page_title: Mail art
section_title: Rubberstamps and artistamps
hierarchical_section_title: Mail art / Media and artistic practices in the creation of mail artworks / Rubberstamps and artistamps
caption_attribution_description: Mailartists' rubber stamps
context_page_description: Mail art is a populist artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School and the Fluxus movements of the 1960s, though it has since developed into a global movement that continues to the present.
context_section_description: Mail art has adopted and appropriated several of graphic forms already associated with the postal system. The rubber stamp officially used for franking mail, already utilized by Dada and Fluxus artists, has been embraced by mail artists who, in addition to reusing ready-made rubber stamps, have them professionally made to their own designs. They also carve into erasers with linocut tools to create handmade ones. These unofficial rubber stamps, whether disseminating mail artists' messages or simply announcing the identity of the sender, help to transform regular postcards into artworks and make envelopes an important part of the mail art experience.
  Mail art has also appropriated the postage stamp as a format for individual expression. Inspired by the example of Cinderella stamps and Fluxus faux-stamps, the artistamp has spawned a vibrant sub-network of artists dedicated to creating and exchanging their own stamps and stamp sheets. Artist Jerry Dreva of the conceptual art group Les Petits Bonbons created a set of stamps and sent them to David Bowie who then used them as the inspiration for the cover of the single "Ashes to Ashes" released in 1980. Artistamps and rubber stamps, have become important staples of mail artworks, particularly in the enhancement of postcards and envelopes. The most important anthology of rubberstamp art was published by the artist Hervé Fischer in his book Art and Marginal Communication, Balland, Paris, 1974 - in French, English and German, to note also the catalog of the exhibition "Timbres d'artistes", Published of Musée de la Poste, Paris, 1993, organized by the French artist Jean-Noël Laszlo - in French, English.
caption: Mail art rubber stamps by Jo Klafki (left) and Mark Pawson (right), 1980s
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