Ralph Steadman

by Valery Oişteanu

Ralph Steadman is a multidisciplinary artist and a sardonic Welshman who created an exclusive club of honorary "doodaaaists," among them: Samuel Becket, Lawrence Durell, William Burroughs, David Hockney, Saul Steinberg, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter Thompson.As an illustrator, he created his own versions of such classics as "Alice in Wonderland", "Treasure Island" and" Animal Farm", along with more modern works like" Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson and" The Threshold" by Ted Hughes.

All in all, 27 books were written and illustrated by Ralph himself, and he also illustrated another 25 or so books by other authors. Now in his sixties, Steadman began his career as a political cartoonist and through the years diversified into many fields of artistic creativity. Some of his technique, reminiscent of surrealist and post-surrealist experiments, included acrylics and photo montage, quasi-abstract-expressionist drawings, ink and collage combinations, organic sculptures and even a silk-screened print with bullet holes a la Warhol. Each style is a sarcastic commentary or homage to previous avant-garde experiments.

Ralph Steadman with his own doodaaa voice tells his surreal life story this time as Gavin Twinge the painter. This is a true creation of a multiple-personality-syndrome author, a faux-biography actually a triography in which Gavin, one Ralphael Steed and Steadman himself coexist. It starts with a show called "Gastronomic Tutu 3000", an exhibit on booze-related themes due to open simultaneously in London, Paris, Rome and New York. In essence, the artist halted the aging process of the last great wines of the twentieth century simply by drinking them. The overall premise of Gavin Twinge is that Marcel Duchamp¹s experiments on a time, space, and motion were never really completed.

The cast of characters in this ironic & comic book include Duchamp as an elusive genius, Christina (a beggar girl who showers with her clothes on), Vera Steadman (a combination auntie and muse), Dr. Sigmund Gonad, Cosby and Fanny Twinge and Ralphael Steed. Gavin is the outward manifestation of Steadman¹s inner spirit, a hero of our time, subversive and inventive. His madness is to create artifacts that the world can well do without. Gavin gives also a great point to Steadman¹s pointlessness‹a prophet with nothing to prophesy. The artwork illustrating the book includes photos of three-dimensional assemblages and sculptures using the elements of distillery, wine bottles and graffiti.

Nudes are also a favorite subject, along with assemblages of found objects. For example, a found chair gets a human wooden leg from a shoemaker, and a can of paint with dry flowers is called Seated Nude with Grecian Urn. Each of the works is different and has elements of appropriation from other artists, especially surrealists and pop artists. Hiding under multiple personalities, Ralph Steadman/Gavin is a busy guy, churning out creations such as a mobile phone nailed to a tree stump, called Immobile Sculpture. He attempts to paint the words "FUCK THE POPE" on the side of a boat, mocks the fashionable avant-garde and is determined to resolve the Duchampian paradox of retinal versus mind-art, as in the conceptual Blot Symphony (black ink blots on musical sheets), and time/space art in Christ¹s bride stripped bare by her religious mechanics (ALREADY), an obvious visual comment on Duchamp¹s Nude Descending and Large Glass. "There is no solution because there is no problem," said (so Steadman claims) Duchamp, whom references to can be found throughout the book.

Meanwhile, Gavin Twinge battles with philosophical problems of life as art, and reminds us about the comedic side of Ralph/Kafka: "You mean that naked pipes are obscene unless I get a planning permit to display them?" "In a manner of speaking, yes! If pipes are erected with the express purpose of displaying them for themselves alone, not to mention those pendulous toilet items‹the naked bath, the brazen wash basins and the unfamiliar underside of reclining washdown water closets with their beautifully formed buttock-like S-bends‹you are creating an incitement to sexual arousal on unlicensed premises, under the guise of a spurious claim to be displaying art. You could get five years for such contravention of our decency laws."

The conclusion of Gavin Twinge is about the avant garde of the twentieth century and its relevance to the twenty-first century, how the Cubists embraced the bric-a-brac of early twentieth-century ephemera and turn it, through collage, into art. "What those people discover," says Gavin/Ralph, "we are still learning to digest. That may be the quest for an artist unfortunate enough to be alive in the twenty-first century. I rest my angst."

 Ralph Steadman is represented in New York City by Gallery@49   http://www.gallery49.com