Ray Johnson: En Rapport

Paul Cezanne, August 1906:
". . . le tout est de mettre le plus de rapport possible. . . "

Ray Johnson was a student of the imaginations of other people, especially verbal and visual artists. He responded to the work of other artists as friendly communications to him, reciprocating with collages which mention those artists with whom he experienced rapport. He often mailed envelopes with notes addressed to those artists, sometimes with apt images that related to a work of art, or to the artist, but always obliquely. He never pointed toward something deep and perhaps secret, but always directed attention toward something available on the surface. With his collages, his notes, and his lists of artists, Ray constructed more inter-relations with more artists than anyone else working from 1955 to 1995. 

Excerpt by William S. Wilson as published in the exhibition catalogue.