True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

By John W. Walter
2002, 90 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
How To Draw a Bunny
A pointed film about a most peculiar artist – an artist too peculiar even for the New York art
crowd. Ray Johnson had as much talent as Andy Warhol (a friend and colleague) but he really
didn’t want money or fame. He just wanted to make mail art and rubber stamps and to amuse
himself at home with whimsical and sly collages. (A goofy Kilroy-was-here scribble bunny
became his signature.) Soon, like Picasso, or a naive folk artist, everything in his grasp became
art. Real artists grokked his stuff – if they ever got to see it, which few did. So Ray Johnson
came by reputation to be the most famous unknown artist in America and then mysteriously
disappeared. He left behind a huge master collage – one clue pointing to the next in a complex
recursive joke – which turned out to be his life. In a delicious way I really enjoy, this documentary
itself became an integral part of his grand collage to keep us guessing.
Artwork by Ray Johnson found crammed in his house after his
death (above). The artist (below) shows off his strange sensibility
to appreciate simple things like paper, holes, and hands
in vintage footage. An artist friend (right) does a Ray Johnson
imitation using white binder stickers on his sunglasses.
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