The World Exists to Be Put on a Postcard: Artists' postcards from 1960 to now

by Jeremy Cooper

The postcard as you’ve never seen it before. This appealing book collects the best of these mail-able, miniature works of art by the likes of Yoko Ono and Carl Andre. The accessibility and familiarity of a postcard makes it an artistic medium rich with potential for subversion, appropriation, or manipulation for political, satirical, revolutionary, or playful intent. The inexpensiveness of production encourages artists to experiment with their design; the only artistic that it fits through the mailbox slot. Unlike traditional works of art, the postcard requires nothing more than a stamp for it to be seen on the other side of the world. Made of commonplace material, postcards invite handling, asking to be picked up, turned over, and shown to friends―to be included in our lives. The World Exists to Be Put on a Postcard features postcards, several reproduced at actual size, designed by notable modern and contemporary artists, including Carl Andre, Eleanor Antin, Joseph Beuys, Tacita Dean, Gilbert & George, Richard Hamilton, Susan Hiller, Richard Long, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Dieter Roth, Gavin Turk, Mark Wallinger, Rachel Whiteread, and Hannah Wilke, many of which are published here for the first time. Organized thematically into chapters, such as “Graphic Postcards,” “Political Postcards,” “Portrait Postcards,” and “Composite Postcards,” this book demonstrates the significance of artists’ postcards in contemporary art. 100 color illustrations

Genres: Art

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 23, 2019

About the author

Jeremy Cooper is a writer and art historian, author of six previous novels and several works of non-fiction, including the standard work on nineteenth century furniture, studies of young British artists in the 1990s, and, in 2019, the British Museum's catalogue of artists' postcards. Early on he appeared in the first twenty-four of BBC's Antiques Roadshow and, in 2018, won
the first Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize for Ash before Oak.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to read if you're interested in late 20th-century/early 21st-century contemporary artists. It's a bit more scholarly than playful, and is actually super comprehensive about situating the artists it features within the context of the period they worked in, their galleries and dealers and shows, and their collaborations. So if you're interested in this particular slice of modern art history, you're in luck. I'm a former early-'80s art student and followed a lot of these artists, plus I love postcard/mail art/arte povera, so it was really interesting to see how the format intersected with what they were doing. But also being a former early-'80s art student, the type was really damn tiny for my old eyes. Well, that's what we have reading glasses for—and I liked this little mini–art history class.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok for what is was - a collection of artist’s postcards ! Unique and quirky - simple designs and others complicated - not what I expected as I have collected postcards for years but I have a different style of postcards. Anyway!!

[Glen Farrelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a longtime postcard collector and communication scholar, I am glad to see the medium of postcard finally starting to be accepted (ever so slightly) as a legitimate medium of study and artifact of our shared visual culture. This book admirably chronicles the postcard medium used by artists to create original works of art (i.e. "mail art") not reproductions or shrinking of art created in other media.

The book includes a lot of images of postcards from the past 50 years (although the printing quality is a bit flat, which unfortunately makes the postcards seem more sterile and dull than they most likely are). There are some interesting write-ups about the various postcard art themes (i.e. political, invitations, portraits, composites, altered, etc.). However, the framing commentary is mostly name dropping of "important artists" and their exhibitions in New York City or London.

It's these last two issues that make the book problematic. First, the idea that there are "important artists" should never be used uncritically. I hate how the powers-that-be decide who are cannon and remove the idea that "art" is only for the people. Often the only way artists become "important" is that they are ones with the best connections and most pretension. I have never found a significant difference in the quality of contemporary art that hangs in a gallery or for sale at a local café.

The book is by the British Museum, so it's not surprising that the book's coverage does not have a strong international focus, but instead strongly favours NYC and London. There is some attempt to branch out geographically, but not much. Art is created everywhere not just in 2 cities.

As one familiar with the postcard medium, it's easy to see the many ways throughout the medium's history of original art being created by all sorts of publishers and people and not just by the elite. I was hoping, for example, that the section on "Recent Postcards" would include DIY (Do It Yourself) art postcard projects and other forms of participatory art.

Overall, this book is a missed opportunity to examine the role of postcard as an original art form. Instead, this book is yet another attempt to keep art separate from the public and exclusive to those with the money, art school connections, and established name to be officially deemed an "important artist".

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this collection of postcards designed by and for contemporary artists - published in conjunction with a British Museum exhibition - the ideas and stories behind the works are generally, though not always, more compelling than the visuals themselves. I suppose that's what happens when so many of them are conceptual artworks in themselves, which is where the inspirational qualities of the book come through. A postcard is a tiny canvas that can be mass-produced and deployed either in a scattershot way (leaving them around for people to find) or through a more targeted approach (mailing them to specific individuals for specific reasons). Gave me a lot to think about in terms of how something so humble can be deployed to mischievous or intriguing effect.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one who loves postcards and uses a lot of them, I immediately grabbed this book when I saw it on the shelf at the library. There's a wide variety of postcards pictured here, postcards used for numerous reasons. The reader is reminded of how much potential postcards have as an art form. It's inspiring. I write to my 4 grandchildren every week, so I'm always looking for new and different postcards, or other forms of note cards or letters to use, as well as often making my own note cards. I didn't read everything in this postcard history, but it's definitely worth exploring.

[Hal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 2 stars are for the paper and the reproduction quality.
It's unusual in that I don't think of the British Museum and Thames & Hudson as not paying more attention to the quality of the book.
(please note that the 2 star rating is not a comment on the sincere efforts of the author to put together a contemporary picture for the reader)