William Pope.L
Encyclopedia
William Pope.L is an American visual artist best known for his work in performance art
, and interventionist public art. However, he has also produced art in painting
, photography
and theater. He was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial
and is a Guggenheim Fellow.
from 1973 to 1975 and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art
Independent Study Program from 1977 to 1978. He received a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Montclair State University
, Montclair, New Jersey
in 1978. Each summer he worked assisting severely disabled persons at camps in rural environments. He received a Master of Fine Arts
degree in visual arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts
at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
in 1981.
at Bates College
in Lewiston, Maine
. As a faculty member he directed a production of Lorraine Hansberry
's A Raisin In the Sun
, in which he used both African-American and Caucasian actors as members of the same family.
For ATM Piece, performed in 1997, he attached himself with an eight-foot length of Italian sausage to the door of a Chase bank in midtown Manhattan wearing nothing but a skirt made out of dollar bills.
eRacism, a project that Pope.L began during the late 1970s, included over 40 endurance
-based performances consisting of “crawls”, varying in length and duration. In one example titled Tompkins Square Crawl (1991) Pope.L dressed in a business suit and crawled through the gutter in Tompkins Square Park
, New York, pushing a potted flower with one hand. Another example titled The Great White Way, involved a crawl which stretched over 22 miles and took five years to complete. For this performance he donned a Superman
outfit and strapped a skateboard to his back. The crawl stretched the entire 22 miles of Broadway, in New York City. Documentation of this performance was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial
. He attended Upper St. Clair High School where he donated much money for the reconstruction of the school; Upper St. Clair named their school library after him.
, rescinded funding for the grant. Joel Wachs
, then president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, stated in the December 21st issue of The New York Times:
The Warhol Foundation, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and the LEF Foundation provided $50,000 in funding for the traveling retrospective to tour the United States. eRacism exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art; Diverse Works Art space, Houston, 2003; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), Oregon, 2003; and Artists Space, New York, 2003 .
The catalog "William Pope.L: Friendliest Black Artist in America" was produced by curator Mark Bessire in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition.
In 2002 Pope.L received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant. In 2004 he received a Guggenheim
Fellowship. In 2005 The Black Factory, an art installation on wheels, traveled from Maine to Missouri as part of The Interventionists show organized by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
(Mass MOCA). "Typically the Factory arrives at a city or town and sets up its interactive workshop on the street. People bring objects that represent blackness to them. The Factory’s workers use these objects in tightly rehearsed but loosely performed skits to stimulate a conversation — a flow of ideas, images and experiences. Most objects are photographed and made part of the Factory’s virtual library, some are housed in the Factory’s archive for later use, and some are pulverized in the Factory’s workshop to make new products available in the Factory’s gift shop."
In 2006 he was selected as one of the United States Artists fellows, for which he was awarded a $50,000 unrestricted grant.
He was featured alongside other performing artists: Sean Penn
, Willem Dafoe
, Brad Pitt
, Steve Buscemi
, and Juliette Binoche
in Robert Wilson
's LAB HD
portraits. In 2008, Pope.L's piece "One Substance, Eight Supports, One Situation" was selected to participate in The Renaissance Society's group exhibition, "Black Is, Black Ain't".
In 2010 Pope.L was appointed faculty at the University of Chicago
.
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...
, and interventionist public art. However, he has also produced art in painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and theater. He was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
and is a Guggenheim Fellow.
Education
Pope.L attended Pratt InstitutePratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
from 1973 to 1975 and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
Independent Study Program from 1977 to 1978. He received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Montclair State University
Montclair State University
Montclair State University is a public research university located in the Upper Montclair section of Montclair, the Great Notch area of Little Falls, and Clifton, New Jersey. As of October 2009, there were 18,171 total enrolled students: 14,139 undergraduate students and 4,032 graduate students...
, Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...
in 1978. Each summer he worked assisting severely disabled persons at camps in rural environments. He received a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
degree in visual arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers...
at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
in 1981.
Early work
From in 1990 to 2010, Pope.L was a lecturer of Theater and RhetoricRhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
at Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
. As a faculty member he directed a production of Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry was an African American playwright and author of political speeches, letters, and essays...
's A Raisin In the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes...
, in which he used both African-American and Caucasian actors as members of the same family.
For ATM Piece, performed in 1997, he attached himself with an eight-foot length of Italian sausage to the door of a Chase bank in midtown Manhattan wearing nothing but a skirt made out of dollar bills.
eRacism, a project that Pope.L began during the late 1970s, included over 40 endurance
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
-based performances consisting of “crawls”, varying in length and duration. In one example titled Tompkins Square Crawl (1991) Pope.L dressed in a business suit and crawled through the gutter in Tompkins Square Park
Tompkins Square Park
Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the...
, New York, pushing a potted flower with one hand. Another example titled The Great White Way, involved a crawl which stretched over 22 miles and took five years to complete. For this performance he donned a Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
outfit and strapped a skateboard to his back. The crawl stretched the entire 22 miles of Broadway, in New York City. Documentation of this performance was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
. He attended Upper St. Clair High School where he donated much money for the reconstruction of the school; Upper St. Clair named their school library after him.
2001 onward
In 2001 The National Endowment for the Arts advisory renew panel granted Pope.L $42,000 in financing for a traveling retrospective called William Pope.L: eRacism. Shortly after announcing the award, the acting chairman, Robert S. MartinRobert S. Martin
Robert S. Martin, Ph.D. is an American librarian, archivist, administrator, and educator. He is the former director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services , and is currently a member of the National Council on the Humanities and of the U.S...
, rescinded funding for the grant. Joel Wachs
Joel Wachs
Joel Wachs , was a Los Angeles, California, City Council member for thirty years and a three-time candidate for mayor of that city, who is now the president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York City...
, then president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, stated in the December 21st issue of The New York Times:
"It is important, particularly in light of what I would consider an attack on freedom of expression, to stand firm. We want this exhibition to occur; we want other funders to step forward; we don't want the N.E.A.'s decision to be something that has the effect of stopping what I think is going to be an important exhibition of art."
The Warhol Foundation, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and the LEF Foundation provided $50,000 in funding for the traveling retrospective to tour the United States. eRacism exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art; Diverse Works Art space, Houston, 2003; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), Oregon, 2003; and Artists Space, New York, 2003 .
The catalog "William Pope.L: Friendliest Black Artist in America" was produced by curator Mark Bessire in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition.
In 2002 Pope.L received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant. In 2004 he received a Guggenheim
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
Fellowship. In 2005 The Black Factory, an art installation on wheels, traveled from Maine to Missouri as part of The Interventionists show organized by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, commonly referred to as MASS MoCA, is a museum in a converted factory building located in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the country.MASS MoCA opened with 19...
(Mass MOCA). "Typically the Factory arrives at a city or town and sets up its interactive workshop on the street. People bring objects that represent blackness to them. The Factory’s workers use these objects in tightly rehearsed but loosely performed skits to stimulate a conversation — a flow of ideas, images and experiences. Most objects are photographed and made part of the Factory’s virtual library, some are housed in the Factory’s archive for later use, and some are pulverized in the Factory’s workshop to make new products available in the Factory’s gift shop."
In 2006 he was selected as one of the United States Artists fellows, for which he was awarded a $50,000 unrestricted grant.
He was featured alongside other performing artists: Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
, Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
, Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
, and Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during...
in Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
's LAB HD
LAB HD
LAB HD was a three-year experiment by Voom HD Networks. It is the only channel in history devoted to video art and experimental film as a continuous flow of ambient television...
portraits. In 2008, Pope.L's piece "One Substance, Eight Supports, One Situation" was selected to participate in The Renaissance Society's group exhibition, "Black Is, Black Ain't".
In 2010 Pope.L was appointed faculty at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
Quotes
Pope.L's art focuses on issues of consumption, social class, and masculinity as they relate to race. He is quoted as saying of his own work:In his Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship bio, he writes:
“I am a fisherman of social absurdity, if you will… My focus is to politicize disenfranchisement, to make it neut, to reinvent what’s beneath us, to remind us where we all come from.”
"Like the African shaman who chews his pepper seeds and spits seven times into the air, I believe art re-ritualizes the everyday to reveal something fresh about our lives. This revelation is a vitality and it is a power to change the world.".
Further reading
- William Pope.L: The Friendliest Black Artist in America, Mark H. C. Bessire, The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2002 (ISBN 0-262-02533-7).
- The Whole Entire World: Interview with William Pope.L by Amy Horschak in Dak'Art 2006, La Biennale de DakarDakar BiennaleThe Dakar Biennale, or Dak'Art - Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain, is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Dakar, Senegal...
: Dakar, 2006, p. 382-383.
External links
- The Black Factory project official website
- Documentary Film of the Black Factory Rehearsal 2005
- Distributing Martin
- Artful Mind article from 2004
- The Void Show Exhibition Review published in X-TRA : Contemporary Art Quarterly
- William Pope.L at Mitchell-Innes & Nash