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Evans (James) Mail Art Collection
2010.M.37
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Title: James Evans mail art collection
Date (inclusive): 1970-1987, bulk
1984-1987
Number: 2010.M.37
Creator/Collector:
Evans, James
Physical Description:
2 Linear Feet
(5 boxes, x flat-file folders)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection assembled by James Evans
reflects his own involvement in the mail art movement from from 1970 to 1987, particularly
in the 1980s. Included are approximately 280 mail art projects by American, European and
Japanese artists, as well as related ephemera, correspondence and publications. A large
portion of the collection is books, stamps, stickers, postcards, and manifestos by Guglielmo
Achille Cavellini, the Italian mail artist who coined the term autostoricizzazione
(self-historicization).
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Language: Collection material is in English
with some materials in Italian and German.
Biographical / Historical Note
American artist and mail art collector, James Evans worked at the J. Paul Getty Museum from
the early 1980s until 1990, first as a preparator and then as Assistant Conservator in the
Department of Photography.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
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and Permissions
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James Evans mail art collection, 1970-1987 (bulk 1984-1987), The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles, Accession no. 2010.M.37
Acquired in 2010.
Initial rehousing was done by the Registrar's office. In November-December 2012, Sue Tyson
devised an arrangment plan, processed the collection, and wrote the finding aid. Andra
Darlington revised the finding aid in March 2013.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection assembled by James Evans reflects his own involvement in the mail art
movement from 1970 to 1987, particularly in the 1980s. Included are approximately 280 mail
art projects sent to or collected by Evans, as well as related ephemera, correspondence and
publications. The mail artwork encompasses a variety of media, including postcards, books,
drawings, photocopies, images made with rubber stamps, and postage stamps designed by
artists.
Consistent with the international scope of the mail art movement, the Evans collection
includes work by artists from numerous countries. A large portion of the collection consists
of work by or about Italian artist Guglielmo Achille Cavellini and his long-term project of
autostoricizzazione (self-historicization), a concept he devised in 1970 as an alternative
to the mainstream art world's critical and marketing apparatus. Other significant
contributors include American artists Laurence Angelo, Jerome D'Angelo, John Evans, Keith
Glancy, and Lorenzo Post; Italian artist and musician Vittore Baroni; Japanese artists
Ryosuke Cohen and Shōzō Shimamoto; Hungarian artists György Galántai and Júlia Klaniczay;
Canadian artist Hokey Mokey; German artist Christoph Machart; and French artist Robert
Morillo.
Arranged alphabetically by last name with works by multiple artists and unidentified
artists at the end, followed by assorted ephemera.
Mail art
Mail art -- 20th century
Cohen, Ryosuke,
1948-
Angelo, Laurence
D'Angelo, Jerome
Glancy, Keith
Evans, James
Shimamoto, Shōzō,
1928-2013
Evans, John,
1932-2012
Machart, Christoph
Baroni,
Vittore
Mokey, Hokey
Post, Lorenzo
Galántai, György
Morillo, Robert
Cavellini, Guglielmo Achille,
1914-