Michael Bowen (artist)
Encyclopedia
Michael Bowen was an American fine artist known as one of the co-founders of the late 20th and 21st century Visionary art
movements. His works include paintings on canvas and paper, 92 intaglio
etchings based on Jungian psychology, assemblage
, bronze sculpture
, collage
, and handmade art books.
An icon of the American Beat Generation
and the 1960s counterculture
, Bowen is also known for his role in inspiring and organizing the first Human Be-In
in San Francisco. Chronicled in books and periodicals reflecting on the turbulent 60s, Bowen's historical impact on both the literary and visual art worlds is well documented. He remains influential among avante-garde art circles around the world.
, affectionately known as Uncle Benjie to Michael, would often take the youthful Bowen to not only the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas
that he created, but also to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel near Union Square
in downtown San Francisco. Bowen's early romance with San Francisco established this city as his home base from which he would frequently travel to other places in the world. He started his art career at age 17, when he joined the American installation artist Ed Kienholz in his Los Angeles studio. There he met and joined with other influential Beat Generation artists including Wallace Berman
, John Altoon
, and Dennis Hopper
. Bowen participated in the construction of the Ferus Gallery
and Now Gallery created by Ed Kienholz and curated by Walter Hopps
. Bowen attended the Chouinard Art Institute
for several years during his formative artistic experiences in Los Angeles.
and modern art
. In Los Angeles, teenage Bowen's many visits to the mystical gatherings at Samson De Brier's house further solidified his early Asian philosophical studies. In the late 50s and early 60s, Bowen continued his spiritual training and research. He investigated and practiced a variety of occult
topics, Eastern philosophies, and mysticism
, and his artwork reflected these themes. Bowen is often referred to as a mystic
artist. As a lifelong student of the Bhagavad-Gita, Bowen's entire career has emulated the spiritual warrior
archetype
of Arjuna
, fighting for the Bill of Rights
of the United States Constitution
.
and collage, Bowen became an integral part of the San Francisco Renaissance
.
The Norwegian art patron and physician Reidar Wennesland befriended Bowen and many of his bohemian
artist friends and collected their artwork. Bowen's work now makes up the majority of the paintings in the Wennesland Foundation Collection located in Kristiansand, Norway, alongside many other important North Beach artists, such as Jay DeFeo
. A 1963 painting of Janis Joplin
by Bowen, along with his prophetic 1966 Love painting, are examples of the Bowen works in the Wennesland collection. Bowen's style progressed from large abstract expressionist canvases to figuratives and large faces, to assemblage
. Bowen's painting about McCarthyism
, Red Future? from the Wennesland Collection, was featured in the 1995 Whitney Museum exhibition Beat Culture and the New America, 1950-1965, which opened in New York City and then traveled to the Walker Art Center
in Minneapolis and the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
and persecution drove many of the Beat Generation writers, musicians, and artists out of San Francisco. Michael Bowen, along with many of his artist friends moved to an old Abalone Factory in Princeton by the Sea, where they lived and painted for many months. Bowen's singer friend, Janis Joplin was a frequent guest at the Princeton Abalone studio.
In 1963, on one of Bowen's visits to be with his mentor in Tepoztlan, he was initiated into an ancient Aztec
shamanic ceremony that inspired his future work with world consciousness transformation. After his initiation
, Bowen traveled to New York City
, where he established a studio in the Lower East Side
and met with many of the Beat Generation artists, writers, and musicians living on America's East Coast. He often visited the two former Harvard professors Timothy Leary
and Ram Dass
, then Richard Alpert, in their mansion at Millbrook, New York
, where a new variety of consciousness experimentations were being conducted.
, Bowen co-founded the underground newspaper, San Francisco Oracle
that broadcast the 60s counterculture ideology. Bowen became the art director and let his studio become the offices for the Oracle, while Cohen was the editor. As the S.F. Oracle guru
, Bowen hosted the first underground press meeting at his studio at Stinson Beach.
On October 6, 1966, Bowen and Cohen organized the Love Pageant Rally
, a celebration against the new law criminalizing LSD
in California. Because of Bowen's friendship and invitation, Janis Joplin came to the event along with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company
, and played for free. About 3,000 people attended the Love Pageant Rally, and towards the end, Ram Dass, Cohen, and Bowen discussed having another event, this time much bigger, to celebrate the newly developing hippie
counterculture and consciousness
expansion in San Francisco.
, Gary Snyder
, Lenore Kandel
, Michael McClure
, and Timothy Leary, and scheduled the San Francisco rock bands, including The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane
, who played for free at the event. The Hells Angels
provided security, and a flatbed truck with amplification driven by a gas generator was donated to create a stage. The Human Be-In was a coming together of people for no other reason than to just "BE"; to make love, not war, to share and commune with new friends and to celebrate life. The Human Be-In, sometimes referred to as a Love-In, was specifically designed by Bowen to be imitated and to be remembered into the future. As a lifelong fine artist, Bowen considers his creation of the Human Be-In to be performance art
. This notion was confirmed by an Italian journalist, who calls Bowen "The father of performance art" for his Human Be-In creation.
in Washington D.C.. On that day, Bowen organized 200 lbs. of daisies, purchased by his New York friend Peggy Hitchcock, (the wife of Walter Bowart
), to be distributed to the protesters as the Military Police
protected the Pentagon from the massive anti Vietnam War
demonstration
. The daisies, brought to the front lines of the tense confrontation by Bowen and others, were taken by the demonstrators and put into the nearest holder that symbolically communicated their anti-war sentiment. The iconic photograph "Flower Power", taken by photojournalist Bernie Boston
, of the daisies being put into the bayoneted gun barrels of the soldiers by the unarmed anti-war demonstrators, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize
in 1968. The photograph "flower power
" is listed as #30 amongst the top 100 wartime photographs and the idealism
of flower power remains as an anti-war symbol
.
to India
and Nepal
where he completed a series of drawings and sketches. These drawings were made into a book, Journey to Nepal, published by City Lights Books in 1970.
Throughout his five-decade career, many of the themes in Bowen's artworks represent sukhavati
, the pure land
or place of bliss. As a long-time student of Vedanta
, Bowen's images are best understood through the lens of the ancient Dharmic Wisdom
traditions of Asia.
In the early 1990s, Bowen found an abandoned cement traffic barrier in Golden Gate Park
and claimed to have transformed it into a Shiva lingam. It then became a site of worship and veneration until the authorities had him remove it. At that time, he was known as Baba Kali Das.
, Ramakrishna and Indra, and daughters Maitreya and Kaela.
Visionary art
Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences.-Definition:...
movements. His works include paintings on canvas and paper, 92 intaglio
Intaglio (printmaking)
Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate, and the incised line or area holds the ink. Normally, copper or zinc plates are used as a surface, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or...
etchings based on Jungian psychology, assemblage
Assemblage
An assemblage is an archaeological term meaning a group of different artifacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context...
, bronze sculpture
Bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it...
, collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
, and handmade art books.
An icon of the American Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
and the 1960s counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
, Bowen is also known for his role in inspiring and organizing the first Human Be-In
Human Be-In
The Human Be-In was a happening in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the afternoon and evening of January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol as the center of an American counterculture and introduced the word 'psychedelic'...
in San Francisco. Chronicled in books and periodicals reflecting on the turbulent 60s, Bowen's historical impact on both the literary and visual art worlds is well documented. He remains influential among avante-garde art circles around the world.
Early career in Los Angeles
Michael Bowen was born December 8, 1937, in Beverly Hills to Grace and Sterling Bowen, a Hollywood dentist. His mother's lover, Benjamin (Bugsy) SiegelBugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
, affectionately known as Uncle Benjie to Michael, would often take the youthful Bowen to not only the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
that he created, but also to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel near Union Square
Union Square
Union Square may refer to:Asia* Union Square * Union Square station on Dubai MetroCanada* Union Square, Nova ScotiaUnited States* Union Square, Baltimore, Maryland* Union Square * Union Square, San Francisco, California...
in downtown San Francisco. Bowen's early romance with San Francisco established this city as his home base from which he would frequently travel to other places in the world. He started his art career at age 17, when he joined the American installation artist Ed Kienholz in his Los Angeles studio. There he met and joined with other influential Beat Generation artists including Wallace Berman
Wallace Berman
Wallace Berman was an American visual and assemblage artist. He has been called the "father" of assemblage art and a "crucial figure in the history of postwar California art".-Personal life and education:...
, John Altoon
John Altoon
John Altoon , an American artist, was born in Los Angeles, California to immigrant Armenian parents. From 1947–1949 he attended the Otis Art Institute, from 1947 to 1950 he also attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and in 1950 the Chouinard Art Institute. Altoon was a prominent...
, and Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
. Bowen participated in the construction of the Ferus Gallery
Ferus Gallery
The Ferus Gallery was a contemporary art gallery operating from 1957-1966. In 1957 it was located at 736-A North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California...
and Now Gallery created by Ed Kienholz and curated by Walter Hopps
Walter Hopps
Walter Hopps was an American museum director and curator of contemporary art. His obituary in the Washington Post described him as a "sort of a gonzo museum director -- elusive, unpredictable, outlandish in his range, jagged in his vision, heedless of rules."Hopps was born in Eagle Rock, Los...
. Bowen attended the Chouinard Art Institute
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
for several years during his formative artistic experiences in Los Angeles.
Early mystical education
Bowen's grandmother, Alma Porter, was a member of The Theosophical Society in Ojai, California, where young Bowen was exposed to the significance of esoteric metaphysicsMetaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
and modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
. In Los Angeles, teenage Bowen's many visits to the mystical gatherings at Samson De Brier's house further solidified his early Asian philosophical studies. In the late 50s and early 60s, Bowen continued his spiritual training and research. He investigated and practiced a variety of occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
topics, Eastern philosophies, and mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
, and his artwork reflected these themes. Bowen is often referred to as a mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
artist. As a lifelong student of the Bhagavad-Gita, Bowen's entire career has emulated the spiritual warrior
Spiritual warrior
A spiritual warrior is a person who bravely battles with the universal enemy, self-ignorance , the ultimate source of suffering according to dharmic philosophies. The term is applied in religious and metaphysical writing. There are self-described spiritual warriors. The spiritual warrior can be...
archetype
Archetype
An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
of Arjuna
Arjuna
Arjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...
, fighting for the Bill of Rights
United States Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and property. They guarantee a number of personal freedoms, limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and...
of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
.
San Francisco Beat Generation
Michael Bowen moved to San Francisco in the late 50s, and along with fellow artist comrades Arthur Monroe and Michael McCracken, lived and worked out of 72 Commercial Street. Painting spontaneous, impromptu, hectic canvases, along with assemblageAssemblage
An assemblage is an archaeological term meaning a group of different artifacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context...
and collage, Bowen became an integral part of the San Francisco Renaissance
San Francisco Renaissance
The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco and which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetic avant-garde. However, others The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range...
.
The Norwegian art patron and physician Reidar Wennesland befriended Bowen and many of his bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
artist friends and collected their artwork. Bowen's work now makes up the majority of the paintings in the Wennesland Foundation Collection located in Kristiansand, Norway, alongside many other important North Beach artists, such as Jay DeFeo
Jay DeFeo
Jay DeFeo was a visual artist associated with the Beat generation who worked c.1950-1989 in the San Francisco Bay Area....
. A 1963 painting of Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
by Bowen, along with his prophetic 1966 Love painting, are examples of the Bowen works in the Wennesland collection. Bowen's style progressed from large abstract expressionist canvases to figuratives and large faces, to assemblage
Assemblage
An assemblage is an archaeological term meaning a group of different artifacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context...
. Bowen's painting about McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
, Red Future? from the Wennesland Collection, was featured in the 1995 Whitney Museum exhibition Beat Culture and the New America, 1950-1965, which opened in New York City and then traveled to the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
in Minneapolis and the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
Exile from San Francisco
In 1963, police brutalityPolice brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
and persecution drove many of the Beat Generation writers, musicians, and artists out of San Francisco. Michael Bowen, along with many of his artist friends moved to an old Abalone Factory in Princeton by the Sea, where they lived and painted for many months. Bowen's singer friend, Janis Joplin was a frequent guest at the Princeton Abalone studio.
In 1963, on one of Bowen's visits to be with his mentor in Tepoztlan, he was initiated into an ancient Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
shamanic ceremony that inspired his future work with world consciousness transformation. After his initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
, Bowen traveled to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he established a studio in the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
and met with many of the Beat Generation artists, writers, and musicians living on America's East Coast. He often visited the two former Harvard professors Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
and Ram Dass
Ram Dass
Ram Dass is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem...
, then Richard Alpert, in their mansion at Millbrook, New York
Millbrook, New York
Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is often said to be a "low-key version of the Hamptons" and one of the wealthiest towns in New York State. Millbrook's estimated town population was 1,551 in 2008. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, an hour and thirty...
, where a new variety of consciousness experimentations were being conducted.
San Francisco Oracle and the Love Pageant Rally
In the summer of 1966, Michael Bowen traveled back to San Francisco and established a studio/ashram in the middle of the newly burgeoning Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Along with the poet Allen CohenAllen Cohen (poet)
Allen Cohen was an American poet. Born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, he attended Brooklyn College and then moved to San Francisco in 1963. There, he founded and edited the San Francisco Oracle underground newspaper, which was published from 1966 to 1968...
, Bowen co-founded the underground newspaper, San Francisco Oracle
San Francisco Oracle
The Oracle of the City of San Francisco, also known as the San Francisco Oracle, was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from September 20, 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city...
that broadcast the 60s counterculture ideology. Bowen became the art director and let his studio become the offices for the Oracle, while Cohen was the editor. As the S.F. Oracle guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
, Bowen hosted the first underground press meeting at his studio at Stinson Beach.
On October 6, 1966, Bowen and Cohen organized the Love Pageant Rally
Love Pageant Rally
The Love Pageant Rally took place on October 6, 1966 — the day LSD became illegal — in the 'panhandle' of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
, a celebration against the new law criminalizing LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
in California. Because of Bowen's friendship and invitation, Janis Joplin came to the event along with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...
, and played for free. About 3,000 people attended the Love Pageant Rally, and towards the end, Ram Dass, Cohen, and Bowen discussed having another event, this time much bigger, to celebrate the newly developing hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
counterculture and consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
expansion in San Francisco.
The Human Be-In
The event the three counterculture leaders previously envisioned became the Human Be-In, which took place on January 14, 1967. The event was primarily organized by Bowen. He created the poster promoting the event, organized the city permit, invited the Beat Generation speakers, including Allen GinsbergAllen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
, Lenore Kandel
Lenore Kandel
Lenore Kandel was an American poet.Kandel was briefly notorious as the author of a short book of poetry, The Love Book...
, Michael McClure
Michael McClure
Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums...
, and Timothy Leary, and scheduled the San Francisco rock bands, including The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, who played for free at the event. The Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
provided security, and a flatbed truck with amplification driven by a gas generator was donated to create a stage. The Human Be-In was a coming together of people for no other reason than to just "BE"; to make love, not war, to share and commune with new friends and to celebrate life. The Human Be-In, sometimes referred to as a Love-In, was specifically designed by Bowen to be imitated and to be remembered into the future. As a lifelong fine artist, Bowen considers his creation of the Human Be-In to be performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. This notion was confirmed by an Italian journalist, who calls Bowen "The father of performance art" for his Human Be-In creation.
Flower Power
On October 21, 1967, 75,000 anti-war protesters surrounded the PentagonThe Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
in Washington D.C.. On that day, Bowen organized 200 lbs. of daisies, purchased by his New York friend Peggy Hitchcock, (the wife of Walter Bowart
Walter Bowart
Walter Howard Bowart was an American leader in the counterculture movement of the 1960s, founder and editor of the first underground newspaper in New York City, the East Village Other, and author of the book Operation Mind Control.-Life and career:Born Walter Howard Kirby in Omaha, Nebraska,...
), to be distributed to the protesters as the Military Police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
protected the Pentagon from the massive anti Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
demonstration
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
. The daisies, brought to the front lines of the tense confrontation by Bowen and others, were taken by the demonstrators and put into the nearest holder that symbolically communicated their anti-war sentiment. The iconic photograph "Flower Power", taken by photojournalist Bernie Boston
Bernie Boston
Bernie Boston was an American photographer most noted for his iconic Pulitzer Prize-nominated photograph, Flower Power.-Life and career:...
, of the daisies being put into the bayoneted gun barrels of the soldiers by the unarmed anti-war demonstrators, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in 1968. The photograph "flower power
Flower power
Flower power is a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in...
" is listed as #30 amongst the top 100 wartime photographs and the idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
of flower power remains as an anti-war symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
.
India and Nepal
In 1969, Bowen made his first pilgrimagePilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
where he completed a series of drawings and sketches. These drawings were made into a book, Journey to Nepal, published by City Lights Books in 1970.
Throughout his five-decade career, many of the themes in Bowen's artworks represent sukhavati
Sukhavati
Sukhāvatī refers to the western Pure Land of the Buddha Amitābha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Sukhāvatī translates to "Land of Bliss."-In other languages:In traditional Mahayana Buddhist countries, there are a number of translations for Sukhāvatī....
, the pure land
Pure land
A pure land, in Mahayana Buddhism, is the celestial realm or pure abode of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. The various traditions that focus on Pure Lands have been given the nomenclature Pure Land Buddhism. Pure lands are also evident in the literature and traditions of Taoism and Bön.The notion of 'pure...
or place of bliss. As a long-time student of Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
, Bowen's images are best understood through the lens of the ancient Dharmic Wisdom
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
traditions of Asia.
In the early 1990s, Bowen found an abandoned cement traffic barrier in Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
and claimed to have transformed it into a Shiva lingam. It then became a site of worship and veneration until the authorities had him remove it. At that time, he was known as Baba Kali Das.
Personal life
Bowen married three times: first to actress Sonia Sorel (1921–2004). The marriage ended in divorce. His second wife was Martine. His third marriage was to Isabella—the marriage lasted until Bowen's death. Bowen is survived by his sons MichaelMichael Bowen
Michael Bowen may refer to:* Michael George Bowen, former Archbishop of Southwark* Michael Bowen , American film and television actor* Michael Bowen , American artist...
, Ramakrishna and Indra, and daughters Maitreya and Kaela.