LOWELL DARLING/BIO FROM CHILDHOOD
1944: -Painted Grandfather’s racehorse hooves red: fingernail polish. Age
two.
1946: -Painted family car with brooms and house paint.
- Live innocuous life of Preacher’s son. Normal childhood….
1955: -Faked clarinet, 7th grade band class.
1956: -Correspond with Norman Rockwell. In answer to a letter from Darling,
Rockwell explains that as a young artist he couldn’t control the destiny
of his work until he became recognised.
1959: -Draw Me School of Art; representative tells Darling that he is an
artist, advises not to enrol in art schools that advertise on matchbook.
1960: -Wash windows in Catholic Convent.
1961: -Attend Southern Illinois University.
1963: -Join Coast Guard after disagreement with Art Department Chairman.
: -Teach Elementary School for USCG/Voice of America dependents, Rhodes,
Greece.
1964: -Fall off museum roof into sculpture garden, National Museum, Rhodes.
-Sixty day sentence, USCG Courier.
1965: -Ate aspirins and had stomach pumped.
-Honourable Discharge, USCG.
1966: -University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
-Igor Stravinsky advises to hide from success as long as possible.
-Transfer back to Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL.
1967: -World Resources Inventory, Buckminster Fuller, Carbondale, IL. (population
statistics/energy resources.)
1968: -Eccentric Art. ceramic baby machines: Pollock Gallery, Toronto.
1969: -US Internal Revenue Service declares I am not a sculptor.
-Mail In-Mail Out, correspondence exhibition, Chicago Art Institute/SIU,
with Sonia Sheridan, COSMO.
-Organize First Annual Open Invitational Unfired Clay Exhibition, Makanda,
IL.
(See Twentieth Century Ceramics, Edmund de Waal, Thames and Hudson, 2003.)
-Begin practicing Pro Bono Public Performance Art due to IRS case.
-Nail Carbondale: front page, Chicago Daily News. 1st media manipulation
-Radio interviews nationwide.
-Sparklers and balloons with Richard Artschwager, Oxbow Summer School of
Art, Saugatuck, MI.
1970: -Refuse Graduate Exhibition; return MFA (SIU Permanent Collection).
-Live in la Ruche, Marc Chagall/John Napper’s studio, Paris, France.
-Nail Paris.
-Nail London.
-Nail Edinburgh.
-Nail Dublin.
-Invited to nail New York, Mayor Abraham Beame.
-Artist’s Proof; do art yourself kits; Zeez Arts, London, UK.
-Open Art Center of the World (alternative space, Davis, California.)
-Organize National Invitational Xerographic Print Exhibition, ACOW, Davis,
CA.
(Artists exhibited: John Baldessari, Eleanor Antin, Bruce Nauman, Bob Arneson,
David Gilhooly, Steve Kaltenbach, Ellen Van Fleet, Majia Woof, David Zack,
John Buck, Jim Melchert, Mags Harries, Robert Hudson, William T. Wiley, Robert
Filliou, Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow (Strategy: Get Arts) and others.
-Nut Pot Bag or Clay Without Tears, ACOW Davis, California.
-Lace San Andreas Fault to prevent earthquakes. (Rolling Stone.)
-Fat City School of Finds Art (approx 50,000 graduates).
-Envoi: Paris Biennale (for Eleanor Antin)
1971: -Hollywood Archaeology, a lifetime pursuit. Hollywood, California.
-December, Madison Wisconsin, UW students meet me at airport with Darling
for President in 1984.
1972: -Teach Video (without video), Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, California.
-Hollywood Clay Conference, Robert Filliou, Jim Melchert, Bob Arneson, Mags
Harries, Clayton Bailey, Dave Gilhooly, and many more, show at various art
department pot shops in America and Amsterdam.
-Art In America, cover article.
-37th Venice Biennale: Venetian Tools Project, Venice Italy.
-Cologne Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany.
-Museum of Contemporary Art, Caracas, Venezuela.
-Sao Paolo Biennale, Video with Anthony Ramos, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
1973: -Ironic Artist Lecture Series, UCLA.
-Random performances with Joe Ray and Anthony Ramos, LA.
-NEA Individual Artist’s Fellowship. (How were these allowed to vanish?)
-VideoView, Willoughby Sharp.
-Great Director’s Series, Willoughby Sharp, Chris Burden, UCLA Film School.
-D.E.P.R.E.S.S.I.O.N. Bread Line, Hollywood and Vine (all LA TV channels.)
1974: -DeccaDance, Elks Building, Los Angeles; General Idea, Western Front,
Image Bank, Ace Space, Et Al Ala Mail Artists (a swan song.) 10 pages in
Esquire.
-D.I.V.O.R.C.E., Womanspace, Los Angeles; with Kathleen Harris.
-Fat Bat Presentation to Henry Aaron, Dodger Stadium; with David Ross.
-Honorary PhD, National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portand, Oregon.
-IRS declares Lowell Darling is an artist.
-Artists and Lawyers Ball, LA, with Monroe E. Price, founder, Advocates for
the Arts. (One of the first successes that came from this pro bono advocacy,
other than proving that Lowell Darling is an artist to the government, was
to advocate copyright protection for artists; see 1956.)
1975: -This Is Your Life, Cal State LA. (Administration burns his books.)
-Urban Acupuncture: Los Angeles, Port Costa, Portland, Vancouver (DVD.)
Will The Real Van Gogh Stand Up, video Canadian Bar Association, Vancouver.
Hollywood Archaeology video, Kate Craig, Western Front, Vancouver, BC.
1976: -Cauliflower Alley Club, Long Beach Museum of Art. With Ilene Segalove.
1977: -This Is Your Life, Western Front, Vancouver, B.C.
1978: -Acupuncture California; Needles, California. (Rain began three days
after needles inserted. Drought officially ended).
-Statewide Campaign for Governor in California. 67,000 votes.
(This was the end of the pro bono public performance period, the tax fight
was over.)
1979: -First Gallery exhibition since 1968. Political Portraiture,
Anhalt Barnes Gallery, Los Angeles.
1980: -One Hand Shaking, (Gubernatorial Memoir), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
N.Y.
1984: -Work for Susanna Dakin Presidential Campaign.
1985: -Hollywood Blank Verse; Mike Mazurki, Larry Hagman (DVD).
1986: -Move to country, raise two daughters, draw and write.
1995: -Web Site: Hollywood Archaeology, Whitney Museum of American Art,
N.Y.
(Designed by Jim Newman.) www.echonyc.com/~hwdarch
1996: -My Hollywood, Molly Barnes Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA.
-Web Site: Pershing’s Postcards and the Wadsworth Bible, designed by Jim
Newman.
Talkback, Lehmann College, Brooklyn, NY. http://ca80.lehman.cuny.edu/gallery/talkback/Subgallery7.html.
1997: -Hollywood Archaeology, Jernigan Wicker Gallery, San Francisco, California.
-Hollywood Archaeology, Gallery 16, San Francisco, California.
-Hollywood Archaeology, Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica, California.
1998: -Presidential Intentions, Prairie Progressive, Iowa City, Iowa.
1999: -CFR-11 (Presidential Filing Papers), CSPS, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
-London Artist’s Book Fair, Presidential Speech, Barbican Centre, London,
England.
2000: -Hollywood Archaeology, University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University,
Rohnert Park, California.
2001: -CFR-11, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, California.
2003: -Run Yourself For President; Backfabrik, Berlin, Germany.
2004: -Lowell Darling/Artist or Politician. Sonoma State University Library.
-The Presidency, Exit Art, New York.
-As-semblage, 871 Fine Arts, San Francisco.
-Red Fall, Station Museum, Houston, Texas.
2005: -Bayennale. Instigated with various artists: an open invitational international
gathering of artists, Port Of Oakland and various Bay Area artist spaces.
-A Motion Picture, for Tom Marioni, with 14 Bay Area artists.
-Video interview with Willoughby Sharp, Berlin.
-The Perfect Speech, with Suzanne Roewer, Gallery Sleeping Dogs, Berlin DE
2006: -lowelldarling.com.
-The Perfect Speech website, with Marianne Wagner-Simon, Berlin DE
2007: -Unborn Soldier Project, in progress.
_European Campaign for President of the United States, in progress.
-Illegal Piano Player, Video with Amela Vucina, Croatia & Bosnia.
-9/11 Drawings exhibited, Galerie Lecoq, Berlin, Germany.
-Ten minute reading, Society of Independent Artists, San Francixco CA.
2008: -California Video: The Lost Poems, Mike Mazurki reading,
Curated by Steve Seid, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
-15th Anniversary Show, Gallery 16, San Francisco CA.
-Unborn Soldier, with Amela Vucina Darling, Artville, Berlin, Germany.;
- Conceptual Art From California, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin.
-Artist/Politician, lecture and video presentation, NBK, Berlin.
2009: - Tribute to Terry Fox, performance, National Gallery of Contemporary
Art at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin,
-Hollywood Archaeology, Loophole, Berlin.
-All the Pianos in Mostar, Documentary video with Amela Darling.
-Lowell Darling’s Secret, Garage Gallery, Berkeley CA
-Gubernatorial Show of Thumbs, Society of Independent Artists, SF, CA
2010: -Full Disclosure: everything I own in America boxed; Gallery 16, San
Francisco.
-Democrat Candidate, Governor of California, Primary Election, March 8-June
8.
(39993 votes.)
Sonoma Times West
New York Times
Leah Garchik Times
San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland Tribune
The East Bay Monthly
Sacratomato Bee
Santa Cruz Sentinel
LA Times and several other newspapers and regional magazines
-Border Acupuncture Treatment
Oakland/Berkeley Borders, June 7. Oakland, Berkeley CA.
US-China Border, July 28. Great Highway, San Francisco CA.
WHY? One hour documentary film of campaign by Max Reid. (title tentative.)
Upcoming:
-Worldwide Acupuncture Treatment: Open invitation for artists worldwide to
create their own needles and acupuncture their own borders.
-CALIFORNIA uber alles, Art in the Age of Pluralism, 1974-1981, October
2, 2011-February 13, 2012, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, CA.
-State of Mind, New California Art Circa 1970, Orange County Museum of Art,
Newport Beach, CA. October-January, 2011.
-Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999. Long Beach
Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, October 7, 2011-February 12, 2012.
-State of Mind, UC Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA. February 29-June 17,
2012.
-Nothing But Trouble, Freise Museum, Berlin, DE.
Bibliography
(Incomplete)
These Are The People In Your Neighborhood
Gallery 16, San Francisco, Griff Williams
2011
Artists’ Response: Portraits and Self-Portraits
Terri Cohn
2010
Avalanche Magazine Reissue
Liza Bear/Willoughby Sharp
2010
The Art of Participation; 1950 To Now
Rudolf Frieling, Boris Groys, Robert Atkins, Lev Manovich
SFMOMA/ Thames and Hudson.
2008
20th Century Ceramics
Edmund de Waal
Thames and Hudson, London
Pg.177. First Annual Open Invitation Unfired Clay Exhibition, ‘70.
(Unmentioned. Edmund de Waal promises to correct in future editions.)
2003
Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties
Linda Montano
University of California, Berkeley, Los Angeles
2000
Clayton Bailey: Happenings in the Circus of Life
G. Joan DePaoli and Dr. Gladstone
John Natsoulis Press, Davis
2000
Art Speak
Robert Atkins
Abbeville Press Publishers, New York
1997
Mapping the Terrain, New Genre Public Art
Suzanne Lacy
Bay Press, Seattle, Washington
1995
Facing Eden: 100 Years of Bay Area Landscape
“The Eva Withrow Project”
DeYoung Museum of Art, San Francisco
Essay by Connie Lewallyn
1995
Whispered Art History: Twenty Years at the Western Front
Keith Wallace
Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver
1993
Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography
John Held Jr.
The Scarecrow Press, Inc, London
1991
Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices
Rick Schmidt
Penguin Books, New York
1988
How To Have Fun With Your Body
Michael Lester
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston
1986
Correspondence Art
Michael Crane and Mary Stofflet
Contemporary Arts Press, San Francisco
1984
California Dreaming, the Political Odyssey of Pat and Jerry Brown
Roger Rapaport
Nolo Press, Berkeley
1982
The Twilight Zone Companion
Marc Scott Zicree
(See About the Author, last page.)
Bantam Books, New York
1982
Performance Anthology
Carl Loeffler
Contemporary Arts Press, San Francisco
1980
One Hand Shaking
Lowell Darling
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York
1980
International Image Exchange Directory
Image Bank, Vancouver
1973
Nut Pot Bag or Clay Without Tears (published.)
Bob Arneson, Clayton Bailey, Dave Gilhooly, Jim Melchert, Maja Woof, Nick
Stephens, Jim Adamson, Peter Vandenberg, Chris Untescher, David Zack.
Art Center of the World, Davis CA.
1971
Artists Proof
Zeez Arts/FCSOFA, London UK
1970.
Catalogues:
Gallery 16 Editions, 1994-2004
Gallery 16, San Francisco
2004
legal/illegal
Wenn Kunst Gesetze bricht / Art beyond Law
NGBK, Berlin
Schmetterling Verlag, Stuttgart
2004
Beer, Art, and Philosophy
Tom Marioni
Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2003
Golden Streams
Luis Jacob with General Idea, Image Bank, Banal Beauty, NY Corres Sponge
Dance School
Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto
2002
Extra Art: A Survey of Artist’s Ephemera, 1960-1999
Steven Leiber
California College of Art and Crafts. San Francisco
2001
VIDEO: A RETROSPECTIVE
Long Beach Museum of Art 1974-1984
Kathy Huffman, Long Beach
1984
SEND Video & Communications Arts, Issue 9
Dr. Ray Orbison
San Francisco
1984
SEND Video & Communications Arts, Issue 8
San Francisco
1984
SEND Video & Communications Arts, Issue 7
Dr. Ray Orbison
San Francisco
Summer 1983
Video Eighties
Dr. Ray Orbison,
San Francisco
Winter, 1983
Video 81 Magazine
Vol.2, No.1, Pg.44
San Francisco
1981
80 Langton Street, 1979-1980
80 Langton Street Corporation, San Francisco
1980
Deciphering America
Michael Gibbs
Kontexts Publications, Amsterdam
1978
Southland Video Anthology
David A. Ross
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach
1975 and 1977
Journal
The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art No.4
1975
Nut Art
California State University Hayward Gallery, Hayward
1972
Other:
-152 reviews; 131 group shows (video, correspondence, ephemra); countless
lectures;
111 pro bono public performances; 59 TV appearances; 39 radio interviews;
4 NEA fellowships; published three books.