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The '''Rat Bastard Protective Association''' was an informal group of [[Beat Generation|Beat]] and [[Funk art|Funk]] artists who worked and exhibited together in San Francisco, California from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s. The association was founded by and the group's name was coined by [[Bruce Conner]] in 1959.<ref>Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Interview with Bruce Conner, Conducted by Paul Karlstrom in San Francisco, California, August 12, 1974: <blockquote>
'''Rat Bastard Protective Association''' is an underground, arts organization. It was created by the artist, [[Bruce Conner]], in [[San Francisco]], [[California]] in [[1959]].<ref>Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Interview with Bruce Conner, Conducted by Paul Karlstrom in San Francisco, California, August 12, 1974: <blockquote>
"Bruce Conner: I sent announcements to eight or nine people, ten people probably, telling them that they were all members of the Rat Bastard Protective Association. I was president. They should pay their dues. The next meeting was scheduled at my house. Then it was scheduled after that for every couple of weeks at Fred Martin's, or Joan Brown's, or Wally's house, or wherever."
"Bruce Conner: I sent announcements to eight or nine people, ten people probably, telling them that they were all members of the Rat Bastard Protective Association. I was president. They should pay their dues. The next meeting was scheduled at my house. Then it was scheduled after that for every couple of weeks at Fred Martin's, or Joan Brown's, or Wally's house, or wherever."
</blockquote></ref> Its original members include: [[Manuel Neri]], [[Joan Brown]], [[Jay DeFeo]], [[Wally Hedrick]], [[Wallace Berman]], [[Jess Collins]], George Herms, and [[Bruce Conner]].<ref>Michael Ducan, ''Art in America'', "The Self and Its Symbols", May 2000,<blockquote>...from 1959 to 1966...the Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess, George Herms, and Bruce Conner... group was jokingly dubbed by Bruce Conner the Rat Bastard Protective Association."</blockquote></ref> Conner coined the name as a play on the Scavengers Protective Association, one of the Italian garbage collectors companies in San Francisco at the time and spoke of the profound influence the collectors' burlap bundles of trash swaying pendulously from their trucks had on his assemblage sculptures (which featured stuffed nylon stockings).<ref>[http://www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/publications/papers/journal2/acrobat_files/boaden_article.pdf James Boaden, ''Ruin of the Nineteenth Century: The Assemblage Work of Bruce Conner, 1957–1962'']</ref><ref>Rebecca Solnit, ''Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era'' (City Lights Books, 1990), pp.&nbsp;37, 59.</ref>
</blockquote> </ref> Its original members include: [[Manuel Neri]], [[Joan Brown]], [[Jay DeFeo]], [[Wally Hedrick]], [[Wallace Berman]], [[Jess Collins]], George Herms, and [[Bruce Conner]].<ref>Michael Ducan, Art in America, "The Self and Its Symbols", May 2000,<blockquote>...from 1959 to 1966...the Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess, George Herms, and Bruce Conner... group was jokingly dubbed by Bruce Conner the Rat Bastard Protective Association."</blockquote> </ref> Conner coined the name as a play on 'Scavengers Protective Society'. <ref>James Boaden, Ruin of the Nineteenth Century: The Assemblage Work of Bruce Conner, 1957 1962 [www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/publications/papers/journal2/acrobat_files/boaden_article.pdf]</ref> <ref> The title also puns on the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood; its initials the RBPA mirroring the PRB thus mocking the branding of a style and the cowering into clans of so many artists. Its members included Jay de Feo, Michael McClure, Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. See Rebecca Solnit, ‘Heretical Constellations: Notes on California, 1946–61’, in Sussman, ed., Beat Culture and the New America, 69–122, especially 71.</ref>

Although Rat Bastard Protective Association has often been called a "secret art society," it is more correct to say that it is an esoteric art society, in that most aspects are private. The RBPA has, in the last few decades, become less a secret art society and more of a "society with art secrets." Most aspects of RBPA remain exclusive, the modes of recognition amongst members and particular factions within the association.

The organization continues to this day; active members include [[Michael McClure]] and [[LG Williams]].

==See also==
* [[Bruce Conner]] -- [http://www.artnet.com/artist/4333/bruce-conner.html Artwork on Artnet]
* [[Wallace Berman]]
* [[Joan Brown]]
* [[Jay DeFeo]] -- [http://www.jaydefeo.org/ Estate of Jay DeFeo]
* [[Wally Hedrick]] -- [http://www.wallyhedrick.com Estate of Wally Hedrick]
* [[Dennis Hopper]] -- [http://www.Dennis-Hopper.com Dennis Hopper Webpage]
* [[Jess]]
* [[Michael McClure]] -- [http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/mcclure/mcclure.htm Michael McClure Website]
* [[LG Williams]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Arts organizations]]
[[Category:San Francisco Bay Area arts organizations]]



== Notes and references ==
== Notes and references ==

Revision as of 19:58, 16 July 2012

Rat Bastard Protective Association is an underground, arts organization. It was created by the artist, Bruce Conner, in San Francisco, California in 1959.[1] Its original members include: Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess Collins, George Herms, and Bruce Conner.[2] Conner coined the name as a play on 'Scavengers Protective Society'. [3] [4]

Although Rat Bastard Protective Association has often been called a "secret art society," it is more correct to say that it is an esoteric art society, in that most aspects are private. The RBPA has, in the last few decades, become less a secret art society and more of a "society with art secrets." Most aspects of RBPA remain exclusive, the modes of recognition amongst members and particular factions within the association.

The organization continues to this day; active members include Michael McClure and LG Williams.

See also

References

  1. ^ Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Interview with Bruce Conner, Conducted by Paul Karlstrom in San Francisco, California, August 12, 1974:

    "Bruce Conner: I sent announcements to eight or nine people, ten people probably, telling them that they were all members of the Rat Bastard Protective Association. I was president. They should pay their dues. The next meeting was scheduled at my house. Then it was scheduled after that for every couple of weeks at Fred Martin's, or Joan Brown's, or Wally's house, or wherever."

  2. ^ Michael Ducan, Art in America, "The Self and Its Symbols", May 2000,

    ...from 1959 to 1966...the Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess, George Herms, and Bruce Conner... group was jokingly dubbed by Bruce Conner the Rat Bastard Protective Association."

  3. ^ James Boaden, Ruin of the Nineteenth Century: The Assemblage Work of Bruce Conner, 1957 – 1962 [www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/publications/papers/journal2/acrobat_files/boaden_article.pdf]
  4. ^ The title also puns on the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood; its initials the RBPA mirroring the PRB thus mocking the branding of a style and the cowering into clans of so many artists. Its members included Jay de Feo, Michael McClure, Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. See Rebecca Solnit, ‘Heretical Constellations: Notes on California, 1946–61’, in Sussman, ed., Beat Culture and the New America, 69–122, especially 71.


Notes and references