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Post Modern Post
Artistamps at the Sonoma County Museum
February 7 – April 27, 2003
From the Curator's Statement
Long lived is the lowly postage stamp! Sir Rowland Hill first
confined Queen Victoria to the ultimate in miniature art in 1840,
when he gave England the first postage stamp. After over 150 years,
the vitality of the
medium continues to grow. Instead of being outmoded by the advance
of technology, the postage
stamp has absorbed each new technical advance to
produce a new manifestation of itself.
The merging of philately and the avant garde in the
fine arts of the 20th Century has created the
opportunity for a unique and rich dialogue. This
dialogue has involved a fascinating array of
personalities ranging from Czeslaw Slania (the
world’s foremost stamp engraver) to Ray Johnson (a
founding father of mail art, the genre in which
artistamps have flourished), Michael Bidner ( the
Canadian artist who coined the term “artistamp”) and
the hundreds of artists, both known and obscure, who
have made artistamps.
Artistamps came to full flower as a medium in the decade of the
1970s. In spite of many defections to the net as the new medium
of the moment, the making of artistamps continues to engage the
interest of not only older artists but a constant stream of new
enthusiasts as well. In spite of its age, the fascination of the
stamp as a format for contemporary art has lost none of its allure.
The Sonoma County Museum will present an international survey
of artistamps curated by Harley. Harley, working from his country
“Terra Candella”, has been an active member of the artistamps
community since 1975. This exhibition will contain the works of
contemporary artists from many countries as well as the United
States.
Harley, Curator
February, 2003
See a description of the exhibit: http://www.sonomacountymuseum.com/docs/featuredexhibitionspast.html
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