Steven F. Arnold

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Self Portrait (1983) by American artist Steven Arnold

Steven F. Arnold (18 May 1943 – 6 August 1994) was an American multidisciplinary artist and protégé of Salvador Dalí. He was a filmmaker, photographer, painter, illustrator, set and costume designer, and assemblage artist.

Birth and early life

Steven Arnold was born on May 18, 1943, to a seamstress mother, and a hardware clerk father in Oakland, California.[1][2] At four or five years old, he found a chest of theatrical costumes and make-up belonging to his uncle in the attic of his parents' house, and from then on devoted himself to the art of transformation, constantly dressing up to amuse himself, his fashion model sister, and his babysitter. His parents encouraged his fantasies, and allowed him to build sets and puppets to put on shows for the neighborhood children, to whom, he said, he never related.[3]

In the fall of 1958 Arnold entered

LOUIS XIV – beyond belief for a child".[6] Steven and Pandora's high school art teacher, Violet Chew, was the pair's mentor and main source of inspiration. Chew taught her students by ancient Chinese methods, which worked from the inside out, encouraging students to confront problems on a soul-level, and to use their art as a means of exploring and solving these problems. She also introduced the young Steven to antique and junk shopping, art history, cutting-edge fashion, and Eastern spiritual traditions, which made a lasting impact on Arnold's philosophy and art. She saw great potential in her student, and arranged for Arnold to drop homeroom and physical education in order to spend three periods with her each day. It was also around this time that Violet Chew's friend, artist Ira Yeager, noticed that "it was Steven who actually initiated ‘hippie’ dress in San Francisco, before it was fashionable."[7]

Higher education and film work

After graduating from high school in the spring of 1961, Arnold won a full scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. In the summer of 1963, after earning perfect grades for two years at the Institute, Arnold took a break to study abroad in Paris and enrolled at École des Beaux-Arts. Feeling confined by the stiff, traditional curriculum at École des Beaux-Arts, Arnold and a group of American classmates rented villas on the small island of Formentera off the coast of Spain. For the next several months the group lived communally, taking LSD every day, experimenting with paints and costumes, taking up residence in caves, and exploring the small island.[8] Arnold recalls: “This new drug was so euphoric and visionary, so positive and mind expanding… I ascended to another dimension, one so beautiful and spiritual that I was never the same.” Arnold also began keeping sketchbooks around this time, a practice he maintained throughout his life.[9][10]

A still from Steven F. Arnold's film, Luminous Procuress, featuring his lifelong friend, model, and muse, Pandora.

Returning to San Francisco in the fall of 1964, Arnold resumed his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, turning his eye on film-making. He wrote, directed, and designed three short films over the next two years. By late 1967 Arnold was about to receive his BFA, and his final student film, Messages, Messages (starring

Ruth Weiss), was drawing critical attention. The film went on to win invites to Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Due to the critical success of their film, Arnold and collaborator Michael Wiese decided that Messages, Messages was worthy of a more elaborate hometown premiere than the San Francisco Art Institute could provide. So in February 1968, shortly before their graduation, the pair rented the Palace Theatre in San Francisco's North Beach for the occasion. In addition to Messages, Messages, Arnold also curated "a rare collection of early surrealist films by Man Ray, Melies, and old French animations." The evening was such a success that the theater owner offered to allow Arnold to continue holding screenings. This led to the March 1969 inauguration of Arnold's Nocturnal Dreamshows,[11] the first of the weekly midnight movie showcases that became nationally popular in the 1970s.[12] The Nocturnal Dreamshows also launched The Cockettes, a psychedelic San Francisco drag troupe, into underground fame.[13] Since 1967, Arnold had also been illustrating posters for local businesses, and was among the original group of rock poster artists in San Francisco, creating some of the first rock posters[14] for the famed Matrix nightclub, which was later credited for originating the "San Francisco sound" of the psychedelic ’60s.[15]

In 1970, while finishing his MFA at

Teatro-Museo Dalí.[17] Dalí dubbed Arnold the 'prince' of his Court of Miracles, which included other counter-culture icons such as Donyale Luna, Andy Warhol superstar Ultra Violet, Amanda Lear, Marianne Faithfull, David Bowie and Mick Jagger.[18]

Tableau photography, paintings, and assemblage

Dressed for Dalí, a tableau-vivant by American artist Steven Arnold.

After returning to California, and failing to make any progress on other film projects, Arnold was driven to find new modes of expression. So he established his Los Angeles photography studio and west coast salon, Zanzibar.

sexuality, fine art masterpieces, Jungian archetypes, social attitudes, excess, and artifice, working all night, and waking each afternoon to sketch dreams and visions into his growing collection of sketchbooks. In addition to his photography, Arnold also translated these his drawings into a large body of paintings and assemblage sculpture between 1990 and his death in 1994.[21][22]

Death

Arnold was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 at the height of his popularity and died in 1994. His works are in the collections of the

SF MoMA), the Oakland Museum of California, the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archive and Museum in Los Angeles, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.[23]

Legacy

Steven Arnold's vast artistic catalog continues to be exhibited worldwide, and is the subject of the 2019 documentary Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies. The film is narrated by Anjelica Huston, and features interviews with Ellen Burstyn, Simon Doonan, Stuart Comer, Holly Woodlawn, Theodora Van Runkle, Ed Moses, and many others.[24][25]

Filmography

  • The Liberation of the Mannique Mechanique (1967)
  • Messages, Messages (1968)
  • Various Incantations of a Tibetan Seamstress (1969)
  • Luminous Procuress (1971)

References

  1. ISBN 3-905514-98-2
    .
  2. ^ Farago, Stephanie. Heavenly Bodies. Unpublished. The Steven Arnold Archive.
  3. ^ Farago, Stephanie. Heavenly Bodies. Unpublished. The Steven Arnold Archive.
  4. ^ "Steven Arnold: Epiphanies". VisualAids.org. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  5. ^ Arnold, Steven (1994). Cocktails in Heaven. The Steven Arnold Archive: Unpublished.
  6. ^ Arnold, Steven. Cocktails in Heaven. Unpublished. The Steven Arnold Archive.
  7. ^ Farago, Stephanie. Heavenly Bodies. Unpublished. The Steven Arnold Archive.
  8. ISBN 3-905514-98-2
    .
  9. ^ Panoramic Sketchbooks, Steven Arnold Archive
  10. ^ Farago, Stephanie. Heavenly Bodies. Unpublished. The Steven Arnold Archive.
  11. ^ Nocturnal Dreamshows
  12. ISBN 978-1-61593-139-2
    .
  13. ^ Tent, Pam (2004). Midnight at the Palace. Alyson Books. pp. 31–34.
  14. ^ rock posters by Steven Arnold
  15. ^ Archive, The Steven Arnold. "Rock Posters". The Steven Arnold Archive. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  16. ISBN 3-905514-98-2
    .
  17. ^ Arnold works with Dali
  18. ISBN 978-1-849760-92-8
    .
  19. ^ salons at Zanzibar
  20. ^ Tableau-vivants
  21. ^ drawings
  22. ^ paintings
  23. ISBN 3-905514-98-2
    .
  24. ^ Farago, Stephanie. "Heavenly Bodies". IMDb.
  25. ^ Archive, The Steven Arnold. "The Steven Arnold Archive".

External links

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