Respect Authority

In the interesting of proving to you loyal readers that I do much more than read local news and watch reality television (believe it or not, I actually have a day job), I’m taking it upon myself to broaden the scope of my Respect Authority contributions to include art. And no, not in the abstract “Everything is art; Rock of Love is totally art!” sense, I mean like actual art. The kind they put in museums, although I guess in this case it would have to be a fairly free-thinking museum.

I first discovered Edward Kienholz is high school, as an art history textbook I now consider fairly progressive, opined on “The State Hospital,” one of his more famous works.

Although I loved the piece then, for reasons fairly unknown to me and likely indicative of some deep mental disturbance, I have taken little time since to fully explore Kienholz’s other work, primarily because it’d be like watching House on Haunted Hill – on repeat.

As background, Kienholz, who looks a little like the Unabomber on a good hair day, was born in Washington state, where he learned the carpentry skills that made it possible for him to become an installation artist. Indeed, none of the man’s pieces are simplistic – many involve furniture and other large pieces, and some are entire rooms. Kienholz drew inspiration from a variety of sources, some of which are evident in his own life—a stint as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital was undoubtedly his muse for “State Hospital”—and others that clearly tackle broader social or political issues.

Because of his works’ vulgarity and fairly brazen commentary on society today, Kienholz has (according to Wikipedia; I may be ambitious today, but I’m no art history major) been linked to San Francisco’s funk art movement, but “funk” makes me think more of James Brown, who I imagine would probably not have been a big Kienholz fan, so I like to think he stands more on his own. 

Although the word of art is ever-broadening, it’s become increasingly difficult to do something new, or different, or innovative. Kienholz, whose heyday was the 1970s, had the benefit of the times on his side – what was considered vulgar then probably appears on basic cable today – but that hardly detracts from his skill, or mildly grotesque vision. To stand in the presence of one of these pieces is to be willing to get grossed out, and uncomfortable, simply by looking at art. And in my opinion, that’s a pretty significant achievement. 

Creepy Shit: