Rat Bastard Protective Association
 | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (May 2008) |
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. Yet, there have been many recent disclosures, awards and edicts [5], but these hermetic notices often lack the proper context for true understanding of the content, or could be outright hoaxes on the part of the association.
The organization continues to this day. Subsequent elected members include Dennis Hopper, Michael McClure and LG Williams.[citation needed]
Rat Bastard Protective Association after 9/11
In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, Rat Bastard Protection Association’s LG Williams announced the establishment of LG Art Security Services (LGASS) to coordinate "homeland art security" efforts, to be headed by Williams.[6] The name is reminiscent of the British WW2-era Department of Home Security. The official announcement stated:
The mission of the Office will be to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national art strategy to secure the United States galleries and museums from art terrorist threats or attacks. The Office will coordinate efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from art terrorist attacks within the United States. [7]
Since its inception, LGASS has appeared at such institution as The di Rosa Art Preserve (2003), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2004), Kuntzpanorama Lucerne, Switzerland (2004), Merry Karnowsky Gallery (2006 - 07), to name a few; and issued many national art-security memorandums: National Art Threat | National Art Policy.
See also
References
- ^ 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."
- ^ 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."
- ^ 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]
- ^ 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.
- ^ See for example:2002 RBPA 2002-2 the Rat Bastard Protection Agency Edict of 19 January 2002.
- ^ Rat Bastard Protective Association, RBPA 2002-8 the Rat Bastard Protection Agency Art Security Act of 2002: The Creation of LG Art Security Services (LGASS). See Also: Williams, LG. 2005: Official Stated Biography. [1]
- ^ Rat Bastard Protective Association, RBPA 2002-8 the Rat Bastard Protection Agency Art Security Act of 2002: The Creation of LG Art Security Services (LGASS).
