STAMP ART

Stamps are mostly associated with official authorities of various kinds — the postal service, the police, the church. To receive or not receive an official stamp from an authority can mean a struggle between life and death.

When artists use stamps, however, the meaning is the direct opposite. They ironize over seriousness, authority, and power embodied in the official stamp. Instead, playfulness and humor are emphasized.

An example of stamp art by about fifty artists from different countries can be seen at Galerie S:t Petri from April 23 to May 5, 1981.

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, a stamp poem was published by a Brazilian poet — but it was not until the 1960s that the stamp was used in a broader artistic context by the Fluxus artists. During the 1970s this form of art began to spread in a more consistent manner. Around the same time, another typically 1970s phenomenon within contemporary art developed: mail art — where artists send information to one another via postal systems. Thus, an international “underground” communication network was established. Stamp art and mail art have therefore often functioned side by side.

Stamp art is a simple way of spreading ideas, slogans, drawings, and photographs. Artists, writers, and video artists work with stamps. Texts, portraits, birdsong — anything can be turned into a stamp. Like many new media, stamp art turns away from technical skill. What matters most is communication. Both mail art and stamp art seek to avoid the established, commercial art market.

Galerie S:t Petri already presented in 1975 the first large group exhibition of artists’ stamps, featuring more than 300 participants. Hervé Fischer, French stamp artist, wrote that “the use of stamps is like tam-tam signals between different tribes. They speak of a very lively subculture with other values than those of contemporary society.”

NON-COMMERCIAL ART LABORATORY FOUNDED IN 1971.
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