Jeff Berner, a FLUXUS Member and Correspondence Artist

Although there are many more individuals we could inform you about; the correspondence series is going to wrap up with Jeff Berner, an artist that is currently alive and letting his creativity shine. He is known for various styles of art including photography, portraits, and illustrations for books and magazines. Berner even published some books which can be purchased through Amazon.com. He also created a diorama series which was exhibited at galleries in Los Angeles and two additional locations in Paris. Berner has won awards and has taught at three different institutions including Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco. Berner currently lives in Paris with his wife Azar who does painting.

Now let’s take a stroll back in time, Berner became involved with the FLUXUS group back in 1965. What exactly is FLUXUS? Well, it is an international group of conceptual/performance artists. According to Henry Flynt, “Fluxus embraced many of the concepts and practices associated with the post-war avant-garde of western Europe and North America” and incorporated poetry, random music, art, and lettrism. The term fluxus actually comes from the Latin word for “flow” and was conceived by a gentleman by the name of George Maciunas who was a writer, performer, and composer. The first grouping of FLUXUS festivals took place in Germany. Furthermore, it was this movement that united artists throughout the world and many of those involved with FLUXUS took part in Correspondence Art. 🙂

Click on these links for some interesting information regarding this neat group/movement:

http://www.fluxus.org/

http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10457

 

For more about Jeff Berner:

http://www.jeffberner.com/

Correspondence Artist Cavellini Births Self-Historicization

Guglielmo Achille Cavellini was born 1914 in Brescia, Italy. He is known for contributing to many things such as the mail art movement, Experimentation period in Italian art, and combining Italian art with the American Pop Art style. Like many correspondent artists, Cavellini was also known for breaking out of boundaries that constrained artists from full expression. In addition, he was interested in making creations that used images from other artists. One of the most fascinating things about Cavellini would have to be his involvement in the development of the term historicization, which refers to the writing of oneself into history, both past and future.

Image from http://www.lauracastelletti.it

Cavellini worked alongside well-known artists such as Andy Warhol and Ray Johnson. During a performance with an artist by the name of Higgins III, Cavellini’s body was painted with the colors of the Italian flag: red, white, and green. These colors became his trademark represented on envelopes that were sent out to fellow artists such as Arthur Secunda.

Rather than limit himself to paper, Cavellini felt inspired to move on to fabric and people.

Cavellini passed in 1990, but for almost 20 years he planned the San Francisco exhibit that took place this year. His son, Piero was at the opening reception.

Take a look at a video biography found on Youtube:

 

http://www.lynchtham.com/panel-discussion-self-historicization-and-its-current-impact.html

http://www.sfaqonline.com/2014/03/guglielmo-achille-cavellini-1914-2014-at-the-italian-cultural-institute-gallery-san-francisco/

 

Correspondance School

A school was formed as a result of this movement known as The New York Correspondance School. This is not a typo, Ray Johnson insisted on spelling correspondence with an “a” rather than an “e” for some reason. Furthermore, Ray developed a logo to represent his interest of mail art and it happened to be a bunny. Unfortunately, Ray Johnson died young due to an accident. However, mail art still lives; to this day there are groups that continue this fun activity- giving the postal workers something to encounter that is out of the norm. There are even mail art exhibitions. One is located at the Scrap Exchange in North Carolina.

Here are two examples where the bunny symbol was utilized:

Bunny from Boulder

 

 

San Francisco Correspondence Dinner