Full Description
The Rat Bastard Protective Association was an inflammatory, close-knit community of artists who lived and worked in a building they dubbed Painterland in the Fillmore neighborhood of midcentury San Francisco. The artists who counted themselves among the Rat Bastards-which included Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Michael McClure, and Manuel Neri - exhibited a unique fusion of radicalism, provocation, and community. Geographically isolated from a viable art market and refusing to conform to institutional expectations, they animated broader social and artistic discussions through their work and became a transformative 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
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. California Modernism after World War II 2. The Art of Assemblage, New York-- San Francisco 3. Rat Bastards in Painterland * 4. Artist-Run Galleries of the Fillmore 5. The Rat Bastard Protective Association and the Making of Assemblage 6. "Woodshedding" Years: The RBPA into the 1960s Conclusion Appendix: A Chronology of the Rat Bastard Protective Association and the California Arts Scene, 1944-- 1968 Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index
