Review: How to Draw a Bunny (2002)
Robin Clifford
Artist Raymond Johnson's body was found floating in
Sag Harbor, New York in 1995, the victim of an
apparent suicide. This enigmatic and unexplained death
of "New York's most famous unknown artist" is just a
part of the investigation, by documentarian John
Walters, of the life and times of the man and his work
in "How to Draw a Bunny."
Little is known about the works of Ray Johnson, an
artist who would stage an exhibition named "Nothing"
and leave the viewer guessing just what they saw. He
was the contemporary of such art world notables as pop
artist Roy Lichtenstein, photographer Norman Solomon
and, most famous, modern icon Andy Warhol. But no one,
until now, knew much about the man and his art.
As "How to Draw a Bunny" unfolds we learn why so
little is publicly known about the artist who,
actually, may have been the driving force at the
beginning of the "pop culture" that we have always
given Andy Warhol credit for. The difference between
these two art personae lay in their means of
distribution and exhibition. Warhol, as we know, took
the New York avant garde art world by storm in the
60's and created an empire from it. Ray Johnson, an
artist on a creative par with Andy W, chose to lead a
more introspective and personal means of showing his
artistic talents.
Johnson's art utilized contemporary pop culture items,
like the Lucky Strike cigarette logo, and incorporated
them into his work well before the famous Campbell
Tomato Soup can came to the attention of millions. The
difference is that Ray Johnson would play to an
audience of one, often times, and would send his
target aud, via the mail, variations of his initial
work, sometime every day for a year! As such, he was a
prolific artist but, because of his quirky
distribution methods, few of his works reached the
attention of the public.
Documentary maker John Walters assembled a collection
of Johnson's colleagues and contemporaries and patches
together a document of Johnson's life that made me
want to learn more about the man's unusual work. He
uses anecdotal recollections by Johnson's
acquaintances and friends to give insight into the
man. Talking heads interviews with such personalities
as Lichtenstein, Cristo, Chuck Close and Billy Name
are interspersed with video footage of Johnson's
varied performance art works.
Johnson worked for himself and docu-maker Walters
shows how often his artistic visions were in conflict
with the audience's understanding of what he was
trying to say. The artist marched to his own beat all
of his life, eschewing the limelight in favor of his
own, individualist creativity. He did not make an
impact on the public but did have a significant one on
those close to the man. If you have any interest in
Raymond Johnson and his pop art, maybe you, too, will
learn "How to Draw a Bunny." I give it a B-.
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X-RT-RatingText: B-