----
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'Should the artist be a man of the word? Paul Thek came up in the '50s and '60s, when it was hard to answer "no," when "avant-garde artist" became a profession, an idea that repulsed him. Wrestling with this question in 1979, Thek wrote to a priest, "I am OK, still trying to be 'an artist' in the secular world . . . as you know, the world is the world, very 'worldly,' etc., etc." He longed for recognition, but had little respect for posturing or artistic orthodoxies, retreating to Europe - and even, late in his life, to a monastery - for long periods.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Curator and critic Richard Flood called Thek's career one of the great failures of contemporary art, and not-so-famous artists may cherish the nobility he confers on obscurity. But some famous artists (Mike Kelley, Robert Gober, Kiki Smith) seem to favor Thek as well, for providing an alternative to the abstraction/Pop/Minimalism bloodline, a source more idiosyncratic than Oedipal. Like Ray Johnson, Thek was an artist's artist - an insider rather than an outsider - despite the naive painting style he affected.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Thek (pronounced "Tek") possessed a wide range of technical skills and an even wider range of aesthetic interests and intellectual concerns. His work was often in advance even of the avant-garde of the time, and though he sold some paintings and sculptures, he never enjoyed much success in his lifetime. (He died of AIDS at age 55 in 1988.) This may have been due in part to difficult, sometimes off-putting subject matter. But Thek himself was difficult, according to Carolyn Alexander of the New York gallery Alexander and Bonin, which represents his work: "Thek was not the easiest person, and his gallery relationships often foundered." Alexander's partner, Ted Bonin, elaborates: "He didn't really care if the art world liked his work, or liked him."' -- Katy Sigel, Artforum
Selected Works:
The Technological Reliquaries, late '60s
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Paul Thek began a group of "meat" pieces in the mid-1960s. They evolved primarily from two negative impulses: a reaction against the clean, cool forms of Minimalist and Pop Art and, more importantly, his revulsion with U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Both impulses positioned the artist in opposition to the mainstream current, where he continued to stand until his death from AIDS in 1988.
'The meat pieces suggest the fragile hold on life that is our shared human condition. Generally encased in vitrines resembling both an incubator and a glass casket, these pieces lead the viewer to contemplate the literal and spiritual mortification of the flesh that haunted Thek throughout his career as an artist.' -- Walker Arts Center
"I was amused at the idea of meat under Plexiglas because I thought it made fun of the scene--where the name of the game seemed to be 'how cool you can be' and 'how refined.' Nobody ever mentioned anything that seemed real. The world was falling apart, anyone could see it." -- Paul Thek, 1981
Arm, 1967
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Thek completed the piece Arm between 1966 and 1967. Encased in a Lucite box reminiscent of reliquaries that contain the bones of saints, the sculpture made of wood, wax, leather, metal and paint depicts, with startling realism, the arm of a soldier from the age of the Roman Empire, hacked off at the shoulder. e look at the larger-than-life statues of warriors whose names once stiffened the spines and lifted the hearts of all who heard them, and somehow they are just statues, no longer much more than bronze or marble. But in Thek's sad, disembodied arm, left on some ancient field of the artist's imagining, we see a monument that despite its ancient trappings, defies time. This is an unsentimental memorial to horror and loss—war's unrelenting companions—a grim reminder that even as the bands play on, some will no longer march.' -- Smithsonian Magazine
The Tomb - Death of a Hippie, 1967
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
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'In 1967, Paul Thek made one of the great, lost works in American art. The Tomb — Death of a Hippie was a large pink ziggurat containing a body cast of the artist attired in pink clothes and shoes. The tongue lolls from an opened mouth as in a swoon, the fingers of the right hand have been severed, and scattered around the body are offerings for the afterlife. The installation presented the artist as an eroticized, victimized vagabond; a creature shaped by Vietnam and Altamont, Kent State and Hair—a martyred hero for a new lost generation. In 1970, The Tomb came to Minneapolis in the Walker-organized exhibition Figures and Environments, which was installed in the auditorium of Dayton’s department store during construction of the Walker Art Center building. Years later, a badly damaged cast of the “hippie” was returned to Thek after an exhibition, but he refused to receive it; after storing it without pay, the shipper presumably destroyed it.' -- Richard Flood, Walker Art Center
Dwarf Parade Table, 1969
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Apfel, 1969
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Document, 1969 (Paul Thek and Edwin Klein)
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Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'At the installation stage of his career, and until the end of his life, Paul Thek questioned the validity of the idea of solo authorship: its negation was at the heart of his work. He was thinking, in the context of the time, of a group political ethos. Creativity, for him, was an essentially collaborative event somewhat relating to the pyramid and cathedral builders. He saw each one of his installations as the spontaneous result of a group with shared sensibilities, thinking as one mind.
'A work of art much in the same vein, the Document follows the Dutch artist Edwin Klein’s original concept of what a book should be and Thek’s wish to turn his diary into a catalog—a three-dimensional album, each double page a photograph of a still life with pictures, drawings, books, cards and objects laid out over newsprint. The “Document” has the dimensions of an open newspaper, actual size. Manipulated by both artists, the pictures and the objects change from one image to the next. As the various elements are placed at different spots on the double page, turning the pages keeps everything in a constant accelerating motion.' -- Janos Gat Gallery
Untitled (Baby), 1973
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Papier maché, bemalt und gefirnist, 13.5 x 17 x 14.5 cm
Ark, Pyramid, Easter, 1973
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Thek began making spatial installations in 1970. They brought the viewer into a world full of declarations of faith and Thek’s private mythologies. The experience of an environment was shaped by a processional progression through different stops, as well as the opportunity to linger in various resting-places. Thek saw this as ‘human’ art, because ‘the first thing to be done is to make the environment more human; only then can you look at art. And you do that naturally by dimming the light, giving the people chairs to sit on and not allowing any other restrictions.’ ... Thek had so far removed himself from the idea of the artist as author that he not only tried to explode the spatial mass and in retrospect resolutely challenged the functionality of the museum, but also extended the process of the work’s origin to the artistic cooperative and the visitors to the gallery.' -- Paul Thek Research Project
The Personal Effects of the Pied Piper, 1975
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'By the late 60s everyone knew the work of Paul Thek. Pictures of his work appeared in art magazines. Critics interviewed him. In 1966 Susan Sontag even dedicated her greatest book, Against Interpretation, to him. But then what? ‘He fell wounded,’ reads one of his notebook entries from 1979. ‘Some tried to help him up, but he was wounded to the core, they tried - then, one by one - they left him, drifted away into their own lives, their own hoped for successes, and failures.
About 'The Tomb'
About 'The Procession'
About 'The Meat Pieces'
About 'The Fish Man'
About 'The Last Show'
Further
Paul Thek Project
'It's About Time: Paul Thek'
'Paul Thek Revised: The Missing Years'
Book: 'Paul Thek: Artist's Artist'
'Peter Schjeldahl on Paul Thek: Audio Slide Show'
'Paul Thek, in Process - Documentation'
'Thek’s “As If”'
Paul Thek's Teaching Notes
'Finding Paul Thek's Tomb'
Paul Thek's “If you don’t like this book you don’t like me”
Paul Thek, in Process (Luzern)
A Document made by Paul Thek and Edwin Klein
*
p.s. Hey. So, I'm traveling from Poitiers to Paris this morning, and that strikes me dumb for today, so have a rerun post, enjoy hopefully, and I'll be back with a new post and my usual blah blah tomorrow. See you then.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Should the artist be a man of the word? Paul Thek came up in the '50s and '60s, when it was hard to answer "no," when "avant-garde artist" became a profession, an idea that repulsed him. Wrestling with this question in 1979, Thek wrote to a priest, "I am OK, still trying to be 'an artist' in the secular world . . . as you know, the world is the world, very 'worldly,' etc., etc." He longed for recognition, but had little respect for posturing or artistic orthodoxies, retreating to Europe - and even, late in his life, to a monastery - for long periods.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Curator and critic Richard Flood called Thek's career one of the great failures of contemporary art, and not-so-famous artists may cherish the nobility he confers on obscurity. But some famous artists (Mike Kelley, Robert Gober, Kiki Smith) seem to favor Thek as well, for providing an alternative to the abstraction/Pop/Minimalism bloodline, a source more idiosyncratic than Oedipal. Like Ray Johnson, Thek was an artist's artist - an insider rather than an outsider - despite the naive painting style he affected.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Thek (pronounced "Tek") possessed a wide range of technical skills and an even wider range of aesthetic interests and intellectual concerns. His work was often in advance even of the avant-garde of the time, and though he sold some paintings and sculptures, he never enjoyed much success in his lifetime. (He died of AIDS at age 55 in 1988.) This may have been due in part to difficult, sometimes off-putting subject matter. But Thek himself was difficult, according to Carolyn Alexander of the New York gallery Alexander and Bonin, which represents his work: "Thek was not the easiest person, and his gallery relationships often foundered." Alexander's partner, Ted Bonin, elaborates: "He didn't really care if the art world liked his work, or liked him."' -- Katy Sigel, Artforum
Selected Works:
The Technological Reliquaries, late '60s
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Paul Thek began a group of "meat" pieces in the mid-1960s. They evolved primarily from two negative impulses: a reaction against the clean, cool forms of Minimalist and Pop Art and, more importantly, his revulsion with U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Both impulses positioned the artist in opposition to the mainstream current, where he continued to stand until his death from AIDS in 1988.
'The meat pieces suggest the fragile hold on life that is our shared human condition. Generally encased in vitrines resembling both an incubator and a glass casket, these pieces lead the viewer to contemplate the literal and spiritual mortification of the flesh that haunted Thek throughout his career as an artist.' -- Walker Arts Center
"I was amused at the idea of meat under Plexiglas because I thought it made fun of the scene--where the name of the game seemed to be 'how cool you can be' and 'how refined.' Nobody ever mentioned anything that seemed real. The world was falling apart, anyone could see it." -- Paul Thek, 1981
Arm, 1967
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Thek completed the piece Arm between 1966 and 1967. Encased in a Lucite box reminiscent of reliquaries that contain the bones of saints, the sculpture made of wood, wax, leather, metal and paint depicts, with startling realism, the arm of a soldier from the age of the Roman Empire, hacked off at the shoulder. e look at the larger-than-life statues of warriors whose names once stiffened the spines and lifted the hearts of all who heard them, and somehow they are just statues, no longer much more than bronze or marble. But in Thek's sad, disembodied arm, left on some ancient field of the artist's imagining, we see a monument that despite its ancient trappings, defies time. This is an unsentimental memorial to horror and loss—war's unrelenting companions—a grim reminder that even as the bands play on, some will no longer march.' -- Smithsonian Magazine
The Tomb - Death of a Hippie, 1967
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Paul Thek working on The Tomb in his studio, circa 1966. Photo © Peter Hujar
Clik here to view.
'In 1967, Paul Thek made one of the great, lost works in American art. The Tomb — Death of a Hippie was a large pink ziggurat containing a body cast of the artist attired in pink clothes and shoes. The tongue lolls from an opened mouth as in a swoon, the fingers of the right hand have been severed, and scattered around the body are offerings for the afterlife. The installation presented the artist as an eroticized, victimized vagabond; a creature shaped by Vietnam and Altamont, Kent State and Hair—a martyred hero for a new lost generation. In 1970, The Tomb came to Minneapolis in the Walker-organized exhibition Figures and Environments, which was installed in the auditorium of Dayton’s department store during construction of the Walker Art Center building. Years later, a badly damaged cast of the “hippie” was returned to Thek after an exhibition, but he refused to receive it; after storing it without pay, the shipper presumably destroyed it.' -- Richard Flood, Walker Art Center
Dwarf Parade Table, 1969
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Apfel, 1969
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Document, 1969 (Paul Thek and Edwin Klein)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'At the installation stage of his career, and until the end of his life, Paul Thek questioned the validity of the idea of solo authorship: its negation was at the heart of his work. He was thinking, in the context of the time, of a group political ethos. Creativity, for him, was an essentially collaborative event somewhat relating to the pyramid and cathedral builders. He saw each one of his installations as the spontaneous result of a group with shared sensibilities, thinking as one mind.
'A work of art much in the same vein, the Document follows the Dutch artist Edwin Klein’s original concept of what a book should be and Thek’s wish to turn his diary into a catalog—a three-dimensional album, each double page a photograph of a still life with pictures, drawings, books, cards and objects laid out over newsprint. The “Document” has the dimensions of an open newspaper, actual size. Manipulated by both artists, the pictures and the objects change from one image to the next. As the various elements are placed at different spots on the double page, turning the pages keeps everything in a constant accelerating motion.' -- Janos Gat Gallery
Untitled (Baby), 1973
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Papier maché, bemalt und gefirnist, 13.5 x 17 x 14.5 cm
Ark, Pyramid, Easter, 1973
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Thek began making spatial installations in 1970. They brought the viewer into a world full of declarations of faith and Thek’s private mythologies. The experience of an environment was shaped by a processional progression through different stops, as well as the opportunity to linger in various resting-places. Thek saw this as ‘human’ art, because ‘the first thing to be done is to make the environment more human; only then can you look at art. And you do that naturally by dimming the light, giving the people chairs to sit on and not allowing any other restrictions.’ ... Thek had so far removed himself from the idea of the artist as author that he not only tried to explode the spatial mass and in retrospect resolutely challenged the functionality of the museum, but also extended the process of the work’s origin to the artistic cooperative and the visitors to the gallery.' -- Paul Thek Research Project
The Personal Effects of the Pied Piper, 1975
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'By the late 60s everyone knew the work of Paul Thek. Pictures of his work appeared in art magazines. Critics interviewed him. In 1966 Susan Sontag even dedicated her greatest book, Against Interpretation, to him. But then what? ‘He fell wounded,’ reads one of his notebook entries from 1979. ‘Some tried to help him up, but he was wounded to the core, they tried - then, one by one - they left him, drifted away into their own lives, their own hoped for successes, and failures.
'By the early 70s, Thek had abandoned conventional art making in favor of making events which he called processions. Only photographs remain of the Processions. Influenced by the films of Jack Smith and the theatre of Robert Wilson, Thek pushed improvisation to its limits. The word ‘procession’ - a stabilisation of the term ‘process’ - and the journey taken through his installations referred to the liturgical and celebratory in equal measure. ... Around 1975-6, his luck gave out. By 1978 he was working in a New York supermarket, then cleaning in a hospital. After that, his hopes of entering a monastery were dashed by a doctor’s confirmation of his status; he was HIV Positive.
'By this time Thek had been reasserting his dedication to the naive, as a means of making art as well as leading one’s life, with the series of bronze sculptures called The Personal Effects of the Pied Piper, regarded as a lay saint who allowed the rats to devour his possessions. As usual, his hyper-active mind refused to settle on a single theme for very long, and the Piper became confused with Mr Bojangles (from the song by Jerry Jeff Walker) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Somehow the Tar Baby (from Uncle Remus) also became part of the mix. ... Thek’s approach was that of a man at the end of his tether. Did he ever relax into the situation as it was, or did he continue to look straight through it to something else, somewhere else, as he seemed to have done for the whole of his strange, confused, cryptic, inspiring life?' -- Stuart Morgan, Frieze----
'By this time Thek had been reasserting his dedication to the naive, as a means of making art as well as leading one’s life, with the series of bronze sculptures called The Personal Effects of the Pied Piper, regarded as a lay saint who allowed the rats to devour his possessions. As usual, his hyper-active mind refused to settle on a single theme for very long, and the Piper became confused with Mr Bojangles (from the song by Jerry Jeff Walker) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Somehow the Tar Baby (from Uncle Remus) also became part of the mix. ... Thek’s approach was that of a man at the end of his tether. Did he ever relax into the situation as it was, or did he continue to look straight through it to something else, somewhere else, as he seemed to have done for the whole of his strange, confused, cryptic, inspiring life?' -- Stuart Morgan, Frieze
About 'The Tomb'
About 'The Procession'
About 'The Meat Pieces'
About 'The Fish Man'
About 'The Last Show'
Further
Paul Thek Project
'It's About Time: Paul Thek'
'Paul Thek Revised: The Missing Years'
Book: 'Paul Thek: Artist's Artist'
'Peter Schjeldahl on Paul Thek: Audio Slide Show'
'Paul Thek, in Process - Documentation'
'Thek’s “As If”'
Paul Thek's Teaching Notes
'Finding Paul Thek's Tomb'
Paul Thek's “If you don’t like this book you don’t like me”
Paul Thek, in Process (Luzern)
A Document made by Paul Thek and Edwin Klein
*
p.s. Hey. So, I'm traveling from Poitiers to Paris this morning, and that strikes me dumb for today, so have a rerun post, enjoy hopefully, and I'll be back with a new post and my usual blah blah tomorrow. See you then.