Ray Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson (Detroit, October 16, 1927 - New York, January 13, 1995) was an American visual artist. Lifecycle
Johnson studied with Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly from 1946 to 1948 at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. In his artworks he combined traditional techniques of abstract art with the dadaistic collage method. He produced hundreds of collages consisting of paper cuttings combined with ink drawings. He is seen as the 'father' of the mail art. He acquired familiarity with his New York Correspondence School.
Johnson used the term copyleft (as a counterpart to copyright) to indicate that his work could be copied and reused.
On Friday, January 13, 1995, he was seen when he jumped from a bridge in Sag Harbor, Long Island and swam back to the sea. His body was found the next day near a New York harbor. Some viewers see the way in which he found death as his 'last performance'.
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