tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155417120771304823.post7884296586695856312..comments2022-03-26T12:56:52.932-04:00Comments on Tyrus's Eye on Art: Edward Kienholz: A Study in InteractionMusings on Contemporary Art & Artistshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04520629592482077156noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155417120771304823.post-62181793480494101102009-01-12T16:47:00.000-05:002009-01-12T16:47:00.000-05:00Ed Kienholz was a professed atheist, but one must ...Ed Kienholz was a professed atheist, but one must keep in mind that his mother was a devout Christian all her life.<BR/>The moral outrage which Tyrus recognizes in Kienholz's work,is shot through all of his work and suggests the strong influence his mother had on him.<BR/>Case in point: his horrific early 1960's assemblage, "The Illegal Operation", depicts a back alley abortion in quite graphic detail.<BR/>Now in his later years (Kienholz died in 1994), Ed insisted that this was a statement about abortion being aginst the law at that time.<BR/>A close reading of that work and two others suggests otherwise.<BR/>In "The Beanery", Kienholz's 1965tablaux of his favorite Los Angeles watering hole, there is a juke box. The musical selections in the box were whimsaclly typed by Kienholz. Most are amusing pariodies of popular songs of the day. However one, credited to "The Abortionists" is titled "Come to me, my mellon bellied baby" and the flip side is "Bye-bye babies"<BR/>The second work, from 1971, is "The Comercial no. 2". A typical Kienholz living room scene with easy chair, rug, lamp, table and back wall. In front of the chair is a T.V. Everything is dripping with Kienholz"s trade mark liquid polymere coating, just to make sure the viewer understands how ugly this subject is. On the T.V. is glued a rather small strip of paper with the words "Legalize Abortion".<BR/>I contend these are not messages from someone who supports a right to abortion, but one who sees the "procedure" as evil, inhuman and imoral.<BR/>Hardly the work of the person Kienholz tried to present to the world in his later, "76 J.C.'s led the big charade" days.<BR/>You don't have to be a Christian to see that abortion is murder, but they are just about the only ones saying such in public anymore.Leslie Calderahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09101860211832880450noreply@blogger.com