A Visit to the Bill Arnett Collection Part II

James Kalm returns to Atlanta Georgia to wrap up this extraordinary report. In Part II we see major works by the legendary Purvis Young of Miami, and a sneak peek at the preparations for a sculptural exhibition of Lonnie Holley. In this section of the interview, Bill Arnett discusses the influence of this work on the American mainstream with regards to Southern artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• James
• Kalm
• Bill
• Arnett
• collection
• Matt
• Thornton
• Dial
• Purvis
• Young
• Lonnie
• Holly
• Atlanta
• Georgia
• painting
• drawing
• sculpture
• assemblage
• African-American
• folk
• art
• outsider

[StevenChandlerArtist]

they're good artist, Purvis is a great Action Painter.I have some of his paintings and they are truely something else. Dial, we saw a lot of that 20-30 years ago in 2nd year college studio painting classes. I saw some of Hollies Horses at the High and could only think of Debra Butterfield 30 years ago, so they are good artist, even great artist...but what is new here?

Arnett is great promoter, the Don King of the black vernacular.

[jameskalm]

I go to Picasso at Gagosian, Bacon at the Met, and no one asks "what's new here?". Perhaps with these artists, it's less a question of "what's new here" than, how the rest of the commercial so called new art is co-opting their ideas, and repackaging them as "new".

[StevenChandlerArtist]

Picasso, Bacon, of course, they've been around a long time.What bothers me about Arnett is how he spins artist such as Dial and Holliy,bends art history .I don't think the Combine Painters of the 50's were looking at artwork created by dial who was not making art until what ,the 1970's? Lonnie Holley was born in 1950 The Black Mountain artist, they were too concerned with breaking out of the Abstract Expressionist static or wrestling with Picasso.

[jameskalm]

I think what Arnett is saying is not that these New York artist were looking at Dial or Holly or Young, but that they were exposed to the same cultural traditions, a nonEuropean, grassroots, abject type of vernacular art, which was endemic to Southern Black culture.

[apepumpkin08]

James this collector is so great, I learned alot from this footage, I was wondering what Bill Arnett does for a living to be able to amass such a large collection. These pieces were great especially the one with the opened up cans of paint that look like flowers..thanks again

[jameskalm]

He's a dealer/collector, and also publishes books on these artists and their works.

[alabamamichimeko]

picasso looked at Africa

[3589546]

I agree, that alot of that stuff is more authentic and influentual than Picasso's. Will they rewrite art history to correct that? Nah. Cuz day po folk.

[gabrielshaffer]

If you could just see a body of this work and separate yourself from the semantics the art world argues over it, its really hard to deny that they arent remarkable works. Dials major works hit you in the gut, especially in person, its almost impossible to convey it fully through film or photos.

[whitestalkervan33]

there work is clearly influenced by the black south? What did Picasso live in the Black South? Please teach us Professor Bill!

[chickengeorge1236]

Hell ya,TD is pulling form a tradition White folks believe about Black folks , that they have a repressed side of them that seeps out and shows what Humanity is about, this is what Arrnet is talking about , in educating civil society about the past., TD seen to rise to the moment, hummm,

[StevenChandlerArtist]

is thorton dial really drawing from some tradition? BA contradicts himself here by saying this-if blacks, as he said, had no voice going back to slavery, then where is the tradition of what Dial is pulling from? a tradition of oppression? most artist and art start from some source of oppression, even emotards, if I want to read about Gees Bend history according to BA, I have to look at what he has said here and credibility is lost, get the history right, not opinion babble, history=credibility

[chickengeorge1236]

Arnett could get in trouble for being a colonialist who wants to raid the high art world with his Georgia contraptions, by claiming ,"look what i have discovered,!" and here is why you have dismissed it!, i think the writing on the wall is how Arnett describes the way an artist functions , makes work, and carries on with himself or herself, i suspect this is more a culture statement, less an artist one.

[StevenChandlerArtist]

No that's not right, talking the 1950's, they were very much in revolt towards Europe, it wasn't nonEuropean, it was antiEuropean,I mean listen to Arnett, if he is correct, then Blacks had no artistic voice back then, why would these "New York Artist" have anything to do with them, they didn't, they didn't exists Rauschenberg/Johns wanted to piss off the drippers and the girations. You are the 2 who bring up and compare to Picasso.Why?

[StevenChandlerArtist]

right CG,Dial is just not that strong of an artist visually,overworked,titles to his work are strong,heard a rumor that Arnett may have title some.Seen many an artist overworked paintings like Dial,Holley and the assemblage, give any artist access to a junkyard,something is going to happen. I trashed my years of tetanus art from my families burned, house the two dont warrant the hype as apposed to say Doyle/ Traylor, truly Black Vernacular.How many of those does Arnett have in his warehouse?

[StevenChandlerArtist]

good debate, but I have to say this as well,talkin' about blues? listen to traditional spiritual irish church music anglo saxon gospel, played in the churches while the slaves worked the fields.What did they have to absorb? White spiritual musics roots to the blues is just as important as African traditions, Arnett needs to look into Alan Lomax if he is going to cookie cut the history of the blues...A dealer has to promote his artist, but with these artist, there is no need to fabricate history