RCBz and the Historic Russian Avant Garde (Saint Cloud, Minnesota, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail art by IUOMA member RCBz (Saint Cloud, Minnesota, USA)

December 22, 2015 - At this point in time, the great mail artist RCBz is an Eternal Network enigma. I doubt many members of the newer generation are aware of his existence. He is a mail artist’s mail artist, a perceived member of the “Old School” who is actually linked more to the current scene than he ever was to legendary correspondence schools. RCBz is not a CrackerJack Kid, Sinclair Scripa, Mark Bloch nor a Richard Canard, although he shares a certain sensibility with these stalwarts. RCBz has become a network Ezra Pound figure contemptuous of the current scene yet feeding and shaping it all the same. He is a David Stafford without the grin.

RCBZ is “in it but not of it.” The situation is becoming such that he is passing into the realm of the Yeti. We have tantalizing evidence that he exists, but the sightings are increasingly infrequent. So I am thrilled to be able to document an absolutely spectacular work received from “St. Clown." The work is large, approximately 8.5 X 11 inches (A4), and reveals RCBz’s meticulous talent and encyclopedic knowledge. The work is an homage to or meditation upon Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935):

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/malevich

Here is the reverse side:

Malevich is a great subject. I note that I have spent time and thought already assigning RCBz to the West Coast (USA) school of super-realism (or more precisely sur-super-realism) even though, of course, he resides in Minnesota. Thus connecting the work of Malevich to the work of RCBz requires dizzying, theoretical abstraction. The connections are there but obscure. Maybe RCBz admires Malevich with no strings attached. The fact remains that this is a spectacular RCBz piece with recognizable iconography (for anyone who keeps and eye RCBz’s work), all the more powerful when one experiences the original rather than a scan. So, as ever, deepest thanks to RCBz!