SKETCH SALON WITH ROBERT W. RICHARDS

ok aritsts in LA... here is your once in a lifetime chance to be part of a sketch salon host by ROBERT W. RICHARDS!

this event will not repeat, reserve your space now!


ANTEBELLUM
presents

special salon event-

SKETCH WITH A LEGEND
a one time only drawing salon hosted & instructed by

ROBERT W. RICHARDS

guest models-


ISAIAH GAINES


JAKE SPERM



CHRISTOPHER PENNINGTON




december 5th
1pm till 3pm- $30
reservations required

send CC info or paypal to- antebellum@earthlink.net

followed by-

TEA WITH A LEGEND
informal chat with

ROBERT W. RICHARDS

4pm til 6pm- $10 cover
(sketch salon members free)




ANTEBELLUM
1643 N LAS PALMAS AVE
HOLLYWOOD, CA 90028
323 856-0667
antebellum@earthlink.net

DIAMANDA RESPONDS

Diamanda Galás Responds to the Smithsonian’s Removal of David Wojnarowicz’s Work
Posted by Jonathan L. Fischer on Dec. 3, 2010- repost from-washingtoncitypaper


Fire in My Belly de David Wojnarowicz, Diamanda Galas
Uploaded by altimsah. - Arts and animation videos.

The avant-garde composer and artist Diamanda Galás was an inspiration for David Wojnarowicz's video artwork A Fire in My Belly, and her music was part of a seven-minute edit of the 13-minute work made after Wojnarowicz died in 1992. Galas wrote a statement responding to the Smithsonian's removal this week of a four-minute version of A Fire in My Belly. She had hoped the statement would be read aloud at a protest Thursday night outside the National Portrait Gallery, although it was not read. She permitted Arts Desk to publish it.

I am the composer and librettist for THIS IS THE LAW OF THE PLAGUE, the work from my mass for PWA’s, performed at ST JOHN THE DIVINE’S in 1991 against the wishes of John Cardinal O'Connor, who tried to prevent its performance.

THIS IS THE LAW OF THE PLAGUE was composed in 1986. I will presume this is the music composition upon which David's film FIRE IN THE BELLY was based, or with which he felt a strong affinity,because I have been asked to defend our work, this collaboration. And I shall do so now.

I must begin,however, by making a behavioral and medical diagnosis of the rather shocking reaction of the Catholic League of Washington DC and particular members of the House of Representatives to this work. Their complaint is that the work "offends Christians," or so I hear. I have heard many stories, but working off of this assumption and the Smithsonian's own decision to either independently censor the work or cave in to these organizations, there are possibility three guilty parties here.

What the Catholic League and certain members of the House presumably wish to remove from their consciousness is thirty years of death sentences handed down to their parishioners and citizenry, who were told not to wear condoms, and the mistreatment of those stigmatized as miscreants and sinners by their viral status and/or homosexuality and/or status as drug addicts.

They wish to remove the UNSEPARATE CHURCH AND STATE conduct throughout the epidemic, which this film articulately reflects.

FIRE IN THE BELLY is a HOLY film. IT MUST be. And why is this?

The text that I chose in 1986 in London was from LEVITICUS, chapter 15, THE BOOK OF LAWS, from the OLD TESTAMENT – whose treatment of the unclean is proscribed therein by any church that employs this text and by the many legislators who for years have wanted to separate the infected from the uninfected. My liturgical treatment of LEVITICUS is a march of the priests and lawmakers forcing the unclean from the gates of the City into warehouses out of town, and is very gently illustrated by David's depiction of the crucified Christ covered with ants. Ants are only one of the many insects and animals that would cover a man removed from his village and deposited in a leper asylum. There would also be maggots and rats and crows. David was gentle, I must insist.

I remember the doctors who told me they believed this was the way to go, and this was in 1993. There was Plum Island, after all, and other places where the contagious could be housed.
Here, Catholics and HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES is YOUR OWN TEXT written so long ago and practiced in the USA to a brutal degree in this country for thirty years and to a much MORE brutal degree now in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, among others. Do not forget the punishment of Iraqi homosexuals with hum (anal glue), which glues the anus shut, and, in combination with the forced imbibing of laxatives, explodes the colon.

Here Protectors of the Public Good is your text and a Merry Xmas to you!

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 15 from THE OLD TESAMENT

When any man hath an issue out of his flesh.
Because of that issue he is unclean.

Every bed whereon he lieth is unclean
and everything whereon he sitteth, unclean.

And whosoever toucheth his bed shall be unclean,
And he that sitteth whereon he sat shall be unclean.

And he that toucheth
the flesh of the unclean
Becomes unclean.

And he that be spat on by him unclean
Becomes unclean.

And whosoever toucheth anything under him
shall be unclean.

And he that beareth any of those things
shall be unclean.

And what saddle soever he rideth upon is unclean
And the vessel of earth that he toucheth, unclean.

And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him,
he is unclean.
Every garment, every skin whereon is the seed, unclean.

And the woman with whom this man shall lie
shall be unclean.
And whosoever toucheth her will be unclean.

This is the law of the plague:
to teach when it is clean and when it is unclean.

And the priest shall look upon the plague
for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot.

And the priest shall shut up he that hath the plague.
He shall carry them forth to a place unclean.

He shall separate them in their uncleanness.

This is the law of the plague:
To teach when it is clean and when it is unclean.

I performed Plague Mass in Italy in 1989 at Pogio a Caiano and was called a heretic by the CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT PARTY, led by Rinaldo Innaco. I was not allowed to perform in the country for many years. I was shocked and very offended. As a Greek, Italy is the country that had always most welcomed me and our cultures are very close. I was surprised at the massive amount of publicity, which questioned me as an enemy of Christ.

BUT CHRIST WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN!!!!!

HE WAS A VISIONARY AND A FIGHTER WHO WISHED TO OPEN THE DOORS OF THE SANCTUARIES TO THE SICK, AND FOR THIS HE WAS MURDERED BY THE LAWWMAKERS.

The word ‘sanctuary’ is based upon the Greek expression ithiateron thomation, which means ‘safe harbor, private room, a space of one's own.’ It also is based upon the Greek expression ieros assilon, which means ‘holy asylum,’ an asylum from predators.

To call the name of the exhibition Hide/See: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture and remove this work from it because it is too unpleasant strikes me as truly shocking. Is this film an insult to the spirit of Twinkletoes' whitebread Christmas, to his Christmas tree and its friendly beacons of light which whisper "Good cheer, One and All!"?

The video was removed. The cross is a symbol of the CRUCIFIXION, among the cruelest tortures in the world. This is the sentence of slow and horrific death in which the spinal column breaks and the organs rupture. This is the torture for the worst of outlaws – the man who protested that the sick and the poor were not allowed into the church for the crime of being perceived as UNCLEAN, rather than "pristine," and moneyed for his advocacy that the church BE a sanctuary to the sick, rather than a citadel for the rich family man, who comes to exchange invitations for tea and other such serious matters with OTHER rich family men.

David Wojnarowicz was a great artist who died a terrible death in 1992. It was one of the worst times in this country for people with AIDS. My brother, Philip-Dimitri Galas, died six years before him in 1986 of the same disease in San Diego. THERE WAS NO HOPE WHATSEOVER THEN FOR THIS DISEASE.

So what is so shocking about the truth now in 2010? Does it remind the clergy and the lawmakers of what the cross stands for: PUNISHMENT AND SAVAGE CRUELTY, and make ugly with the NICE and FRIENDLY WARM xmas spirit?

WHO in countries other than our own are dying horrific death of AIDS this Christmas? Christmas comes but once a year.

AND YOUR LIFE? It comes to you but once.

Diamanda Galás
NYC, Dec 2 2010

LOVERS AWWWW

Oliver & Landon

photo courtesy- erica liscano

ROBERT'S GLASSES

artist & icon ROBERT W. RICHARDS has completed the first of his series - ROBERT'S GLASSES. check it out-

meet ROBERT W. RICHARDS on friday @ antebellum gallery- 9-9pm
ROBERT W. RICHARDS- LEGEND
OPENING RECEPTION 9-PM
$5 COVER

ROBERT W. RICHARDS CATALOG

RWR, (robert w, richards) is in town... the exhibit is spectacular. here is a glimps of the catalog cover.
you can order a catalog of ROBERT W. RICHARDS- LEGEND, antebellum exhibition for $20

antebellum@earthlink.net

BUTT IT'S ART

photos courtesy- herb ritts foundation & tony duran

SLEAZY'S BLOG

for those of you who are interested, these are the last postingS-
peter, "sleazy" christopherson posted to his blog-
sleazybkk.blogspot.com

ROBERT W. RICHARDS IN HOLLYWOOD

on december 3rd, 2010 a living legend will descend on hollywood and antebellum gallery.


ROBERT W. RICHARDS will has his first solo exhibition @ antebellum gallery-

ROBERT W. RICHARDS~ LEGEND

the artwork of a living legend
december 3RD
6pm til 9pm

$5 COVER

(on exhibit thru december 18th)




special salon event-

SKETCH WITH A LEGEND
a one time only drawing salon hosted & instructed by
ROBERT W. RICHARDS
december 5th
1pm till 3pm- $30
reservations required

4pm- tea with a legend
informal chat with ROBERT W. RICHARDS
4pm til 6pm- $10 cover



ANTEBELLUM
1643 N LAS PALMAS AVE
HOLLYWOOD, CA 90028
323 856-0667
antebellum@earthlink.net
antebellum.us.ms



ROBERT W. RIICHARDS-
is an internationally acclaimed artist whose subjects have ranged from the highest of high society to the lowest of low life.. In the early 1980’s, he began, drawing and interviewing every major male porn star who had ever unzipped for the camera, an odyssey which eventually spanned four decades.
MR. RICHARDS has created portraits of everyone from LIZA, PEGGY LEE, LENA HORNE, WARHOL, to CASEY DONOVAN, PETER BERLIN, JACK WRANGLER, RYAN IDOL and JEFF STRYKER.

A collection of his drawings can be seen in the book “Allure,” published by Bruno Gmuender Books.


about the artist-

Described by Time Out magazine as "ICONIC"- artist Robert W Richards now in his fifth decade of drawing shows no symptoms of slowing down.

Richards started drawing professionally at the age of sixteen , doing ads for fashionable shops on Newbury street, Boston's version of Madison Avenue.

"As I was growing up in a dreary little factory town in Maine my seemingly unattainable dream was always to live and work in New York. So, barely of legal age, I made the move and I was instantly HOME!

From the late sixties to the mid-seventies I had the best of fashion illustration commissions- covering the Haute Couture shows in Paris and Rome, the high fashion runways in New York and London - working side by side with my idol
Kenn Paul Block. Intimidating, but thrilling!
Eventually the relentless travel and the monotony of endless shows took their toll. I now wanted to draw the people who wore the clothes not just the clothes. I wanted to draw MEN! Being typecast as a fashion artist,
someone who, it was assumed, could only draw stylized, elongated, unapproachable looking women proved an obstacle. Then the light came on! Gay magazines! Those doors flew open and a whole new career was underway.

Through the rest of the seventies, the eighties and nineties I interviewed and drew every major porn star of the era.
I drew endlessly for the gay rags - Torso, Men, Mandate, Honcho, Blue Boy.

All the while I continued my fashion and beauty work, designing Broadway posters, packaging CD's -
Lena Horne, Sinatra, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Betty Buckley all the way to Jackie Beat and Dirty Sanchez.

I'm as busy now as I ever have been. I've had two books "ALLURE" and "DIRTY LITTLE DRAWINGS" published by Bruno Gmunder, gallery shows at Leslie-Lohman, Feature Gallery and the contemporary Arts Center.

In 2009 at the prestigious Society of Illustrators I curated a major show of Fashion Illustration, unbelievably the first in New York since 1986.
At this advanced stage of my game, I remain as hungry as I was at the very beginning and to this moment my motto remains - NEXT!"



ANTEBELLUM gallery is proud to present ROBERT W. RICHARDS first solo west coast exhibition.

antebellum
1643 n las palmas ave
hollywood, ca 90028
323 856-0667
www.antebellum.us.ms
antebellum@earthlink.net