Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

020. Framing ideas

Even in his photography, Johnson exhibits a collagist’s instinct for insertion and layering. Most of his photographs are centered on objects that he placed between himself and a scene as he found it. On occasion, though, he used the camera in a conventional way, simply collecting views of sights that drew his interest, such as a billboard advertising nothing or the word HELP on the underside of a boat. Photographs such as these are the field notes of a minutely attentive observer

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Mondrian's grave and playing card, Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Queens
spring 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:133
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Billboard
summer 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:27
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Palm frond on sand
winter 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:10
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Hand, pier ruins, and Long Island Sound
23 August 1994
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:93
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York