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09 Aug 2023

Works from the Collection: Bud Lee

  • John Baylin

    John Baylin (Canadian, b. 1948), also known under the aliases “John Jack Baylin,” “Count Fanzini” and “JJ Baylin,” is a mail and collage artist who was affiliated with the artists from General Idea and Image Bank in the 1970s through the international mail art network. He is known for his close collaboration with the artist John Dowd, including as founder of the John Dowd Fan Club and Bum Bank, and through the publications Fanzini, Fanzine/Fanzini, Fanzine 3, Fanzine Goes to the Movies and Fanzini/America, which include contributions by AA Bronson, Peter Hujar and Ray Johnson, among others. Baylin was a regular visitor to Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov’s Babyland in Roberts Creek, BC, where he held “network meetings” of the John Dowd Fanny Club.

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  • AA Bronson

    AA Bronson (Michael Tims) (Canadian, 1946-) is a conceptual artist and founding member of the collective General Idea (1969-1994), along with his artistic partners Felix Partz, born Ronald Gabe (Canadian, 1945-1994) and Jorge Zontal, born Slobodan Saia-Levy (Italian, 1944-1994).  Since 1994, Bronson has worked as a solo artist, curator, writer, activist and healer.  Bronson was the director of Printed Matter Inc. from 2004 to 2010 and founded the NY Art Book Fair in 2005 and the Printed Matter LA Art Book Fair in 2011.  Bronson has received three honorary doctorates, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008 and was awarded the Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres by the government of France.  General Idea’s practice largely involved unconventional media of mail art, performance art and installation using ideas of appropriation, satire and conceptualism, often taking on political issues, most notably challenging dominant ideas of capitalist heteronormativity.  Through the focus on their activities as a collective, General Idea sought to remove the individualistic notions of artist-as-genius and further queer the art space through their integration of domestic life and popular culture with artistic practice.  The collective’s activities stopped in 1994 when both Partz and Zontal passed away due to complications from AIDS.

     

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  • John Dowd

    John Dowd was a New York-based artist and member of Ray Johnson’s New York Correspondence School.  He is known for his collaborations with artist John Baylin, in particular The John Dowd Fan Club, which began in 1972 with an inaugural gathering of the “fan-club” at Image Bank’s Babyland, near Roberts Creek, BC.

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  • Bud Lee

    Bud Lee (Christopher Todd Lee Jr.) (1941-2015) was a photographer and teacher who first took up the camera during his time in the US Army.  From 1967 to 1974, Lee was a photojournalist and worked on assignment for such publications as LIFE, Esquire, New York Times and Rolling Stone. Lee’s photographs of the 1967 Newark riots will be the subject of the upcoming monograph War Is Here, to be published in 2023.

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  • Felix Partz

    Felix Partz (Ronald Gabe) (Canadian, 1945–1994) was a conceptual artist and founding member of General Idea (1969–1994) along with AA Bronson, born Michael Tims (Canadian, b. 1946), and Jorge Zontal, born Slobodan Saia-Levy (Italian, 1944–1994).  Partz studied fine art at the University of Manitoba School of Art in his birth place Winnipeg where he was commissioned to make the still-extant outdoor sculpture Sunbeams (Marching Over The Hill) in 1966.  During his time in Winnipeg, Partz photocopied works by canonical modern artists (such as Andy Warhol and Joseph Stella) in a series of conceptual “readymades” that pre-figured his work in General Idea entitled Some Art That I Like.  Partz moved to Toronto where he co-founded General Idea and later the non-profit space Art Metropole in 1973. General Idea’s practice largely involved unconventional media of mail art, performance art and installation using ideas of appropriation, satire and conceptualism, often taking on political issues, most notably challenging dominant ideas of capitalist heteronormativity.  Through the focus on their activities as a collective, General Idea sought to remove the individualistic notions of artist-as-genius and further queer the art space through their integration of domestic life and popular culture with artistic practice.  The collective’s activities stopped in 1994 when both Partz and Zontal passed away due to complications from AIDS.

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  • Beautiful Zeke

    Beautiful Zeke (Zeke Smolinksky) was a Brooklyn, NY-based mail artist.

By Michael Dang, Public Programs and Exhibitions Assistant, 2023

 

This photograph by Bud Lee was taken as documentation of the February 1974 Decca Dance, an important meeting/performance that united the international group of mail artists dubbed the “Eternal Network.”1 Decca Dance took place in Los Angeles in celebration of Art’s 1,000,0011th Birthday, with the main event being a mock-awards gala held at Elk’s Lodge.2 Participants in Decca Dance included Willoughby Sharp, Lowell Darling, Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov of Image Bank, Kate Craig, Hank Bull, Eric Metcalfe, Glenn Lewis, General Idea, Robert Cumming, among others.3  Lee’s photographs of the event, including this one, were published in a 1974 issue of Esquire magazine, which was a significant legitimizing moment for these mail artists.4

At the centre of the image is the artist John Dowd, wearing a FETISH t-shirt, pictured with his frequent collaborators, John Baylin (behind him to the left) and Beautiful Zeke or Zeke Smolinsky (to the far right of the image). Dowd was the subject of a fanzine or “club,” a collaboration between himself and Baylin, that primarily included photocopied collages and photomontages that appropriated imagery from entertainment and popular culture.5  Dowd was a bartender at the leather bar the Eagle’s Nest in New York City and was known for his physique, reminiscent of the strapping muscly figures of the influential queer illustrator Tom of Finland.6 It was during his employment at the Eagle’s Nest that Dowd caught the attention of artists in the Eternal Network including Baylin, Ray Johnson, Jimmy De Sana, Morris and Trasov.7  Also in this image are two of the founding members of General Idea – AA Bronson (who is shielding his face from the sun at the far left) and Felix Partz (behind Dowd and Smolinsky). Both Dowd and Partz are seen holding plexiglass Hand of the Spirit wands, an iconic fetish symbol that signaled “glamour and artificiality while claiming an otherworldly spiritual presence” for members of General Idea, Image Bank and others.8  The artists associated with the John Dowd Fan Club also had close artistic relationships to Morris and Trasov, as Baylin had founded the sardonic subsidiary of Image Bank entitled Bum Bank.9 Lee’s photograph captures an important moment at the height of the correspondence art network, where unbridled collaborations, in-jokes and references as well as deep connections were fostered between artists internationally. This photograph will be reproduced for both the exhibition and the catalogue of the Brooklyn Museum’s Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Making Zines opening 17 November 2023.

Works from the Collection considers works in the Belkin’s permanent collection in conversation with ongoing exhibitions, programs and the world around us. This entry is part of a series by Michael Dang, Public Programs and Exhibitions Assistant and candidate in the Critical and Curatorial Studies Program at UBC, that digs into the Belkin’s Archive collection. Dang has been researching works in the Archive in preparation for his upcoming practicum exhibition opening in 2024.  To see more of the Belkin’s archival collection, visit belkin.ubc.ca/collection.

 

IMAGE (ABOVE): bud lee, decca dance participants photograph, 1974. collection of the morris and helen belkin art gallery, morris/trasov archive (M/T 036.206.10)

  • John Baylin

    John Baylin (Canadian, b. 1948), also known under the aliases “John Jack Baylin,” “Count Fanzini” and “JJ Baylin,” is a mail and collage artist who was affiliated with the artists from General Idea and Image Bank in the 1970s through the international mail art network. He is known for his close collaboration with the artist John Dowd, including as founder of the John Dowd Fan Club and Bum Bank, and through the publications Fanzini, Fanzine/Fanzini, Fanzine 3, Fanzine Goes to the Movies and Fanzini/America, which include contributions by AA Bronson, Peter Hujar and Ray Johnson, among others. Baylin was a regular visitor to Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov’s Babyland in Roberts Creek, BC, where he held “network meetings” of the John Dowd Fanny Club.

    Read More

  • AA Bronson

    AA Bronson (Michael Tims) (Canadian, 1946-) is a conceptual artist and founding member of the collective General Idea (1969-1994), along with his artistic partners Felix Partz, born Ronald Gabe (Canadian, 1945-1994) and Jorge Zontal, born Slobodan Saia-Levy (Italian, 1944-1994).  Since 1994, Bronson has worked as a solo artist, curator, writer, activist and healer.  Bronson was the director of Printed Matter Inc. from 2004 to 2010 and founded the NY Art Book Fair in 2005 and the Printed Matter LA Art Book Fair in 2011.  Bronson has received three honorary doctorates, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008 and was awarded the Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres by the government of France.  General Idea’s practice largely involved unconventional media of mail art, performance art and installation using ideas of appropriation, satire and conceptualism, often taking on political issues, most notably challenging dominant ideas of capitalist heteronormativity.  Through the focus on their activities as a collective, General Idea sought to remove the individualistic notions of artist-as-genius and further queer the art space through their integration of domestic life and popular culture with artistic practice.  The collective’s activities stopped in 1994 when both Partz and Zontal passed away due to complications from AIDS.

     

    Read More

  • John Dowd

    John Dowd was a New York-based artist and member of Ray Johnson’s New York Correspondence School.  He is known for his collaborations with artist John Baylin, in particular The John Dowd Fan Club, which began in 1972 with an inaugural gathering of the “fan-club” at Image Bank’s Babyland, near Roberts Creek, BC.

    Read More

  • Bud Lee

    Bud Lee (Christopher Todd Lee Jr.) (1941-2015) was a photographer and teacher who first took up the camera during his time in the US Army.  From 1967 to 1974, Lee was a photojournalist and worked on assignment for such publications as LIFE, Esquire, New York Times and Rolling Stone. Lee’s photographs of the 1967 Newark riots will be the subject of the upcoming monograph War Is Here, to be published in 2023.

    Read More

  • Felix Partz

    Felix Partz (Ronald Gabe) (Canadian, 1945–1994) was a conceptual artist and founding member of General Idea (1969–1994) along with AA Bronson, born Michael Tims (Canadian, b. 1946), and Jorge Zontal, born Slobodan Saia-Levy (Italian, 1944–1994).  Partz studied fine art at the University of Manitoba School of Art in his birth place Winnipeg where he was commissioned to make the still-extant outdoor sculpture Sunbeams (Marching Over The Hill) in 1966.  During his time in Winnipeg, Partz photocopied works by canonical modern artists (such as Andy Warhol and Joseph Stella) in a series of conceptual “readymades” that pre-figured his work in General Idea entitled Some Art That I Like.  Partz moved to Toronto where he co-founded General Idea and later the non-profit space Art Metropole in 1973. General Idea’s practice largely involved unconventional media of mail art, performance art and installation using ideas of appropriation, satire and conceptualism, often taking on political issues, most notably challenging dominant ideas of capitalist heteronormativity.  Through the focus on their activities as a collective, General Idea sought to remove the individualistic notions of artist-as-genius and further queer the art space through their integration of domestic life and popular culture with artistic practice.  The collective’s activities stopped in 1994 when both Partz and Zontal passed away due to complications from AIDS.

    Read More

  • Beautiful Zeke

    Beautiful Zeke (Zeke Smolinksky) was a Brooklyn, NY-based mail artist.

End Notes

  1. Scott Watson, “In The Image Bank,” in Image Bank, ed. by Watson (Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery; Berlin: KW Institute For Contemporary Art, 2020), 20.

  2. The influential French conceptual and mail artist Robert Filliou had declared 2 February 1963 as Art’s 1,000,000th birthday. See: Watson, “In The Image Bank,” 20.

  3. Vic d’Or (Victor Coleman), editor, Mondo Artie: Episode No. 1681, IS. 1,  Fall 1975, (Fall 1975), 3.

  4. Watson, “In The Image Bank,” 20.

  5. A selection of the John Dowd Fan Club souvenir buttons, from the 119 that are in the Morris/Trasov Archive in the Belkin’s collection, will also be included in the Copy Machine Manifestos exhibition. See: Printed Matter Inc., “The John Dowd Fan Club”; Drew Sawyer, Jimmy DeSana: Submission (Brooklyn and New York: Brooklyn Museum and DelMonico Books, 2022), 16.

  6. See: Printed Matter Inc., “The John Dowd Fan Club”; Sawyer, Jimmy DeSana: Submission, 16.

  7. See: Printed Matter Inc., “The John Dowd Fan Club”; Sawyer, Jimmy DeSana: Submission, 16.

  8. Additionally, the Hand of the Spirit motif was used by artists associated with Western Front such Kate Craig’s Flying Leopard (1973/74) costume as well as Canada Shadows (1978). See: Ann Pollack, Transient Moments: Vancouver & The Performance Photograph (Vancouver: Presentation House Gallery, 1999), 9-11; Keith Wallace, “On The Set At Babyland,” in Hand Of The Spirit: Documents Of The Seventies From The Morris/Trasov Archive (Vancouver: UBC Fine Arts Gallery, 1994), 44; Watson, “In The Image Bank,” 18.

  9. Wallace, “On The Set At Babyland,” 39.