Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective AssociationThe Rat Bastard ProtectiveÊAssociation was an inflammatory, close-knit community of artists who livedÊand worked in aÊbuilding they dubbed Painterland in the Fillmore neighborhood of midcentury San Francisco. The artists who counted themselves among the RatÊBastardsÑwhich included Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo,ÊWallyÊHedrick, Michael McClure, and Manuel NeriÑexhibited a unique fusion of radicalism,Êprovocation, and community. Geographically isolated from a viable art market and refusingÊto conform to institutional expectations, theyÊanimated broader social andÊartistic discussions through their work and became aÊtransformative part of American culture over time. Anastasia Aukeman presents new and little-known archival material in this authorized account of these artists and their circle, a colorful cultural milieu that intersected with the broader Beat scene. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
California Modernism after World War II | 25 |
The Art of Assemblage New YorkSan Francisco | 49 |
Rat Bastards in Painterland | 69 |
ArtistRun Galleries of the Fillmore | 103 |
The Rat Bastard Protective Association and the Making | 129 |
The RBPA into the 1960s | 169 |
Common terms and phrases
2322 Fillmore Street Abstract Expressionism Allen Ginsberg American Art Angeles Archives of American Art of Assemblage Artforum ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENTS PERTAINING artworks assemblage art Bancroft Library Bastard Protective Association Batman Gallery Beat Berkeley Bruce Conner California Press California School Cándida Smith City Clay Spohn collage Conner Family Trust Courtesy curator Dilexi Dubuffet Ed Kienholz exhibition Ferus Gallery Figure film George Herms Ibid interview by Paul Jay DeFeo Jean Conner Jerry Burchard Jess Joan Brown Kienholz MacAgy Manuel Neri Michael McClure Modern Art moved Museum of Art Museum of Modern Neri’s Notes to Chapter oral history interview painter painting Paul Karlstrom Peter Selz poetry poets portrait quoted Rat Bastard Rat Bastard Protective Rauschenberg RBPA Rights Society Rodia Rose San Francisco Art San Francisco Museum sculpture Seitz Semina Six Gallery Smithsonian Institution Solnit Spatsa Gallery studio University of California Wallace Berman Wally Hedrick Walter Hopps West Coast York