Ray Johnson Documentary "How to Draw a Bunny" Screens in Hudson
TSL hosts a documentary screening and discussion on provocative artist Ray Johnson.
Johnson in lower Manhattan in the late `50s.
- Ray Johnson EstateRay Johnson (1927-1995) was an artist, a provocateur, and quite possibly a human riddle in a turtleneck. Known as the "father of mail art," Johnson turned the postal system into his gallery, sending out an endless stream of collages, doodles, and cryptic notes that were as much about sparking connection as they were about art itself. If Andy Warhol was the flashy king of Pop Art, Johnson was its shadowy trickster, shunning the limelight in favor of cultivating a vast, weird, and wonderfully personal network of correspondents. His work was playful, ironic, and self-referential—the kind of art that winks at you while simultaneously sticking out its tongue.
Beneath his whimsical exterior lay a complex figure whose work explored themes of identity, celebrity, and the ephemeral nature of human connection. His suicide in 1995—an enigmatic performance in itself—only deepened his myth, leaving behind questions that may never be fully answered.
Enter How to Draw a Bunny (2002), the cult-favorite documentary that's part art-history primer, part whodunit, and part existential meditation on the meaning of art and life. Directed by John Walter and Andrew Moore, the film dives headfirst into Johnson's world, weaving together interviews, archival footage, and a visual style that's as kaleidoscopic as Johnson's own work. A parade of eccentric characters—artists, critics, and friends—offer their own take on what made Johnson tick. Was he a genius? A madman? Both?
"Ray Johnson's art seems full of coded messages and clues marking a pathway which intersects with the lives of the major American artists of the 20th century, a path which, when followed along its winding and surprising way, seems to trace the outlines of portrait of Johnson himself," says Moore, a Kingston-based photographer.
How to Draw a Bunny will be shown at Time and Space Limited in Hudson February 7-10 and 14-16 at 7pm. The screening on February 8 will be followed by a discussion with Andrew Moore and Ellen Levy, author of A Book About Ray (Penguin Random House, 2024).
