Where the phrase "disdain for false authorities" comes from
Philadelphia, 1984 (if memory serves). I was a newcomer to the city, and I had that fresh, beginner's excitement about living in a city for the first time (having been a suburban Jersey
girl most of my life until then). I was thinking about going to art school but had only a vague notion of what it was I wanted to do in art. It was on Market Street, I think, that I came across an exhibition of paintings in a large, disused store-front. I remember two of the painters on exhibit: Bo Bartlett and Vincent Desidario. Both had recently finished at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and both had taken up a style of big, long, slightly macho, History-inflected painting. Influenced, no doubt, by Sidney Goodman who was teaching at the Academy then.
The name of the exhibition was "Disdain for False Authorities"--a phrase that sort of seared itself into the brain pan. It describes, I think, a very healthy stance to adopt when one is thinking about going to art school where there are all sorts of folk trying to sell you their brand of the "truth" in art.
I wasn't grabbed by the paintings in the show, really. But what did endure was a recognition and respect for painters who take seriously the making of paintings, the craft of the art. Love of materials is a big, big thing. See also Albert Goldbarth's poem, "1400", in the October issue of POETRY (Chicago), which takes on the subject of the stuff of paint and the alchemy therein that all painters hope for (even the ones with the bumps in their cheeks--that's their tongues--come on folks, admit it....you do!).
girl most of my life until then). I was thinking about going to art school but had only a vague notion of what it was I wanted to do in art. It was on Market Street, I think, that I came across an exhibition of paintings in a large, disused store-front. I remember two of the painters on exhibit: Bo Bartlett and Vincent Desidario. Both had recently finished at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and both had taken up a style of big, long, slightly macho, History-inflected painting. Influenced, no doubt, by Sidney Goodman who was teaching at the Academy then.
The name of the exhibition was "Disdain for False Authorities"--a phrase that sort of seared itself into the brain pan. It describes, I think, a very healthy stance to adopt when one is thinking about going to art school where there are all sorts of folk trying to sell you their brand of the "truth" in art.
I wasn't grabbed by the paintings in the show, really. But what did endure was a recognition and respect for painters who take seriously the making of paintings, the craft of the art. Love of materials is a big, big thing. See also Albert Goldbarth's poem, "1400", in the October issue of POETRY (Chicago), which takes on the subject of the stuff of paint and the alchemy therein that all painters hope for (even the ones with the bumps in their cheeks--that's their tongues--come on folks, admit it....you do!).
posted by Alice Lyons at 9:15 PM
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I, too, happed upon the Disdain for False Authorities show back in 1984. There were a total of five artists in the show, Bo Bartlett and Vince Desdiderio being the ones I remember. I have continued to follow Bartlett's career as a result of that chance encounter and bought one of his pieces in 1985 when he had a show at the More Gallery in Philadelphia. I saw Bartlett last week -- he spoke for three hours at Studio Incamminiti (a Nelson Shanks painting school in Philly) and we spoke briefly about time that had transpired since 1984. Bartlett continues to hew his own course, with reckless disdain for false authorities -- and he has paid a price for that independence.
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