Artistamp
Encyclopedia
The term artistamp or artist's stamp refers to a postage stamp
-like art form used to depict or commemorate
any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries
or bogus Illegal stamps
in that typically the creator has no intent to defraudpostal authorities
or stamp collectors
. Some artists working in the artistamp medium, however, such as Michael Hernandez de Luna and Michael Thompson, make the goal of passing off their stamps as postage (and thereby obtaining the endorsement of postal authorities in the form of a cancellation) as an important aspect of the artistic process. Other artists may intend to pass off their stamps to the general public — usually as a political statement — while not directly engaging in the practice of mailing the stamps themselves, thereby avoiding potential prosecution by postal authorities.
Depending on how a stamp is used, it may be difficult to distinguish an artistamp from a local post
stamp.
Artistamp creators often include their work on legitimate mail, alongside valid postage stamps, in order to decorate the envelope with their art. In many countries this practice is legal, provided the artistamp isn't passed-off as or likely to be mistaken for a genuine postage stamp. When so combined (and sometimes, less strictly speaking, even when not so) the artistamp may be considered part of the mail art
genre.
Irony
, satire
, humor, eroticism
and subversion of governmental authority are frequent characteristics of artistamps. Artists may leverage the expectation of official endorsement that necessarily inheres in governmentally-issued postage for the purpose of shocking or subverting viewers' expectations, with such actions typically representing a specific political and artistic motive. Other practitioners are content to depict more homey subjects like kittens and family members. Some artists use the form create fantasy stamps for their own postal administrations or countries – in many cases thereby developing or complementing an imaginary governmental system
.
to produce an "artist’s stamp" is open to interpretation. Fine art
ists were certainly commissioned
to create poster stamp
s (advertising
poster
s in collectible
stamp form) from the late 1800s, but none appear to have worked with the format outside the commercial or advertising
context.
In 1919, Dada
ist Raoul Hausmann
affixed a self-portrait
postage stamp to a postcard
, but given that Dada
was determinedly anti-art
(at least in theory), calling this an "artist’s stamp" seems almost counterintuitive.
German
artist Karl Schwesig, while a political prisoner
during World War II
, drew a series of pseudo-stamps on the blank, perforated
margins of postage stamp sheets, using coloured inks. Jas Felter asserts that this 1941 series, which illustrated life in a concentration camp, is typically accepted as the first true set of artist's stamps.
Robert Watts
, a member of the Fluxus
group, became the first artist to create a full sheet of [faux] postage stamps within a fine art context when he produced a perforated block of 15 stamps combining popular
and erotic
imagery in 1961.
Canadian multimedia artist
and philatelist T Michael Bidner, who made his life's work the cataloguing of all then-known artist's stamps, coined the word "artistamp" in 1982. It quickly became the term of choice amongst mail art
ists.
Artist Clifford Harper
published a series of designs for anarchist
postage stamps in 1988, featuring portraits of Shelley
, Emma Goldman
, Oscar Wilde
, Emiliano Zapata
and Herbert Read
.
his definitive collection to several major Canadian institutions but was turned down by every one. The collection eventually went to Artpool, an art research centre in Budapest
, Hungary
. Upon his death, Bidner's friend Rosemary Gahlinger-Beaune, undertook Bidner's vision and began to catalogue, using philatelic standards, artistamps from over 200 artists from 29 countries, documenting more than 10,0000 artistamp images. In 1999, Gahlinger-Beaune and Bianchini released a CD entitled "The World of Artistamps", the most comprehensive database of artistamps of the time.
Multimedia artist James Warren "Jas" Felter curated an exhibition
called Artists' Stamps and Stamp Images at Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
, Canada
, in 1974: the first exhibition to acknowledge the stamp as an artistic medium. This collection, which toured Europe
and America
for the next ten years, led to an explosion in the number of artists using stamps as an artistic format.
Photographer and multimedia artist Ginny Lloyd started her Gina Lotta Post series in 1979 and by 1982 had produced some of the first computer-generated imagery used in artists stamps. On a visit to Artpool in 1982, she collaborated with György Galántai on artistamp issues. In 1984, Lloyd co-organized an Art in Space event in San Francisco at which a rocket containing artistamps on a microchip was launched. In 1986, the artist received a Visual Studies Workshop artist-in-residence funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States. Her project for the residency culminated with Gina Lotta Post, a series of artistamps bound into a book and includes a set of postcards. A second book Make Your Own Stamps Sheet, is a project that originated from the same residency, becoming available in 2011.
In 1989, Felter curated the first of three International Biannual Exhibitions of Artistamps at Davidson Galleries in Seattle.
In 1995, Patricia Tavenner curated The First California Artistamp Exhibit at University of California, Berkeley - San Francisco Extension. The exhibit presented works of about 170 artists from around the world.
The First Moscow International Artistamp Exhibition was held in Moscow in December 1998, as part of International Art Fair XX. The event was curated by Natalie Lamanova, Alexander Kholopv and Jas Felter. This event gave rise to the "Moscow Artistamp Collection" which presently includes more than 700 works of 83 artists from 19 countries.
From November 12, 1999 to January 19, 2000, the Art Institute of Boston hosted the "Stamp Art and Artists Stamps" exhibition. The show included artistamp sheets from Natalia Lamanova, Alexander Kholopov of Russia, Vittore Baroni, Clemente Padin, Jose Carlos Soto, Pere Sousa and Donald Evans. PBS documented this exhibit.
February - March 2000: Moscow artists Ivan Kolesnikov and Sergei Denisov presented a joint Artistamp project entitled Azbuka Veka (The Alphabet of the Century) at the S’ART Gallery in Moscow. The show presented stamps of famous people tagged with letters from the Russian alphabet.
In December, 2000, an exhibit featuring artistamps from around the world was displayed at the E. Max von Isser Gallery of Art at Elgin Community College, Elgin, Illinois.
The exhibition Motherland/Fatherland was held at The International Museum Exhibition Centre in Moscow from July 11 to 21, 2002. The event was curated by Natalie Lamanova, Alexander Kholopv and Jas Felter. Presented there were works by 44 artists from Russia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Korea, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Venezuela, Armenia and the United States.
The Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa, California hosted the exhibit Post Modern Post: International Artistamps in April 2003. The show including the work of 50 artists from 15 countries.
In 2005, The exhibition Axis of Evil opened at The Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia in March, 2005, and later traveled to Chicago and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Curated by Chicago-based artist Michael Hernandez de Luna, the exhibit featured 127 works by 47 stamp artists from 11 countries. It originated with the publication of the book Axis of Evil: Perforated Praeter Naturam, published by Qualiatica Press.
In the spring of 2007, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts hosted a successful exhibition entitled ParaStamp: Four Decades of Artistamps, from Fluxus to the Internet. Curated by György Galántai, the exhibition presented approximately 500 works selected from the archive of the Artpool Art Research Centre. More than 250 of the most important artists working in the artistamp genre were represented, including Natalie Lamanova, Anna Banana, Ed Varney, Guy Bleus, Twine Workshop, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Steve Smith, Vittore Baroni, Robert Watts, H.R. Fricker, Ryosuke Cohen, Ginny Lloyd, and Al Brandtner. "The new function artistamp has in this exhibition is to convey the explosively changing worldview at the turn of the millennium," said Galántai in an interview. The show ran from March 23 to June 24, 2007.
In July 2007, the SomArts Cultural Center gallery presented the Multiplicity/Multiplicidad: Mailart & Artistamp Show, in collaboration with Vortice Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen assembled the Queen and Country exhibition comprising stamps depicting British servicemen and women killed in Iraq. The exhibition was hosted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh between December 3, 2008 and February 15, 2009.
David Krueger's series of pseudo-stamps critiquing the Bush administration, begun in 2001, was on view at the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea, Manhattan
, New York, from April 24 - May 31, 2008.
The JAY Gallery in Seoul, Korea, sponsored the exhibition, "American Artistamps," curated by John Held, Jr., from May 19 - June 1, 2010. It featured works by Robert Watts, Donald Evans, Harley, Dogfish, Picasso Gaglione, Michael Thompson, Al Ackerman, Darlene Altschul, Mike Dickau and John Ringer.
The Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum, curated by Ginny Lloyd, opened in May 2010. Currently located in Jupiter, Florida, the museum collection began in the late 70's and exhibits over 1,200 works by more than 175 international artistamp creators. Selections from the museum can be seen online. Items from the museum were on exhibit at the Jaffe Center for the Book Arts in Boca Raton, Florida from July 15 to October 27, 2010. Artists stamps by Harley, Jurgen Olbrich, Reed Altemus, Rockola, Picasso Gaglione, Buz Blurr, Vitore Baroni, and Ginny Lloyd were featured as part of the "Carbon Alternative" exhibit.
Artistamps have been recognized in mainstream stamp publications, such as Linn's Stamp News
. In 2005. Linn's published an article covering the release of Twine Workshop's "Weapon of Mass Destruction" artistamp, a piece directly criticizing then U.S. president George W. Bush
.
When the exhibit opened at a gallery on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus on September 15, 2005, university chancellor Bruce Shepard directed the removal of Brandtner's work from the gallery. In a letter to faculty and staff, Shepard said "in a society all too violence prone, using these or other venues to appear to advocate or suggest assassination is not something the UW-Green Bay may do." About 30 demonstrators protested the chancellor's suppression of artistic expression and political commentary.
s with a decorative or inclusive border; in booklets; or any combination/size/shape the artist chooses.
Techniques for the creation of artistamps may include perforating the paper to resemble a traditional perforated stamp, as well as applying gum
to the reverse side of the paper. Self-adhesive
paper is also used. The image represented on the stamp may be hand-drawn or painted, lithographed
or offset-printed
, photographed
, photocopied
, etched
, engraved
, silk-screened, rubber stamp
ed, or produced on a digital inkjet
or laser
printer. While the method of production is entirely the choice of the artist, creators who exclusively or primarily use rubber stamps are occasionally held in contempt by members of the artistamp community, some of whom refer to such producers as "bunny-stampers."
The personal computer
, personal printer and color photocopier have served to democratize the means of production of artistamps. It's no coincidence that the early '80s explosion in artistamp creation paralleled the development and widespread use of color photocopiers, and that a similar surge followed the ubiquity of personal computers and inexpensive color printers. Still, the lack of workable, widely available, cheap and accessible perforators have limited the number of artists who can create convincing simulcra of traditional perforated stamps.
Makers of artistamps sometimes apply cancellations to the stamps when affixing them to covers
; first day of issue
covers for artistamps also exist.
The rise of the Internet
has seen the development of the concept of the so-called cyberstamp, a digital-only stamp-like image designed primarily to be viewed online and often sent with e-mail
. Cyberstamps also allow the use of animated imagery
. Whether a digital image, however, can be considered a "stamp" at all is a matter of dispute.
Artists working in the stamp art medium often employ fixed-line perforators as part of the creation process. Most functional and sought-after of these machines are cast-iron, pedal-operated devices manufactured beginning in the 1880s by bindery equipment makers like F.P Rosback Co. and Latham Machinery Co. Rosback also produced table-top perforators, but surviving models are exceedingly rare. Other methods for perforating paper to resemble stamp sheets have generally proven unsatisfactory. Such alternative methods used include using sewing machines, sewing pounces, leather punches, modified veterinary needles, and speciality scissors. Some owners of pedal-operated or motorized perforators sell pre-perforated paper and offer perforating services for a fee.
In 2005 and 2006, a machinist operating under the name "Dr. Arcane" manufactured and sold about 20 "Whizbang" perforators. These table-top devices worked well, but were reportedly fragile.
In 2004, the International Brotherhood of Perforator Workers (IBPW), an organization based in Washington D.C., was established to represent the interests of artists owning and/or operating perforators in the creation of stamp art.
, Ginny Lloyd (Gina Lotta), Crackerjack Kid (Chuck Welsh), Reed Altemus, Darlene Altschul (DKA POST), Katerina Nikoltsou, Eleanor Kent, Beverly DIttberner, Jim Czyl, Boog, Keith Buchholz, Otto Sherman, Marilyn Rosenberg, Petra Weimer, Peter Netmail, Buster Cleveland, William Rowe, Miguel Jimenez, Dame Mailarta, Carl Chew, Anna Banana, Patricia Tavenner, Jas W Felter, Michael Bidner, Michael Thompson, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Ed Paschke
, Clifford Harper
, Al Brandtner, Steve Smith, Russell Butler (buZ blurr), Alan Brignull, Dennis Jordan, Rachel Scott, Guy Bleus
, Arturo G. Fallico, Harley, Hamlet Mateo, Michael Angelo H. Mayo Post 1211,Marlon Vito Picasso (Rocola), Kursade Karatas, Bruce Grenville
, Natalie Lamanova, Robert Rudine, H.R. Fricker, John Rininger, Slava Vinogradov, John Held Jr., Mike Dickau, John Langford, Matthew Rose, Vittore Baroni, Eiichi Matsuhashi, Ivan Kolenikov, the Institute of Cultural Inquiry
, Sergej Denisov, T.H.E. Hill, and Twine Workshop.
Commercial publishers have produced material which could be considered as falling within the artistamp realm: Dover Publications
published William Rowe's stamp book titled Surreal Stickers & Unreal Stamps, 1982, included 224 full-colored gummed and perforated stamps. Mad Magazine included perforated, gummed stamps in a few issues. Cartoonist
Garry Trudeau
, creator of the Doonesbury
comic strip
, released The 1990 Doonesbury Stamp Album through Penguin
in 1990; this album contained a large number of perforated, gummed stamps featuring characters and settings from Doonesbury. Another example is a series of Ankh-Morpork
stamps created to publicise the Discworld
novel Going Postal
.
, directly from artists, other collectors, at air fairs or through art galleries. Many artistamp creators swap their creations with other practitioners of the form, either directly or within the broader concept of mail art.
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
-like art form used to depict or commemorate
Commemorative stamp
A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event or person. The subject of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike definitive stamps which normally depict the subject along with the...
any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
or bogus Illegal stamps
Illegal stamps
Illegal stamps are postage stamp-like labels issued in the names of existing independent countries or territories used to defraud postal administrations, stamp collectors, and the general public. Often, but not always, a member nation of the Universal Postal Union will have asked the UPU to issue...
in that typically the creator has no intent to defraudpostal authorities
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
or stamp collectors
Stamp collecting
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with the number of collectors in the United States alone estimated to be over 20 million.- Collecting :...
. Some artists working in the artistamp medium, however, such as Michael Hernandez de Luna and Michael Thompson, make the goal of passing off their stamps as postage (and thereby obtaining the endorsement of postal authorities in the form of a cancellation) as an important aspect of the artistic process. Other artists may intend to pass off their stamps to the general public — usually as a political statement — while not directly engaging in the practice of mailing the stamps themselves, thereby avoiding potential prosecution by postal authorities.
Depending on how a stamp is used, it may be difficult to distinguish an artistamp from a local post
Local post
A local post is a mail service that operates only within a limited geographical area, typically a city or a single transportation route. Historically, some local posts have been operated by governments, while others, known as private local posts have been for-profit companies...
stamp.
Artistamp creators often include their work on legitimate mail, alongside valid postage stamps, in order to decorate the envelope with their art. In many countries this practice is legal, provided the artistamp isn't passed-off as or likely to be mistaken for a genuine postage stamp. When so combined (and sometimes, less strictly speaking, even when not so) the artistamp may be considered part of the mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
genre.
Irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
, satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, humor, eroticism
Eroticism
Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...
and subversion of governmental authority are frequent characteristics of artistamps. Artists may leverage the expectation of official endorsement that necessarily inheres in governmentally-issued postage for the purpose of shocking or subverting viewers' expectations, with such actions typically representing a specific political and artistic motive. Other practitioners are content to depict more homey subjects like kittens and family members. Some artists use the form create fantasy stamps for their own postal administrations or countries – in many cases thereby developing or complementing an imaginary governmental system
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
.
History
The first artistArtist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
to produce an "artist’s stamp" is open to interpretation. Fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
ists were certainly commissioned
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
to create poster stamp
Poster stamp
The poster stamp was an advertising label, a little larger than most postage stamps, that originated in the mid-19th century and quickly became a collecting craze, growing in popularity up until World War One and then declining by World War Two until they are now almost forgotten except by...
s (advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
s in collectible
Collectible
A collectable or collectible is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector . There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old...
stamp form) from the late 1800s, but none appear to have worked with the format outside the commercial or advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
context.
In 1919, Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ist Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.-Early biography:Raoul Hausmann was...
affixed a self-portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
postage stamp to a postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
, but given that Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
was determinedly anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
(at least in theory), calling this an "artist’s stamp" seems almost counterintuitive.
German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
artist Karl Schwesig, while a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, drew a series of pseudo-stamps on the blank, perforated
Perforation
A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes are called a perforation...
margins of postage stamp sheets, using coloured inks. Jas Felter asserts that this 1941 series, which illustrated life in a concentration camp, is typically accepted as the first true set of artist's stamps.
Robert Watts
Robert Watts (artist)
Robert Watts was an American artist best known for his work as a member of the international Avant-garde art movement Fluxus. Born in Burlington, Iowa June 14, 1923, he became Professor of Art at Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Jersey in 1953, a post he kept until 1984...
, a member of the Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
group, became the first artist to create a full sheet of [faux] postage stamps within a fine art context when he produced a perforated block of 15 stamps combining popular
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
and erotic
Erotic art
Erotic art covers any artistic work that is intended to evoke erotic arousal or that depicts scenes of love-making. It includes paintings, engravings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, music and writing.-Definition:...
imagery in 1961.
Canadian multimedia artist
Multimedia artist
Multimedia artists are contemporary artists who use a wide range of media to communicate their art. Multimedia art includes, by definition, more than one medium, therefore multimedia artists use visual art in combination with sound art, moving images and other media...
and philatelist T Michael Bidner, who made his life's work the cataloguing of all then-known artist's stamps, coined the word "artistamp" in 1982. It quickly became the term of choice amongst mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
ists.
Artist Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper is an illustrator and militant anarchist. He was born in Chiswick, West London on the 13th of July 1949. His father was a postman and his mother a cook. Expelled from school at 13 and placed on 2 years probation at 14, he then worked in a series of "menial jobs" before 'turning on,...
published a series of designs for anarchist
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
postage stamps in 1988, featuring portraits of Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
, Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Díaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution...
and Herbert Read
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
.
Recognition of the art form
Despite the exhibitions, history, number of artists and global sweep of the artistamp movement, the medium had long been ignored by major institutions and derided by the arts establishment: before his death in 1989, Bidner attempted to donateDonation
A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
his definitive collection to several major Canadian institutions but was turned down by every one. The collection eventually went to Artpool, an art research centre in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Upon his death, Bidner's friend Rosemary Gahlinger-Beaune, undertook Bidner's vision and began to catalogue, using philatelic standards, artistamps from over 200 artists from 29 countries, documenting more than 10,0000 artistamp images. In 1999, Gahlinger-Beaune and Bianchini released a CD entitled "The World of Artistamps", the most comprehensive database of artistamps of the time.
Multimedia artist James Warren "Jas" Felter curated an exhibition
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
called Artists' Stamps and Stamp Images at Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, in 1974: the first exhibition to acknowledge the stamp as an artistic medium. This collection, which toured Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
for the next ten years, led to an explosion in the number of artists using stamps as an artistic format.
Photographer and multimedia artist Ginny Lloyd started her Gina Lotta Post series in 1979 and by 1982 had produced some of the first computer-generated imagery used in artists stamps. On a visit to Artpool in 1982, she collaborated with György Galántai on artistamp issues. In 1984, Lloyd co-organized an Art in Space event in San Francisco at which a rocket containing artistamps on a microchip was launched. In 1986, the artist received a Visual Studies Workshop artist-in-residence funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States. Her project for the residency culminated with Gina Lotta Post, a series of artistamps bound into a book and includes a set of postcards. A second book Make Your Own Stamps Sheet, is a project that originated from the same residency, becoming available in 2011.
In 1989, Felter curated the first of three International Biannual Exhibitions of Artistamps at Davidson Galleries in Seattle.
In 1995, Patricia Tavenner curated The First California Artistamp Exhibit at University of California, Berkeley - San Francisco Extension. The exhibit presented works of about 170 artists from around the world.
The First Moscow International Artistamp Exhibition was held in Moscow in December 1998, as part of International Art Fair XX. The event was curated by Natalie Lamanova, Alexander Kholopv and Jas Felter. This event gave rise to the "Moscow Artistamp Collection" which presently includes more than 700 works of 83 artists from 19 countries.
From November 12, 1999 to January 19, 2000, the Art Institute of Boston hosted the "Stamp Art and Artists Stamps" exhibition. The show included artistamp sheets from Natalia Lamanova, Alexander Kholopov of Russia, Vittore Baroni, Clemente Padin, Jose Carlos Soto, Pere Sousa and Donald Evans. PBS documented this exhibit.
February - March 2000: Moscow artists Ivan Kolesnikov and Sergei Denisov presented a joint Artistamp project entitled Azbuka Veka (The Alphabet of the Century) at the S’ART Gallery in Moscow. The show presented stamps of famous people tagged with letters from the Russian alphabet.
In December, 2000, an exhibit featuring artistamps from around the world was displayed at the E. Max von Isser Gallery of Art at Elgin Community College, Elgin, Illinois.
The exhibition Motherland/Fatherland was held at The International Museum Exhibition Centre in Moscow from July 11 to 21, 2002. The event was curated by Natalie Lamanova, Alexander Kholopv and Jas Felter. Presented there were works by 44 artists from Russia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Korea, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Venezuela, Armenia and the United States.
The Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa, California hosted the exhibit Post Modern Post: International Artistamps in April 2003. The show including the work of 50 artists from 15 countries.
In 2005, The exhibition Axis of Evil opened at The Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia in March, 2005, and later traveled to Chicago and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Curated by Chicago-based artist Michael Hernandez de Luna, the exhibit featured 127 works by 47 stamp artists from 11 countries. It originated with the publication of the book Axis of Evil: Perforated Praeter Naturam, published by Qualiatica Press.
In the spring of 2007, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts hosted a successful exhibition entitled ParaStamp: Four Decades of Artistamps, from Fluxus to the Internet. Curated by György Galántai, the exhibition presented approximately 500 works selected from the archive of the Artpool Art Research Centre. More than 250 of the most important artists working in the artistamp genre were represented, including Natalie Lamanova, Anna Banana, Ed Varney, Guy Bleus, Twine Workshop, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Steve Smith, Vittore Baroni, Robert Watts, H.R. Fricker, Ryosuke Cohen, Ginny Lloyd, and Al Brandtner. "The new function artistamp has in this exhibition is to convey the explosively changing worldview at the turn of the millennium," said Galántai in an interview. The show ran from March 23 to June 24, 2007.
In July 2007, the SomArts Cultural Center gallery presented the Multiplicity/Multiplicidad: Mailart & Artistamp Show, in collaboration with Vortice Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen assembled the Queen and Country exhibition comprising stamps depicting British servicemen and women killed in Iraq. The exhibition was hosted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh between December 3, 2008 and February 15, 2009.
David Krueger's series of pseudo-stamps critiquing the Bush administration, begun in 2001, was on view at the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
, New York, from April 24 - May 31, 2008.
The JAY Gallery in Seoul, Korea, sponsored the exhibition, "American Artistamps," curated by John Held, Jr., from May 19 - June 1, 2010. It featured works by Robert Watts, Donald Evans, Harley, Dogfish, Picasso Gaglione, Michael Thompson, Al Ackerman, Darlene Altschul, Mike Dickau and John Ringer.
The Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum, curated by Ginny Lloyd, opened in May 2010. Currently located in Jupiter, Florida, the museum collection began in the late 70's and exhibits over 1,200 works by more than 175 international artistamp creators. Selections from the museum can be seen online. Items from the museum were on exhibit at the Jaffe Center for the Book Arts in Boca Raton, Florida from July 15 to October 27, 2010. Artists stamps by Harley, Jurgen Olbrich, Reed Altemus, Rockola, Picasso Gaglione, Buz Blurr, Vitore Baroni, and Ginny Lloyd were featured as part of the "Carbon Alternative" exhibit.
Artistamps have been recognized in mainstream stamp publications, such as Linn's Stamp News
Linn's Stamp News
Linn's Stamp News an American publication, is the largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors, with a paid circulation of just over 46,000 Circulation peaked at almost 92,000 in 1978 and has declined ever since because fewer new collectors are subscribing to replace those who subscribed in the...
. In 2005. Linn's published an article covering the release of Twine Workshop's "Weapon of Mass Destruction" artistamp, a piece directly criticizing then U.S. president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
Controversy
In 2005, United States Secret Service agents attended the opening of the Axis of Evil exhibition at Columbia College Chicago's Glass Curtain Gallery. According to Carol Ann Brown, director of the gallery, the agents were most interested in the work entitled "Patriot Act" by Chicago-based artist Al Brandtner. The work depicts a revolver pointed at the head of then President George W. Bush. Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur stated, "We need to ensure... that this is nothing more than artwork with a political statement."When the exhibit opened at a gallery on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus on September 15, 2005, university chancellor Bruce Shepard directed the removal of Brandtner's work from the gallery. In a letter to faculty and staff, Shepard said "in a society all too violence prone, using these or other venues to appear to advocate or suggest assassination is not something the UW-Green Bay may do." About 30 demonstrators protested the chancellor's suppression of artistic expression and political commentary.
The artistamp creation process
Artistamps are created as one-off works of art, in limited editions, or as mass-produced product. Artistamps have been produced as multiples of one design per sheet; a multitude of designs per page; as miniature sheetMiniature sheet
A souvenir sheet or miniature sheet is a small group of postage stamps still attached to the sheet on which they were printed. They may be either regular issues that just happen to be printed in small groups , or special issues often commemorating some event, such as a national anniversary,...
s with a decorative or inclusive border; in booklets; or any combination/size/shape the artist chooses.
Techniques for the creation of artistamps may include perforating the paper to resemble a traditional perforated stamp, as well as applying gum
Postage stamp gum
In philately, gum is the substance applied to the back of a stamp to enable it to adhere to a letter or other mailed item. The term is generic, and applies both to traditional types such as gum arabic and to synthetic modern formulations...
to the reverse side of the paper. Self-adhesive
Self-adhesive stamp
A self-adhesive stamp is a postage stamp with a pressure sensitive adhesive that does not require moistening in order to adhere to paper. They are usually issued on a removable backing paper....
paper is also used. The image represented on the stamp may be hand-drawn or painted, lithographed
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
or offset-printed
Offset printing
Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface...
, photographed
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, photocopied
Photocopier
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process using heat...
, etched
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
, engraved
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
, silk-screened, rubber stamp
Rubber stamp
Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized, onto a sheet of rubber. The rubber is often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood, brick or an...
ed, or produced on a digital inkjet
Inkjet printer
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of...
or laser
Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced...
printer. While the method of production is entirely the choice of the artist, creators who exclusively or primarily use rubber stamps are occasionally held in contempt by members of the artistamp community, some of whom refer to such producers as "bunny-stampers."
The personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, personal printer and color photocopier have served to democratize the means of production of artistamps. It's no coincidence that the early '80s explosion in artistamp creation paralleled the development and widespread use of color photocopiers, and that a similar surge followed the ubiquity of personal computers and inexpensive color printers. Still, the lack of workable, widely available, cheap and accessible perforators have limited the number of artists who can create convincing simulcra of traditional perforated stamps.
Makers of artistamps sometimes apply cancellations to the stamps when affixing them to covers
Cover (philately)
In philately, the term cover pertains to the outside of an envelope or package with an address, typically with postage stamps that have been cancelled and is a term generally used among stamp and postal history collectors. The term does not include the contents of the letter or package, although...
; first day of issue
First day of issue
A First Day of Issue Cover or First Day Cover is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for use within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority. Sometimes the issue is made from a temporary or permanent foreign or...
covers for artistamps also exist.
The rise of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
has seen the development of the concept of the so-called cyberstamp, a digital-only stamp-like image designed primarily to be viewed online and often sent with e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
. Cyberstamps also allow the use of animated imagery
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. Whether a digital image, however, can be considered a "stamp" at all is a matter of dispute.
Artists working in the stamp art medium often employ fixed-line perforators as part of the creation process. Most functional and sought-after of these machines are cast-iron, pedal-operated devices manufactured beginning in the 1880s by bindery equipment makers like F.P Rosback Co. and Latham Machinery Co. Rosback also produced table-top perforators, but surviving models are exceedingly rare. Other methods for perforating paper to resemble stamp sheets have generally proven unsatisfactory. Such alternative methods used include using sewing machines, sewing pounces, leather punches, modified veterinary needles, and speciality scissors. Some owners of pedal-operated or motorized perforators sell pre-perforated paper and offer perforating services for a fee.
In 2005 and 2006, a machinist operating under the name "Dr. Arcane" manufactured and sold about 20 "Whizbang" perforators. These table-top devices worked well, but were reportedly fragile.
In 2004, the International Brotherhood of Perforator Workers (IBPW), an organization based in Washington D.C., was established to represent the interests of artists owning and/or operating perforators in the creation of stamp art.
Artistamp creators
Creators of artistamps include Donald EvansDonald Evans (artist)
Donald Evans was an American artist , who was known for creating hand-painted postage stamps of fictional countries. Evans died in a fire in the Netherlands in 1977....
, Ginny Lloyd (Gina Lotta), Crackerjack Kid (Chuck Welsh), Reed Altemus, Darlene Altschul (DKA POST), Katerina Nikoltsou, Eleanor Kent, Beverly DIttberner, Jim Czyl, Boog, Keith Buchholz, Otto Sherman, Marilyn Rosenberg, Petra Weimer, Peter Netmail, Buster Cleveland, William Rowe, Miguel Jimenez, Dame Mailarta, Carl Chew, Anna Banana, Patricia Tavenner, Jas W Felter, Michael Bidner, Michael Thompson, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Ed Paschke
Ed Paschke
Edward Francis Paschke was a Polish American painter. His childhood interest in animation and cartoons, as well as his father's creativity in wood carving and construction, led him toward a career in art...
, Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper
Clifford Harper is an illustrator and militant anarchist. He was born in Chiswick, West London on the 13th of July 1949. His father was a postman and his mother a cook. Expelled from school at 13 and placed on 2 years probation at 14, he then worked in a series of "menial jobs" before 'turning on,...
, Al Brandtner, Steve Smith, Russell Butler (buZ blurr), Alan Brignull, Dennis Jordan, Rachel Scott, Guy Bleus
Guy Bleus
Guy Bleus is an artist associated with the mail art movement and performance art.His work covers different areas, including administration , postal and olfactory communication....
, Arturo G. Fallico, Harley, Hamlet Mateo, Michael Angelo H. Mayo Post 1211,Marlon Vito Picasso (Rocola), Kursade Karatas, Bruce Grenville
Bruce Grenville
Bruce Grenville , is a New Zealand anarchist, film buff and producer of artistamps.In the 1970s and 1980s he gained notoriety for a hoax involving the fabrication of the Utopian Sultanate State of Oecussi-Ambeno, located as an exclave on the Island of Timor, with himself as the self-proclaimed...
, Natalie Lamanova, Robert Rudine, H.R. Fricker, John Rininger, Slava Vinogradov, John Held Jr., Mike Dickau, John Langford, Matthew Rose, Vittore Baroni, Eiichi Matsuhashi, Ivan Kolenikov, the Institute of Cultural Inquiry
Institute of Cultural Inquiry
The Institute of Cultural Inquiry is a non-profit organization located in Los Angeles, California. The ICI states that its mission is "to educate the public about the visual methods used in society to describe and discuss cultural phenomena." The ICI sponsors art projects, performances,...
, Sergej Denisov, T.H.E. Hill, and Twine Workshop.
Commercial publishers have produced material which could be considered as falling within the artistamp realm: Dover Publications
Dover Publications
Dover Publications is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife, Blanche. It publishes primarily reissues, books no longer published by their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be...
published William Rowe's stamp book titled Surreal Stickers & Unreal Stamps, 1982, included 224 full-colored gummed and perforated stamps. Mad Magazine included perforated, gummed stamps in a few issues. Cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
, creator of the Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
, released The 1990 Doonesbury Stamp Album through Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in 1990; this album contained a large number of perforated, gummed stamps featuring characters and settings from Doonesbury. Another example is a series of Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
stamps created to publicise the Discworld
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
novel Going Postal
Going Postal
Going Postal is Terry Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, released in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series...
.
Purchase and collection
Artistamps can be purchased on the Internet, through on-line auctionsOnline auction business model
The online auction business model is one in which participants bid for products and services over the Internet. The functionality of buying and selling in an auction format is made possible through auction software which regulates the various processes involved.Several types of online auctions are...
, directly from artists, other collectors, at air fairs or through art galleries. Many artistamp creators swap their creations with other practitioners of the form, either directly or within the broader concept of mail art.
External links
- Jas Cyberspace Museum – Jas Felter’s website, which includes the International Directory of Artistamp Creators, an artistamp gallery and an archive of articles on the medium.