Our Dada Makes You See Double and Feel Single

San Francisco: Dadaland, Circa early 1970s. Vintage Bill Gaglione [Dadaland] rubber stamp, circa early 1970s. An image of the impression, along with the address "Dadaland / 1117 Geary Street / Suite #21 / San Francisco, Ca. 94109" is on a piece of cardstock laid in on top of the stamp under an affixed layer of mylar. An amusing Gaglione piece appropriating a 1950s style bar and lounge motif.

William (Bill) Gaglione, aka "Picasso" Gaglione, was a pioneer of the mail art movement of the 1960s. Working under the coded name "Dadaland," Gaglione took an active role in the New York Correspondence School alongside friend Ray Johnson. In the late 1960s Gaglione moved to San Francisco and befriended other mail artists, including Darlene Domel, whom he later married, and Anna "Banana" Lee, with whom he developed "Vile" magazine (1974-1983), a platform for documenting and chronicling international mail artists. According to Lee, "['Vile'] would look like 'Life' [magazine], but on close examination, would reveal its true nature; subtle put-downs of mass media culture with nasty, dada 'up-yours' type messages."

Gaglione formed his first company dedicated to mail art in San Francisco, accordingly named Stamp Francisco. By the 1990s, Stamp Francisco had "blossomed into a multi-million-dollar operation with over 100 employees," and Gaglione had become a curator for the Stamp Art Gallery in San Francisco. In 2010 the Stendhal Gallery in New York held the exhibition "Greetings from Dadaland: Fluxus, Mail Art and Rubber Stamps," which drew from the collections of John Held Jr. and Gaglione, collectively known as "The Fake Picabia Brothers."

Stamp: 2.75 x 1.5 inches. Near Fine.

Stamp Block: 3.75 x 2.75 inches. Near Fine.

[Book #157502]