Ray Johnson (1927-95) was always elusive. When admirers called his work Pop, in the sixties, he relabelled it Chop—a nod to collage, the medium for which he’s best known. At the end of his life, the American artist used disposable cameras to take some three thousand pictures (including “Bill and Railroad Tracks,” from 1992, above) and kept them a secret. On June 17, the Morgan Library & Museum opens “Please Send to Real Life: Ray Johnson Photographs,” the first exhibition of these recently discovered works.
The Secret Pictures of Ray Johnson
At the end of his life, the elusive American artist used disposable cameras to take some three thousand pictures, now exhibited at the Morgan Library & Museum, in “Please Send to Real Life: Ray Johnson Photographs.”
Photograph courtesy Ray Johnson Estate
