Fillmore: The Beats in the Western Addition - Revision history

Ccarlsson: fix navigation for new pages

2014-08-13T22:33:01Z

fix navigation for new pages

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	''--cobbled together from three pieces of Rebecca Solnit's writing: "Heretical Constellations," in ''Beat Culture and the New America'' (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995), ''Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era'' (City Lights, 1990), and ''Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism'' (Verso, 2001).''		''--cobbled together from three pieces of Rebecca Solnit's writing: "Heretical Constellations," in ''Beat Culture and the New America'' (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995), ''Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era'' (City Lights, 1990), and ''Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism'' (Verso, 2001).''

	[[~~The Party Pad~~\|Prev. Document]] [[~~Beats~~ in ~~Fillmore~~\|Next Document]]		[[Cosmopolitan Liberalism, Harm, and the Profitable Beat Scene\|Prev. Document]] [[Poetry Readings/Reading Poetry in the San Francisco Bay Area\|Next Document]]

	[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public Art]]		[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public Art]]

Ccarlsson at 23:39, 7 January 2014

2014-01-07T23:39:54Z

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	"We were enjoying the black stores, the black ambience, the black music," recalls McClure. "We had our faces toward them but our butts towards Pacific Heights."		"We were enjoying the black stores, the black ambience, the black music," recalls McClure. "We had our faces toward them but our butts towards Pacific Heights."

	McClure, Robert Duncan and his lover Jess, Bruce and Jean Conner, Wallace and Shirley Berman, Joan and Bill Brown, Jay DeFeo, ~~[[Beats in Fillmore \|~~Wally Hedrick]], Stan Brakhage, George Herms, John Wieners and [[Kenneth Rexroth and Barcelona by the Bay\|Kenneth Rexroth]] are among those who made their home in the neighborhood at some point in the 1950s. It was a predominantly African-American neighborhood from Haight to California Streets, Van Ness to Masonic, and most of the African-Americans had arrived not long before, during World War II. The imprisonment of the neighborhood's [[Japanese in Western Addition\|Japanese-descent population]] was part of what opened the area to them.		McClure, Robert Duncan and his lover Jess, Bruce and Jean Conner, Wallace and Shirley Berman, Joan and Bill Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Stan Brakhage, George Herms, John Wieners and [[Kenneth Rexroth and Barcelona by the Bay\|Kenneth Rexroth]] are among those who made their home in the neighborhood at some point in the 1950s. It was a predominantly African-American neighborhood from Haight to California Streets, Van Ness to Masonic, and most of the African-Americans had arrived not long before, during World War II. The imprisonment of the neighborhood's [[Japanese in Western Addition\|Japanese-descent population]] was part of what opened the area to them.

	Through the 1950s central Fillmore Street was the "Harlem of the West," with nightclubs, bars, theaters and more fostering a dynamic cultural life. Much of what is now known oxymoronically as "Lower Pacific Heights" was then part of the Fillmore or Western Addition. Places like Red Powell's Shoe Parlor (1552 Fillmore) displayed signed photographs by Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday and other stars who played in the nearby clubs (saved by photographer Lewis Watts, some of these photos can still be seen at Reggie Pettus's New Chicago Barbershop #3, across Fillmore Street).		Through the 1950s central Fillmore Street was the "Harlem of the West," with nightclubs, bars, theaters and more fostering a dynamic cultural life. Much of what is now known oxymoronically as "Lower Pacific Heights" was then part of the Fillmore or Western Addition. Places like Red Powell's Shoe Parlor (1552 Fillmore) displayed signed photographs by Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday and other stars who played in the nearby clubs (saved by photographer Lewis Watts, some of these photos can still be seen at Reggie Pettus's New Chicago Barbershop #3, across Fillmore Street).

Ccarlsson: moved photo here

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	A flowering of anomalies and apostasies, the people tend to be exceptional in the most literal terms--thus one can say that there was a distinction between the no-nonsense abstract painters of the period and the mystical-poetic assemblage artists--except that the greatest painter of the era, Jay DeFeo, was something of a mystic in her work, hung out with the assemblagists and made a few immensely influential collages and assemblages. This fecund period is impossible to describe in terms of the neat linear geneologies of a genre or medium. Cross-pollinations were so central and those working in each medium drew on friends and theories from other media. Also, some of the most stellar figures worked in several media.		A flowering of anomalies and apostasies, the people tend to be exceptional in the most literal terms--thus one can say that there was a distinction between the no-nonsense abstract painters of the period and the mystical-poetic assemblage artists--except that the greatest painter of the era, Jay DeFeo, was something of a mystic in her work, hung out with the assemblagists and made a few immensely influential collages and assemblages. This fecund period is impossible to describe in terms of the neat linear geneologies of a genre or medium. Cross-pollinations were so central and those working in each medium drew on friends and theories from other media. Also, some of the most stellar figures worked in several media.

			[[Image:beattour$wally-hedrick-in-ghost-house.jpg]]

			'''Wally Hedrick in his studio at the Ghost House, Sutter and Franklin, 1952.'''

			''Photo: Patricia Jordan''

	Berman counted some of L.A.'s great jazz musicians among his friends, and his first extant works of art are academic-surrealist drawings of jazz figures within the iconography of their world, one of which became a bebop album cover. An homage to Charlie Parker would show up fifteen years later in one of the issues of Semina, the experimental publication he produced, and throughout his life's work, literature and music would inform his visual work far more than visual art traditions--visual work which included photography, film, printmaking, mail art, the vast array of collage/print hybrids made on an early photocopier, assemblage, site-specific text pieces, perhaps installation....		Berman counted some of L.A.'s great jazz musicians among his friends, and his first extant works of art are academic-surrealist drawings of jazz figures within the iconography of their world, one of which became a bebop album cover. An homage to Charlie Parker would show up fifteen years later in one of the issues of Semina, the experimental publication he produced, and throughout his life's work, literature and music would inform his visual work far more than visual art traditions--visual work which included photography, film, printmaking, mail art, the vast array of collage/print hybrids made on an early photocopier, assemblage, site-specific text pieces, perhaps installation....

Lisaruth: changed italicisation on book titles at end of article

2009-10-12T21:02:28Z

changed italicisation on book titles at end of article

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	Berman counted some of L.A.'s great jazz musicians among his friends, and his first extant works of art are academic-surrealist drawings of jazz figures within the iconography of their world, one of which became a bebop album cover. An homage to Charlie Parker would show up fifteen years later in one of the issues of Semina, the experimental publication he produced, and throughout his life's work, literature and music would inform his visual work far more than visual art traditions--visual work which included photography, film, printmaking, mail art, the vast array of collage/print hybrids made on an early photocopier, assemblage, site-specific text pieces, perhaps installation....		Berman counted some of L.A.'s great jazz musicians among his friends, and his first extant works of art are academic-surrealist drawings of jazz figures within the iconography of their world, one of which became a bebop album cover. An homage to Charlie Parker would show up fifteen years later in one of the issues of Semina, the experimental publication he produced, and throughout his life's work, literature and music would inform his visual work far more than visual art traditions--visual work which included photography, film, printmaking, mail art, the vast array of collage/print hybrids made on an early photocopier, assemblage, site-specific text pieces, perhaps installation....

	Such an interdisciplinary approach is one of the things that typifies the period: George Herms evolved into an assemblage artist by making objects to bear his poetry, while the poet Michael McClure came to San Francisco in 1954 to study with abstract-expressionist painters Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko at the California School of Fine Arts (now the ~~S.F.~~ Art Institute, 800 Chestnut); finding them gone, he went on to use the ideas of gesture and action painting in the development of his distinctive poetic voice.		Such an interdisciplinary approach is one of the things that typifies the period: George Herms evolved into an assemblage artist by making objects to bear his poetry, while the poet Michael McClure came to San Francisco in 1954 to study with abstract expressionist painters Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute at 800 Chestnut); finding them gone, he went on to use the ideas of gesture and action painting in the development of his distinctive poetic voice.

	Another characteristic of the period is the lack of critics, curators, and other outsiders to sift through the abundance and set standards and draw lines. Success was nowhere on the horizon, and its absence freed up the artists to be as experimental, as outrageous, as personal as they liked, an exhilarating if not always an enviable condition. Between the looming cold war and the lack of an audience, there was little evident future for their work, which was made, like music, for the moment and their fellow artists. The artists were remarkable for an integrity, a commitment to working for its own sake, and their history is littered not only with acts of sabotage, but with abandoned and destroyed works, ephemeral gestures, and unstable materials. They established an idea of success that has everything to do with the calibre of one's acts and nothing to do with recognition, though some of them eventually became successes on both counts.		Another characteristic of the period is the lack of critics, curators, and other outsiders to sift through the abundance and set standards and draw lines. Success was nowhere on the horizon, and its absence freed up the artists to be as experimental, as outrageous, as personal as they liked, an exhilarating if not always an enviable condition. Between the looming cold war and the lack of an audience, there was little evident future for their work, which was made, like music, for the moment and their fellow artists. The artists were remarkable for an integrity, a commitment to working for its own sake, and their history is littered not only with acts of sabotage, but with abandoned and destroyed works, ephemeral gestures, and unstable materials. They established an idea of success that has everything to do with the calibre of one's acts and nothing to do with recognition, though some of them eventually became successes on both counts.
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	But for most of the artists, the indiscriminate revelry of the 1960s was more interesting than inviting. By the early sixties, Jess had already withdrawn from the turbulence of public culture into a more selective social life, and most of the artists had retreated from the urban epicenters. The kind of community they had created as a way of survival was no longer so necessary in a more tolerant, diverse society, and the experiments they had initiated collectively continued independently. The creation of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965 and subsequent growth of nonprofit arts organizations would assume, for better and worse, much of the responsibility of maintaining an artistic infrastructure, leaving artists to the creation of art rather than culture. And the art is remarkable on its own grounds.		But for most of the artists, the indiscriminate revelry of the 1960s was more interesting than inviting. By the early sixties, Jess had already withdrawn from the turbulence of public culture into a more selective social life, and most of the artists had retreated from the urban epicenters. The kind of community they had created as a way of survival was no longer so necessary in a more tolerant, diverse society, and the experiments they had initiated collectively continued independently. The creation of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965 and subsequent growth of nonprofit arts organizations would assume, for better and worse, much of the responsibility of maintaining an artistic infrastructure, leaving artists to the creation of art rather than culture. And the art is remarkable on its own grounds.

	''--cobbled together from three pieces of Rebecca Solnit's writing, "Heretical Constellations," in Beat Culture and the New America (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995), "Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era" (City Lights, 1990), and "Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism" (Verso, 2001).''		''--cobbled together from three pieces of Rebecca Solnit's writing: "Heretical Constellations," in ''Beat Culture and the New America'' (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995), ''Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era'' (City Lights, 1990), and ''Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism'' (Verso, 2001).''

	[[The Party Pad\|Prev. Document]] [[Beats in Fillmore\|Next Document]]		[[The Party Pad\|Prev. Document]] [[Beats in Fillmore\|Next Document]]

	[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public Art]]		[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public Art]]

Ccarlsson: Protected "Fillmore: The Beats in the Western Addition": finished essay [edit=sysop:move=sysop]

2009-01-02T06:31:01Z

Protected "Fillmore: The Beats in the Western Addition": finished essay [edit=sysop:move=sysop]

← Older revision	Revision as of 23:31, 1 January 2009
(No difference)

Ccarlsson: PC and protected

2009-01-02T06:30:47Z

PC and protected

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			'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''

			''by Rebecca Solnit''

	[[Image:Beattour%246-gallery-in-2001.jpg]]		[[Image:Beattour%246-gallery-in-2001.jpg]]

Ccarlsson at 08:07, 25 August 2008

2008-08-25T08:07:57Z

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	[[The Party Pad\|Prev. Document]] [[Beats in Fillmore\|Next Document]]		[[The Party Pad\|Prev. Document]] [[Beats in Fillmore\|Next Document]]

	[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public ~~art~~]]		[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public Art]]

Lisaruth at 05:08, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T05:08:46Z

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	[[The Party Pad\|Prev. Document]] [[Beats in Fillmore\|Next Document]]		[[The Party Pad\|Prev. Document]] [[Beats in Fillmore\|Next Document]]

	[[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach~~]] [[category:beats~~]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public art]]		[[category:beats]] [[category:Western Addition]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:dissent]] [[category:Public art]]

Ccarlsson at 23:47, 6 August 2008

2008-08-06T23:47:02Z

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	In those days the Fillmore was being ravaged by [[Fillmore Redevelopment\|urban renewal]]--nicknamed in that time and place "negro removal." As the Victorian homes were smashed into splinters in the name of progress, Conner and Herms salvaged material for their assemblage sculptures, which can be seen not only in their aesthetics and politics but in their very materials as part of that place.		In those days the Fillmore was being ravaged by [[Fillmore Redevelopment\|urban renewal]]--nicknamed in that time and place "negro removal." As the Victorian homes were smashed into splinters in the name of progress, Conner and Herms salvaged material for their assemblage sculptures, which can be seen not only in their aesthetics and politics but in their very materials as part of that place.

	San Francisco appears in nearly everyone's accounts as a sanctuary during the 1950s, a place where the conservatism and conformity of the McCarthy era weren't so stifling, a tolerant, cosmopolitan city whose tone had been set by the festive adventurers of the Gold Rush. If Los Angeles was the American city of the future, San Francisco was in many ways like a European city of the past with its Italian cafes, its small, pedestrian scale, its charming Victorian architecture. For many artists the swirling fog, innumerable vistas and places like the decrepit amusement park [[~~Cursed Condos and a Haunted Safeway La Playa between Fulton & Balboa Sts.~~\|Playland at the Beach]] gave it a particular magic.		San Francisco appears in nearly everyone's accounts as a sanctuary during the 1950s, a place where the conservatism and conformity of the McCarthy era weren't so stifling, a tolerant, cosmopolitan city whose tone had been set by the festive adventurers of the Gold Rush. If Los Angeles was the American city of the future, San Francisco was in many ways like a European city of the past with its Italian cafes, its small, pedestrian scale, its charming Victorian architecture. For many artists the swirling fog, innumerable vistas and places like the decrepit amusement park [[Playland\|Playland at the Beach]] gave it a particular magic.

	Perhaps because outside support was so abysmally lacking in that time and place, the subculture was distinguished by its friendships, correspondences, collaborations, gestures of support, and artist-run galleries, presses and publications, by artists who served as each other's audience and who worked to create a cultural infrastructure, a community. It was a culture that brought together artists, poets and filmmakers in San Francisco. It was a period of mixing it up, of bringing ideas and epiphanies from one medium to another, a period when not only jazz (and later, rhythm and blues and rock'n'roll), but esoteric and occult traditions, contemporary politics, popular culture, mass media, drugs, sex, and non-European traditions as well as dada and surrealism influenced and appeared in the work. From it emerged the great experimental films of Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Larry Jordan, Kenneth Anger, the paintings of Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Jess, Artie Richer, Joan Brown, the collages and assemblages of Conner, Jess, Berman, George Herms, Edward Kienholz, and an array of great poetry by Jack Spicer, David Meltzer, Robert Duncan, Michael McClure, tied to the other poets' circles that included Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Bob Kaufman, and many more.		Perhaps because outside support was so abysmally lacking in that time and place, the subculture was distinguished by its friendships, correspondences, collaborations, gestures of support, and artist-run galleries, presses and publications, by artists who served as each other's audience and who worked to create a cultural infrastructure, a community. It was a culture that brought together artists, poets and filmmakers in San Francisco. It was a period of mixing it up, of bringing ideas and epiphanies from one medium to another, a period when not only jazz (and later, rhythm and blues and rock'n'roll), but esoteric and occult traditions, contemporary politics, popular culture, mass media, drugs, sex, and non-European traditions as well as dada and surrealism influenced and appeared in the work. From it emerged the great experimental films of Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Larry Jordan, Kenneth Anger, the paintings of Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Jess, Artie Richer, Joan Brown, the collages and assemblages of Conner, Jess, Berman, George Herms, Edward Kienholz, and an array of great poetry by Jack Spicer, David Meltzer, Robert Duncan, Michael McClure, tied to the other poets' circles that included Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Bob Kaufman, and many more.

Ccarlsson at 01:03, 6 August 2008

2008-08-06T01:03:56Z

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	[[Image:Beattour%246-gallery-in-2001.jpg]]		[[Image:Beattour%246-gallery-in-2001.jpg]]

	'''Site of The 6 Gallery, 2001, 3119 Fillmore St.'''		'''Site of The [[The 6 Gallery\|6 Gallery]], 2001, 3119 Fillmore St.'''

	''Photo: Chris Carlsson''		''Photo: Chris Carlsson''