{"product_id":"a-book-about-ray-9780262048743","title":"A Book about Ray","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first full-career survey of the idiosyncratic life and work of Ray Johnson, a collagist, performance artist, and pioneer of mail art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRay Johnson (1927-1995), a.k.a. \"New York's most famous unknown artist,\" was notorious for the elaborate games he played with the institutions of the art world, soliciting their attention even as he rejected their invitations. In\u003ci\u003e A Book about Ray, \u003c\/i\u003eEllen Levy offers a comprehensive study of the artist who turned the business of career-making into a tongue-in-cheek performance, tracing his artistic development from his arrival at Black Mountain College in 1945 to his death in 1995. Levy describes Johnson's practice as one that was constantly shifting--whether in tone, in its address to potential audiences, or among three primary artistic modes: collage, performance, and correspondence art. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Book about Ray\u003c\/i\u003e takes an elliptical path, circling around rather than trying to arrest in flight the elusive artist and his purposefully ephemeral art. By crafting the book in this way, Levy evokes Ray Johnson's art in the moment of its making and draws readers into the artist's world, while making them feel, from the beginning, that they somehow already know their way around that world. In exploring Johnson's scene, readers will also encounter the artists who influenced him, like Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp, and his friends and peers like Jasper Johns, Allan Kaprow, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. The work of such figures will look forever different in light of Johnson's subversive take on their shared aesthetic. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSuitable for readers both new to Ray Johnson and those already familiar with his work, \u003ci\u003eA Book about Ray\u003c\/i\u003e is a complete and vital portrait of an American original.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEllen Levy is the author of \u003ci\u003eCriminal Ingenuity: Moore, Cornell, Ashbery, and the Struggle Between the Arts \u003c\/i\u003eas well as essays on poetry, visual art, theater, and film. Currently a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, she has also taught at Vanderbilt University and the School of Visual Arts in New York.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50878213456146,"sku":"9780262048743","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9f472f88-f9cb-415b-b4a2-fb0bd8c9d8a9.jpg?v=1738257952","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-book-about-ray-9780262048743","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}