ancy Spero and Leon Golub are too well known to need much introducing here. They have been important figures in art and political circles at least since 1964, when they returned to NYC from Paris at the height of the Vietnam War. Today international interest in their work is high. The Eupatrids are rolling out the red carpets, and there is rock-solid succès d’estime among the rank and file. The more you know about Leon & Nancy, the more you want to find out, and here they have generously agreed to answer a few questions for afterart news readers.
Can you indicate for us the state of political art since 9/11? How do things look from downtown NYC?
We are not in the best position to comment on the state of political art since 9/11. It would be largely concentrated in video - to what percentage as against from before 9/11, we would have no idea. We follow very little video art (which has the capacity to totally eat up one’s time). As to how things look in downtown New York, it is cleared up and throngs of New Yorkers are going about their business without paying much attention. It is not that people don’t care, but New Yorkers live fractured harried lives and only occasionally get diverted to other concerns unless it is an extraordinary event such as 9/11. Down the street where we live the American Institute of Architects, NY Chapter, has in a window a glistening skyward ‘utopian’ building monument that has come out of the special interest struggles, etc., and the damn thing looks pretty good, surprisingly so.
What was Paris like when you lived there with your young children in the early 1960s? Why did you return to NYC in ‘64?
Paris in the early 60’s was in the midst of the Algerian struggle with various militarized police forces in the streets and we observed several brutal incidents. Tensions were huge particularly since the right wing OAS forces and Pieds Noirs were intending to carry out a coup d’état against De Gaulle. It was largely due to his historic role that the military forces were unable to coalesce against him. Some of what occurred is quite extraordinary in this regard. But De Gaulle was too huge a figure to topple. At the same time Paris was still Paris like New York after 9/11 is still New York. The café life, etc., went on as always. And artists made their art typically without political intent or content. We were in Paris from 1959 to 1964. We are from Chicago and went to Paris, as we say, to fly over New York. Given who we are as artists and the mainlining that went on in New York, we figured it ain’t worth struggling with. In 1964 we decided it was time to take on New York each on our own.
What are you working on now? Do you have work habits, or is every project approached differently?
Leon: Very irregular work habits any time of the day and less frequently at night. As I am eighty-two and have various ailments and fatigue, I work perhaps 2 hours one day or several such sessions another day, or no work for several days, etc. So it is totally variable. For several years I have been working on paintings on canvas roughly 2 to 2 1/2 ft. in either dimension with a white size and primarily black india ink and these paintings/ drawings often carry printed slogans such as “Cringe Before The Law”, “We Could Disappear You” , “This Could Be You” images speaking to governmental and individual power. I have also made in the past 3 years perhaps 250 drawings/paintings all 8 x 10 in. on vellum or bristol board with oil stick and acrylic. Some images are explicitly violent and brutal, others are sarcastic and ironic or erotic, if not pornographic, nearly so.
Nancy: I continue to work with the “actors”- Artemis, the Goddess Nut, athletes, dancers, musicians, gorgons, victims, heroines, etc. from my stock company of 300 plus images of women. Working from both plastic and metal plates I combine, recombine, and bring in new images and keep changing the context of these images as they move through what are often extended linear formats. I
Leon and Nancy have also recently worked again on silk, creating several banners celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Egyptian collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. My work habits are worse than Leon’s, split off and fractured, largely at night but then I try to give them coherent visual circumstances.
Care to make a prediction about the upcoming US presidential election?
One fears and one hopes. If Bush comes back it’s a disaster. If Kerry wins the US might retain at least to some degree a humane face to the world.
Is a world without war a utopian dream?
A strange kind of Utopia might emerge when we become largely robotized. Until then no matter that huge populations
suffer, the voyeurs of war will be utterly bored without war. Global and national and mega technological entities can’t give up a hugely enjoyable profitable enterprise such as war. One can feel secure in saying that utopian dreams of peace remain out of sight and literally out of comprehension. Nevertheless, we both participated in the Utopia project at the 2003 Venice Biennal! So perhaps in unforeseen ways Utopia will arise!
Look for Leon’s upcoming book from osp….
Richard Dailey
Leon Golub
DOG
Published September 2004
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