
Exhibited
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art and Columbus, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ray Johnson: Correspondences, January 1999-December 2000.