“Disdain for False Authorities”

   It’s hard to believe that it’s been over forty years ago.. but the way I remember it.. is like this. In the early 1980’s I had a studio on a fourth floor walk up at 8th and Chestnut (812), Vince Desiderio had gotten a studio in an adjacent loft next door. Bob Simon had a sculpting studio around the corner on 8th St. We were all recent Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts graduates. We’d gather to have life-drawing sessions.

The drawing sessions led to expanded group discussions about art history, the state of the world, etc. 1984 was approaching, there was an Orwellian fear of impending doom in the air. A made for TV tele-drama  “The Day After” about nuclear holocaust had aired nationally heightening the sense of urgency. Reagan was President. Social programs were being cut. Homelessness was growing. The possibility of nuclear inhalation was increasing. One day, Vince and I were in our studios painting and listening to NPR, when an unsettling radio segment came on about the social and political tsunami hitting the nation. As I recall, Vince and I met halfway between our studios in disbelief to rant about the state of the world. In that moment we decided that we had to do something.. we had to take action. We decided to redirect our art and make it have a larger social significance. We decided to organize a group show with our drawing group friends which would address our concerns. We began to make paintings for an exhibition, which after a series of group discussions took on the name “Disdain for False Authorities” based on the title of Goya etching which was subtitled “when its two against one, stuff straw up your arse.”

After much wrangling, the final group of artists included Vincent Desiderio, Robert Simon, Thomas Sarrantonio, Richard Ranck and myself. Sarrantonio, a landscape painter was a close friend of Vince’s. Ranck had been the Registrar at PAFA where we had all recently graduated. There was an attitude of young angsty rebellion about us. We were fed-up and were going to show the world how it was done. Some of us had gallery affiliation in Philadelphia. Beyond an authoritative government, the gallery world became part of the blanket “authorities” we were railing against. We wanted freedom to paint whatever we wanted to paint.. outside of commercial concerns. The exhibition became the first independent exhibition organized by artists outside of the gallery world in Philadelphia. The artists pooled their resources activating a large network of PR.. radio, newspaper, printing posters and postcards. We bartered with art for exhibition space with a collector/realtor friend, Gene LeFevre, for an empty store front on lower Market St. The exhibition “Disdain for False Authorities” opened to great fanfare early in July 1984 and ran through the summer. The artists took turns manning the space. We interfaced with the public, discussed the state of the world, got high and drunk, and sold paintings directly to local collectors. It was a revolutionary moment. The Summer of 1984. The independent spirit of Philadelphia was alive and well in us. We were young and were going to change the world. Later, we went our separate ways.. raising families and moving to New York, New Paltz, the suburbs of Philly, the Mainline, the South.. but we stayed in touch and we’ve followed on another, and we’ve come to one another’s openings, we’ve supported one another. And now we are old men, dinosaurs, but still making our art. We have fond memories of the past, of our time together back in the day. We want to honor that for what it was/is. And suggest, perhaps the time is right.. to address our concerns for the world again. Knowing with the wisdom of lived experience that there is very little we can do individually to make a difference. We can make our art in the privacy of our studios. But, we still have a belief, however faint and distant, that collectively, together, that Art can make a difference.. Art can change the world for the better.

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Bo