The End

Keinholz died in Idaho on June 10, 1994, from a heart attack. He was buried in one of his installations. He was put in the front seat of a 1940 Packard coupe; there was a deck of cards and a dollar in his pocket. A bottle of Chianti was beside him and the ashes of his dog were in the back seat. His wife then drove the car right into the hole where he was to be buried. His wife still organizes shows to display their sculptures. A lot of his works are still causing controversy today.

Bibliography

http://www.galerie-lelong.com/en/artiste-edward-kienholz-237.html

http://noskoff.lib.ru/pina/KIENHOLZ/index.htm

Books

http://www.amazon.com/Kienholz-Edward/dp/1881616681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322704881&sr=8-1

Time in The US

The Keinholz’s moved from LA to Hope, Idaho in 1973. They spent time in both Berlin and Idaho for the next 20 years. Keinholz open the Faith and Charity in Hope Gallery at their Idaho studio in 1977, a year after he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Because a lot of his works are so large many of them have not been displayed very much in the US. They are also hard for people to view because of their subject matter. The gruesome nature of some of the sculptures caused a lot of controversy and problems with having them displayed.

Collaboration

In 1981 Keinholz declared that all his work from 1972 on should be understood to be co-authored by his wife Nancy Reddin Kienholz. Most of these collaborated works were best accepted in Europe. Some of their collaborated works are Econo Can 1977, The Bronze Pinball Machine with Woman Affixed Also 1980, Same Old Shoe 1984, and The Pool Hall 1993.

 Econo Can 1977

 The Bronze Pinball Machine with Woman Affixed Also 1980

 Same Old Shoe 1984

The Pool Hall 1993

The State Hospital

The sculpture The State Hospital came from an actual experience of Kienholz. He was working in a mental hospital and the conditions of the inmates affected him. He wanted to show and these conditions to people and hopefully change them. The two almost mummified looking figures are restrained to the beds, which are filthy and unfit for anyone. If this truly is what the hospital was like I imagine how awfully the patients were treated.

The State Hospital 1966

Back Seat Dodge ‘38

Keinholz sculpture Back Seat Dodge ‘38 caused such a controversy at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art show that the back door had to be kept closed unless and adult visitor asked for it to be opened. They actually had it guarded. Many people thought this scene to be pornographic, which is one of the main reasons it was so controversial. This controversy actually made the show even more popular. Over 200 people lined up to see it.

The Wait

In The Wait he uses a small skeleton of an old woman sitting in a huge armchair. A round open sewing basket sits at her feet on a circular rug. A glass bowl represents her head with a small picture of her when she was young inside. Next to her is a round table with family photos and a large oval portrait of her husband hangs above her. Everything in the scene is a circular or oval shape unifying it and adding to the emotional impact.

The Beanery

Kienholz work The Beanery was created at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood in 1965. The scene smelled like beer poured all over and the endless sound of clinking glasses and chatter came from a soundtrack. The manikins have stopped clocks for faces and the women are wearing stained, ratty fur coats while the men are slouching at the bar. The scene is to show that people were just wasting time doing nothing when children were fighting in the Viet Nam war.

The Illegal Operation

During the 1960’s many people were campaigning for the legalization of abortion. Kienholz created The Illegal Operation, in which a woman’s body is represented by a sagging burlap sack filled with cement with an oozing gash in the midriff area. Filthy buckets, pots, and bedpans filled with rust and stained surgical instruments sit on a ragged knit rug. It is designed as a circle as to help draw the viewer into this scene of horror. 

Biography 2

He began creating wall pieces in 1954 with an idea to make them as ugly as possible in an attempt to understand beauty. Kienholz found his materials in back alleys and got most of his paint from auto shops and backrooms of house paint dealers. He would give his more figurative constructions satirical titles but leave his more abstract works untitled. At the end of 1958, Kienholz abandoned wood relief for a more three-dimensional assemblage. Some of the more known ones are John Doe (1961), Roxy’s (1961-62), Barney’s Beanery (1965), and Backseat Dodge ’38 (1964). From 1970 on he collaborated on works with his wife and fellow artist Nancy Reddin.

John Doe (1961)

Roxy’s (1961-62)

Backseat Dodge ’38

Biography

Edward Kienholz was born in Fairfield, WA in 1927. He studied at a handful of universities on the West Coast, but never completed a degree or got any formal art training. In 1953 he moved to Los Angeles, where he opened the Now Gallery in 1956. A year later, in 1957, he closed the Now Gallery and opened the Ferus Gallery with graduate students Walter Hopps and Bob Alexander. He managed the gallery during the day and work in the backroom, which was also his studio, while he was there. One of the galleries earliest exhibitions included paintings by Kienholz, Jay DeFeo, and John Altoon.