John Newton Different Arts and Crafts Discoveries in 1977

Written by Claire Cirocco

Considered to be i of Detroit'due south most prolific and reclusive artists, Gordon Newton has never faltered in conveying the raw depth of his emotions or the story of his environment through painting, drawing, sculpting, or reconstructing. Newton'southward contributions to the art world aid to define the fashion of the Cass Corridor motion too equally place it inside the larger context of the history of avant-garde art in Detroit and beyond. Newton'due south piece of work of the past several decades has been described equally "dense" and "all-consuming," which tin also be applied to the method in which he works. By exhausting ideas and themes and using unlike approaches to artistic invention over the grade of his career, Newton has never failed to generate projects comprised of intricately layered significant.

Born in Detroit in 1948, Newton experienced the varying landscapes of the Midwest as his family moved from place to place before settling in Port Huron where Newton would attend community college. In 1969 Newton moved to Detroit where he studied at the Society of Arts and crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) before transferring to Wayne State University. This period of time would mark his initial integration into the Cass Corridor, a scene in which artists sought cheap studio infinite in the dilapidated buildings that once housed businesses in the area now referred to equally Midtown.  Around this aforementioned time, artists of the movement co-opted a burned-out furniture store at 422 Due west Willis St., a space that would go the locus of many collaborative projects and exhibitions generated by prominent figures of the scene. The Willis Gallery was not merely valued as a raw space in which to create, only played a significant role in networking between artists and potential patrons.[1] Amid these collectors and patrons, fine art enthusiast and proprietor of the Edward West. Duffy & Company piping supplier James Pearson Duffy emerged equally a principal distributor to preeminent Cass Corridor artists such equally Newton, Robert Sestok, and John Egner, providing ample space in the warehouse of his family'south pipe supply business in southwest Detroit in which to exhibit art.[2] Duffy took a special interest in the burgeoning art scene, and more specifically, took an involvement in Newton'southward work and the free energy he put forth into creating fine art. Duffy and Newton subsequently began a correspondence, with Duffy's support and patronage acting equally goad for the propagation of Newton's mail art which would span several decades, from the late 1970s until Duffy's passing in 2009. Newton's exchanges with Duffy (whom Newton often refers to equally 'Jim') over the by several decades show an intense interest and dedication to the creative process on the role of Newton, while simultaneously reflecting the depth of the artist-patron relationship shared betwixt them.

Left: Letter of the alphabet 1 - 1987 - Study for Oliver Twist, marking on paper. Correct: Installation view, Oliver Twist: The Sometime Curiosity Store, mixed media, 1992. Photo Credit: Tim Thayer.

Though he is often recognized for his office as preeminent patron of the Detroit and Cass Corridor art scene, Duffy held his own artistic vision, which guided his interest in specific artists and their piece of work. Duffy befriended many Wayne Country Academy art students through his frequenting of Detroit galleries from his eastward side domicile, linking his social life with his life as a patron of the Detroit art scene. Duffy'southward own artistic practice reflected his keen aesthetic vision, as he became increasingly interested in photography, and generated hundreds of polaroid photographs documenting his home, art collections and art objects, likewise every bit snapshots from around the city. This enthusiasm and energy with which Duffy collected, documented, and communicated with the art world and artists of Detroit would go the basis for Duffy's initial correspondence with Gordon Newton. Duffy regularly and steadily sent Newton polaroids, each carefully labeled with the exact date and fourth dimension it was taken. The photographs were often accompanied by receipts, newspaper clippings, and any other objects Duffy felt were necessary to include. Newton describes their correspondence equally a "pen pal" human relationship. Newton's drawings, photographs, and collages were sent in response to Duffy'southward initial contact, keeping a steady flow of communication between the ii sides, and forming a type of phone call and response system of reciprocal thought and creative output.[3]

Peter Beard's Silhouette Surrounded past X Michigans for the Alternative Printing Tenth Anniversary, collage by Ray Johnson, 1979. Courtesy of Wayne State Academy Library Systems.

Upon further study, the hundreds of mailings, accompanied by drawings, sketches, photographs, and collage, tin can telephone call to mind the mail fine art of belatedly Detroit-born artist Ray Johnson (b.1927-1995). Johnson is attributed with having established the New York Correspondence School in the early 1960s and the genre of "mail service art," a practice involving the accumulation and dispersal of collage and stream of consciousness narratives, often mailed and distributed to a broad network of recipients. Johnson'southward arroyo was comparable to a fragmented narrative, accompanied past pieces the artist had been collecting and assembling in collage-form.[4] This pairing of prototype and word fragments in effect creates multiple layers of meaning, transforming original meanings through varying juxtapositions, essentially mapping the artist'southward thought procedure. Johnson would often invite the recipients to participate in the process, past adding or subtracting from the original mailing, and moving the letter on to the next recipient. His method was viewed as a vast departure from the traditional isolation of the artist, producing unique objects that would go commodities for art dealers and collectors.[5] Correspondence implies a personal communication and exchange between sender and receiver, with a special emphasis on the relationship between the two. "I but don't slap things in envelopes," Johnson stated in a 1977 interview with Detroit Artists Monthly, "Everything I brand is made for the person I'yard writing to."[6]

Newton's mailings encompass elements of Johnson'due south fashion and rhetoric, as his free energy and penchant for creation is evident in the letters, sketches, postcards, and other media mailed over the years. Newton's techniques of collage and assemblage translate through to his mail service fine art, layering in metaphors and meanings related to tangential ideas producing a "dense," all-consuming mode of artistic expression.[7] Much like Johnson, who once insisted, "That'south what these [letters] are all about…I'm trying to depict what goes on in the interior of the caput: thoughts, images or ideas," the drove of messages, packages, postcards, sketchbooks, and other ephemera produced during the time of Duffy and Newton's correspondence offers an intimate view into the artist'south daily thoughts and processes, as he conveys his practice and artistic vision through a multifariousness of media and careful methods of assemblage.[8] The physical components incorporated into his collage constitute the subject matter, equally Newton, establishing his specific perspective of the Cass Corridor aesthetic, uses materials from his ain surroundings and everyday life. Truthful of all of his projects, the letters he ritually mailed told the story of his environments, as well as the story of his discovery of the materials.[9]

The torso of work produced by Newton, when viewed as a commonage whole from the early days of his involvement in the Cass Corridor to the present, noticeably dials in and out of certain themes or usage of field of study matter and medium specific to the time at which information technology was created. These phases vary from heavy use of collage and establish-object fragments to sketches and studies for later drawings and sculpture works. These fragments that so oftentimes accompanied the letters sent to Duffy part every bit signifiers of singled-out moments in the time of the artist's life, allegorical of both idea and artistic processes that remained salient at the time of their creation.

Tiptop: Letter xiii - 1995 marking, tape, scraps on envelope. Bottom: Letter contents, marker, tape, paper-thin on photograph, marker on polaroid.

A heavily marked envelope from 1995 inscribed with the name of the recipient "J.F. Duffy" exemplifies the raw free energy and intensity imbued in all of Newton's piece of work. The envelope as shown here, and as is truthful for the entirety of the correspondence, is non just the vessel for the creative person's work, but carries equally much significance equally its contents. Included in the envelope are 2 Polaroid photographs taken by the creative person and smudged with ink and oil crayon. The photos Newton would include in his envelopes were oftentimes all the same-lifes taken in his dwelling house, documenting his surroundings and living/working spatial arrangements. The decorative elements of the creative person'due south home thus become those of the alphabetic character itself. The mixture of media over again highlights the method of densely layering the structured epitome with free-class sketches.

Letter ane - 1999 contents: charcoal, pastel, pen on paper.

An oversized envelope from 1999 includes 4 oil-stick drawings on newsprint dated 1971, and a smaller-scale sketch inscribed on the back of a jaggedly-cutting, repurposed postcard. This subsequently example, though visually much simpler and less chaotic, still bears Newton's feature pencil and ink drawings, with simplistic figural representations done in a seemingly abrupt way. This was a key aspect, non merely of Newton's mail service art, but his sculpture every bit well. Fellow Cass Corridor creative person John Egner commented on this facet of the sculpture, saying that every incision and application past Newton'southward hand was precise and deliberate.[ten] What appears a result of hazard or accidental happening is conversely the careful choice of the artist. Smudges of charcoal and streaks of oil pastel coalesce to stand for delicate portraits and opaque figural studies of densely-packed coiled lines. Each of the hundreds of envelopes and packages received by Duffy contained not simply letters, but photographs, sketches, notebooks, journals, grocery lists, paper clippings chronicling the day and year of their mailing, watercolor and gouache paintings, mixed-media collages, sculpture studies, food labels, coupons, and other diverse ephemera.

The catalogued correspondence, in its entirety, is awe-inspiring. From the early on years of Newton's career as an artist to the most-present, the Newton/Duffy Correspondence continues to represent an integral insight within the University Art Collection, and stands as a true testament of time through the eyes of Newton. The thousands of pieces acquired by Duffy over the by forty years offering a wealth of evidence and information on the cultural significance of Detroit artists and the Cass Corridor artists' movement. An even closer examination of these materials is yet to be conducted, as the work of archiving this vast collection coupled with the brevity of this initial overview does not delve into the great depths of this body of work. This collection of personal works documenting the life of Newton may ultimately shed low-cal on i of Detroit'south swell forerunners of the avant-garde.

I would like to extend special thanks to Gordon Newton for his enthusiasm for this project and his generous participation; to James Pearson Duffy (1923-2009) for his outstanding bequest to the WSU Art Collection; to Andrew Camden and Ed Fraga for the intendance they demonstrated in administering the Duffy Manor and to the Detroit Establish of Arts for their support of this project.

Many others dedicated their time and endeavour in helping preserve, document and share this remarkable group.  Funded through the support of College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, Dean's Office Action Awards, undergraduate students Isaac Pool transformed shoeboxes of materials into chronologically organized and archivally preserved files and Devon Parrot spent countless hours imaging and cataloguing thousands of objects.  Collections Assistant, Daniel Sperry, created the exhibition design and championed this effort from the start.  I would likewise like to give thanks WSU Library Organization'south Special Collections Coordinator and History Librarian, Cindy Krolikowski, for her help in providing the Ray Johnson piece.

Lastly, I would like to admit Claire Cirocco, the collection's talented 2014/xv Activity Award student, who contributed the thoughtful and articulate essay created for this exhibition.

Sandra Schemske, Art Collection Coordinator, Wayne State University

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[1] Mary Jane Jacob, "Kick Out the Jams: The Emergence of a Detroit Advanced," In Kick Out the Jams: Detroit's Cass Corridor 1963-1977. (Detroit: The Detroit Found of Arts, 1980).

[2] MaryAnn Wilkinson, "'We Put Art Anywhere and Everywhere We Tin can': The Duffy Company Warehouse," In Upwards From The Streets: Detroit Art From the Duffy Warehouse Collection, edited by Jeffrey Abt.(Detroit: Elaine Jacob Gallery, Wayne Country Academy, 2001), 28-29.

[iii] Gordon Newton, in word with the author, March 22, 2015.

[four] Michael Morris, "Ray Johnson: An Appreciation," In Ray Johnson: How Pitiful I Am Today… edited past Michael Morris and Sharla Sava. (Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, 2001), seven-x.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ray Johnson, interview by Diane Spodarek and Randy Delbeke, The Detroit Artists Monthly, (February 1978).

[7] Marsha Miro, "Gordon Newton: Thirty Years Later," In Gordon Newton: Selections from the James F. Duffy, Jr. Gift, edited past Judith Ruskin. (Detroit: The Detroit Constitute of Arts, 2001), 8-twenty.

[viii] Johnson.

[ix] Ruth Rattner, "Gordon Newton," Message of the Detroit Establish of Arts 58, no. 1 (1980).

[10] 'Images' from Detroit'south Cass Corridor. By Kathryn Brackett-Luchs and Shaun Bangert. DVD.

All images copyright the artist, and may not be reproduced without written permission. Gordon Newton works reproduced with the artist'southward permission

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Source: https://artcollection.wayne.edu/exhibitions/newton-duffy-correspondence-

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