In this lengthy essay for Art International magazine from October, 1966, Kurt reflects on the work of Andy Warhol, his paintings, silkscreens, films, music and the whole Warhol creative "scene." It's an inside look at the history of one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century from the perspective of art historian von Meier. Kurt also reviews the work of Robert Irwin and Kenneth Price, who were just at the beginnings of their long artistic careers. Photos, images and links have been added.
Necessity
Because Kurt's mind never stopped working, or almost never, he was always writing. Sometimes his writing consisted of notes in his ever-present blue-lined pads of paper, and other times he'd bang something out on a typewriter. This short essay is an example of the latter, written around 1984 on his IBM Selectric. Rigorous and elegant.
Absolutism, Totalitarianism and the Arts
Poeple lined up to enter the Nazi-sponsored "Degenerate Art" exhibition in Munich before World War II.
Sadly, this essay seems particularly pertinent today (2017), as the world once again witnesses the rise of nativist, nationalist governments leaning towards totalitarian and authoritarian methods of ruling. He notes, "The totalitarian state is generally absolutist in function, but not necessarily absolutist in theory." Given its style, this essay was written by Kurt in the early 1960s, yet as is customary through all his articles, he propels his own concerns forward amidst his rigorous scholarship.
The New "Pure" Painting
In the mid-to-late 1960s, Kurt was a regular contributor to the magazine Art International. His beat was the Los Angeles art world, and his articles are insightful and tightly drawn, though lengthy. For those interested in art history and its relationship to contemporary art, there is a wealth of information.
He also challenges some of the the tenets of art history; "Such a historical study involves a question of radical methodology more importantly than it does an unorthodox concept of history: for one would have to discard (at least temporarily) the comforting clichés of art historical "movements" and the perennial embalmed syllabus based on simple-minded chronological sequence, and once again (for once?) look at the works of art themselves."
Lecture on Audio: Art & Mythology 114-A - "Civilization"
This is an audio of a lecture given on March 4, 1975 to his Art & Mythology class at Sacramento State University. It's a classic Kurt lecture, all at once an engaging, notes-free, improvised performance presenting scholarly information and humorous schtick woven within the serious truths of ancient wisdom. It begins with an extended critical riff on receiving mailed sales material about Time-Life's offer of Sir Kenneth Clark's "Civilization" educational slide-strips. It runs about an hour and takes a minute to begin playing. Enjoy!
von Meier States Defects in New Elam Building
During 1962 and 1963, Kurt was on the faculty of Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, as a Lecturer in History and Theory of Fine Arts. In that capacity, and in keeping with his uncompromising principles about truth and education, he wrote a scathing critique of the new Elam Fine Arts building. By all accounts it was not well-received by the powers-that-be. After 1963, he left New Zealand and returned to Princeton University to teach for one year. His critique is lengthy, comprehensive and in great detail.
Visionary Architecture
Beginning in 1962, Kurt spent two years teaching art history at The Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He wrote the introduction to an exhibition entitled "Visionary Architecture" held at the Auckland city Art Gallery in October, an exhibition which had originated at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It's a predictably lively and informative short essay.
Art in The Cultural Revolution
In this article from 1969, Kurt brings together a variety of themes he had been exploring for the previous four years and packs them all into one piece. With regard to the world of "fine art" movements he concludes, "But now we have rediscovered that the whole world is art and everyone is an artist, so how can there by any more movements?" Rock and Roll, Marshall McLuhan, Marcel Duchamp and Mr. Boob from Yellow Submarine all make an appearance.
The word "Playboy" was written in to top right-hand corner of the first page, though it does not appear to have been published in that magazine. Perhaps in an effort to encourage that, he discusses the use of explicit sexual images in contemporary and Pop art, but in his typical fashion takes things well beyond that subject. "The question now is simply whether or not we can utilize the amazing resources and efficiencies developed by some 5,000 years of art, science, technology and social organization in order to, first, avoid global suicide, and then to make life freer and more beautiful."
Hyperlinks and images have been added to the original material.
Mixed Masters
"So now the secret is out. And it turns out never to have been a secret at all. Everyone can be beautiful. There are no ugly human beings -- and maybe not even any "pretty" ones, who are pretty just because some anonymous medium tells us so. When we realize that there are just different human beings, instantaneously the potentiality for beauty in our lives is expanded to infinity..."
In his remarkable introduction to the catalog for Mixed Masters, a 1967 exhibition at The University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, Kurt eloquently displays the truth of what he terms the "cultural revolution" and, accordingly, reveals himself as the insightful and sensitive humanist he was.
Funksville: The West Coast Scene
Artist Billy Al Bengston polishing his work in the mid-nineteen sixties.
This Article appeared in the December, 1965 edition of Art and Australia and was co-authored by Kurt and his Princeton University classmate Carl Belz. Carl went on to teach art history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at Mills College in Oakland. He landed at Brandeis University in the 1960s and became the Director of its Rose Museum in 1974. In '65 Kurt had just begun teaching at UCLA in Los Angeles and Carl was at Mills College; they worked together on the "History of Rock and Roll" project but ultimately, the book was published under Carl's name. This article is charmingly--and so very "1965"--in its language and references: "One of the reasons why neither the term Funk, nor the phenomenon itself, has yet been accredited a real importance is the sheer difficulty of talking or writing clearly about Funk. "Like, if you gotta ask, man, you ain't never gonna find out what it is."
Islandic Myth and the Gold of Troy
In a file folder labeled "TEXT in progress" was found this short essay about Islandic mythology and it's connection to tales of Troy. Hollywood has blown apart Islandic mythology as effectively as it has distorted that of the Greeks. Kurt's essay gets back to roots of both, and knits together the subjects of horses, weaving and gold.
Freeways and the Experience of Architecture
In 1966 Kurt contacted the California Division of Highways about writing an article about freeways as a form of art and architecture for its publication California Highways and Public Works. Correspondence went back and forth between Kurt and Information Officer Raymond F. Law, but it does not appear the article was ever published. Nonetheless, it is an extension of ideas Kurt had been exploring in other essays about the aesthetic experience of freeways, which combine structure and passage. It's an interesting read, particularly in light of the freeway development of the past 50 years.
Gemini Rising
In 1968, Kurt was invited to provide the text for an exhibition catalog at the Witte Memorial Museum in San Antonio, Texas. The exhibition featured lithographic works by various artists such as Robert Rauchenberg, Frank Stella and Claes Oldenburg produced at Gemini G.E.L., a print studio formed in 1966. Kurt's catalog text, entitled "Gemini Rising", discusses the artworks, but also the implications of the Gemini enterprise, overall, which he praises.
Kurt also traveled to San Antonio for the opening, at which he delivered a talk. Though no notes or record of his remarks are available, letters from Martha Utterback, the curator of the museum, indicate that his talk created quite a stir. For example, she says, "John Leeper, director of the McNay, told me was so sorry to have missed your talk as he had heard that it outraged so many people." And, "Mrs. Katz left town Monday, but not before delivering a homily, by phone, on the evils of ruining such a fine mind, with such a high I.Q. as yours, with drugs; she said she knew you liked them whether you took them or not....But I enjoyed your visit and being around you. There aren't too many incredible people. I wish you had left the funny page of lecture notes here."
In addition to the text of "Gemini Rising" a portion of a letter from Kurt to a writer compiling an anthology a year later is also included below. In it, Kurt speaks of the role of Gemini, the world of "fine art" and most significantly, his concerns about western culture. "There is a revolution underway. Its goal is nothing short of saving the planet earth. There are many artists, more scientists, and even some educators who are up front in this revolution." It's both a snapshot of the times of 1969, and a glimpse into the personal struggle taking place in Kurt's life.
The New Education in the Arts
By 1967 Kurt had become the most popular professor on the UCLA campus, but his unconventional approach drew the ire of the administration and fellow faculty.
In this article written for the publication artscanda in July of 1968, Kurt provides an account of his teaching experience at UCLA, which had effectively come to an end with the non-renewal of his teaching contract. "...the leading conceptual or theoretical problems to be formulated in such a history of twentieth century art lie just in those areas where the traditional fine arts overlap the various realms of popular art, folk art, commercial and industrial art, non-art or even anti-art.," he states, and later, "The basic aim of this course was to provide students with some of the capacity and inspiration necessary for approaching the world around them as one great, fascinating, complex, mind-blowing work of art."
Art 113-C Midterm Examination -1986
Professor von Meier's style of examination was as unconventional as his way of teaching, as can be seen in this report he prepared on his mid-term examination for Art 113-C, Occidental Art and Mythology. Why he prepared this report is not entirely clear, except some students had complained about his way of teaching and how he assigned student grades; it may have been his way to document "the method behind his madness" in case matters escalated. As it is, this report provides a wonderful glimpse into Kurt's approach to teaching. The included course bibliography is an indication of the range of Kurt's scholarly background and personal library. Images and links have been added to his original material.
Victor Brauner
Submitted to Art News Magazine in 1966, this article was held by its editor Thomas Hess until 1967, and returned to Kurt unpublshed (with apologies). It is a fine portrait of the artist Victor Brauner (1903-1966), and Kurt connects Brauner's style (early psychological surrealism and later Klee-like whimsy) with the influence of Hassidism in his early life. This article demonstrates Kurt's scholarship and some of his most polished writing, and is an excellent addition to the written material available about Brauner. Images and hyperlinks have been added.
New York 13: A Critical Review
"...how can we ever hope to come to a final recognition of art that is an instrument of totalitarian control as distinct from art that helps to set us free?" With this question Kurt reset the terms of his relationship to the art world of 1969. Having risen to the top echelon of art critics, Kurt's disenchantment with the whole "scene" is revealed in his statement, "To be sure, I have considered the virtues of blowing up every art gallery and museum in the United States and Canada--for starters..." This review, which appeared in artscanada, is among the last of his articles published in the pages of the many leading art magazines to which he had regularly contributed.
Surrealism, Los Angeles, and Twentieth Century Architecture
The article published in Artforum magazine in 1966 displays the academic strength and scholarship of Professor von Meier as he embarked upon teaching at UCLA. Literally surging with creativity, Kurt quickly assumed a leading role in the world of art criticism, writing for the leading publications in that field. His writing is polished and penetrating; his file containing his original drafts and notes make it clear this article was a major undertaking. It has been updated with links to online resources, and photos and images relating to the text have been added.
Review: Anton Ehrenzweig, The Hidden Order of Art
Kurt was a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Free Press, an alternative newspaper which was published weekly from 1964-1978. This book review by Kurt from 1967, published in the Los Angeles Free Press, reveals the meaningful influence of the work of Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller on Kurt at that time. His criticisms of higher education are forthright; the impacts of Buddhism, G. Spencer Brown's Laws of Form, and leaving UCLA, Los Angeles and the world of art criticism for the bucolic Napa Valley and a professorship at Sacramento State University remained ahead.
The Background of Transparency and Some Insights into Reflection
"Scholarly writing is that in which the author explains his own jokes, tells you where he heard each one of them, and if he can, who told them first." In making this comment, Kurt appears to be referring to this essay and to himself. Written in 1968 for an exhibition at California State College at Fullerton while he was living in Venice, California in his last year as an assistant professor at UCLA, it almost appears as if Kurt is mocking criticism, scholarship, and art while indulging in that of which he feels critical. He gave up writing as an art critic not too long thereafter. It's an informative essay, but oddly self-negating.
