Have a Cow, Man
I’ve gathered examples in the Library collection by Klaus Groh and Edgardo Antonio Vigo, along with a bitmapped version, a “Belgian mail art bull,” and a cryptic one that has something to do with Ohio. n.d. Or you can make your own and e-mail it to us (library@moma.org)! Cavellini distributed the sticker and other publications through the postal system (you can spot Informazione in this envelope, a mail art project from the late 1980s). Informazione. 1987. And they did, breeding a herd of riffs that’s been roaming ever since. Recently I explored a collection of mail art held by the MoMA Library and put together a small show titled Analog Network: Mail Art, 1960–1999. Cavellini artist file, MoMA LibraryGuglielmo Achille Cavellini. It’s on view in the Education and Research Building through January 5. These and other examples are on display at the Library itself (also through January 5). Guglielmo Achille Cavellini. In this way the image also satirizes the art marketplace, rendering it as a “name brand” commodity to be carved up, advertised, sold, and consumed. Efforts like this put him in touch with an international network of mail artists—who love to copy, alter, and redistribute images like the diagram. Cavellini artist file, MoMA Library
Of all those gestures, I’m especially fond of one sticker: a diagram of beef cuts labeled with the names of canonical modern artists—including his own.
