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Untitled

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I'm going to give a go at wikifying this. I'll say when I'm done ... -- Tall Girl 03:43, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done. If you like, it remove the "{{wikify}}" tag. -- Tall Girl 04:34, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A long time ago

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I remember meeting Bruce Conner many years ago when I was in high school. I was in a punk band (back in 1977) and his son was the bass player in the band. I believed he was living in the Diamond Heights section of San Francisco at the time and he was working on the Mongoloid video with the new-wave band Devo and I got to see the video first hand. We(the members of the band) had a chance to see Devo at Mabuhay Gardens in 1977 (three years before "Whip It."). Bruce was a pleasant guy when I first met him

19:54, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

A really long time ago

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In 1965, plus or minus a year, I saw Bruce Conner participate in a panel discussion. The place was the auditorium of the University of Chicago Law School. Now, none of the obituaries have even mentioned that he was ever in Chicago, but The New York Times did describe his life as "peripatetic" during the 1960s. I don't remember what the advertised topic of the discussion was, or whether it was part of a larger festival of the kind universities put on to glorify themselves. At any rate, the other panelists I remember were Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, psychiatry professor Bruno Bettelheim and the former U.S. senator from Illinois Paul Douglas. Conner was silent during the entire time, but midway through he produced a box, which turned out to be full of marbles, and emptied it out onto the uncarpeted floor of the stage.

In thinking back on the event, I realize that my reaction to it -- that here was a psychologically disturbed individual -- had everything to do with context. Although he was apparently well-known in art circles by this time, I hadn't heard of him, so he must not have been known to the public -- or to a U.C. undergraduate -- as was Claes Oldenburg, for example. And he was the youngest of the panelists, which amplified the childish aspect of his prank. But if Oldenburg had done something like that, I _think_ my understanding would have been completely different.

--Charles V. Packer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.164.52.170 (talk) 12:04, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

wonderful story from a long time ago; but strange it doesn't appear here? or does it appear here --Ratbastardassn (talk) 17:27, 23 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Rat Bastard Protective Association

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It appears that the Bruce Conner page is also the landing page for the Rat Bastard Protective Association. I am interested in the RBPA. The RBPA would be from c.1959 to today, for example: Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess, and George Herms. However, little or no material pertains to the RBPA on this page? Does any editor have any thoughts on this? --Ratbastardassn (talk) 20:27, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Arxiloxos - so glad to learn of the reference. here is what I gleaned (including a picture of the RBPA seal) from that discussion. some of material appears interesting...curious to hear your thoughts --Ratbastardassn (talk) 19:12, 21 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]


The Rat Bastard Protective Association is an underground, arts organization. It was created by the artist, Bruce Conner, in San Francisco, California in 1959.[1] Its original members include: Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess Collins, George Herms, and Bruce Conner.[2] Conner coined the name as a play on 'Scavengers Protective Society'. [3][4]

Although Rat Bastard Protective Association has often been called a "secret art society," it is more correct to say that it is an esoteric art society, in that most aspects are private. The RBPA has, in the last few decades, become less a secret art society and more of a "society with art secrets." Most aspects of RBPA remain exclusive, the modes of recognition amongst members and particular factions within the association.

Yet, there have been many recent disclosures, awards and edicts[5], but these hermetic notices often lack the proper context for true understanding of the content, or could be outright hoaxes on the part of the association. The organization continues to this day. Subsequent elected members include Dennis Hopper, Michael McClure and LG Williams.

References

  1. ^ Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Interview with Bruce Conner, Conducted by Paul Karlstrom in San Francisco, California, August 12, 1974:
    File:Ratbastard seal.jpg
    Rat Bastard Protective Association Seal, Wally Hedrick's RBPA Seal c.2001. Col: Richard Reisman, Napa, CA.

    "Bruce Conner: I sent announcements to eight or nine people, ten people probably, telling them that they were all members of the Rat Bastard Protective Association. I was president. They should pay their dues. The next meeting was scheduled at my house. Then it was scheduled after that for every couple of weeks at Fred Martin's, or Joan Brown's, or Wally's house, or wherever."

  2. ^ Michael Ducan, Art in America, "The Self and Its Symbols", May 2000,

    ...from 1959 to 1966...the Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess, George Herms, and Bruce Conner... group was jokingly dubbed by Bruce Conner the Rat Bastard Protective Association."

  3. ^ James Boaden, Ruin of the Nineteenth Century: The Assemblage Work of Bruce Conner, 1957 – 1962 [www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/publications/papers/journal2/acrobat_files/boaden_article.pdf]
  4. ^ The title also puns on the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood; its initials the RBPA mirroring the PRB thus mocking the branding of a style and the cowering into clans of so many artists. Its members included Jay de Feo, Michael McClure, Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. See Rebecca Solnit, ‘Heretical Constellations: Notes on California, 1946–61’, in Sussman, ed., Beat Culture and the New America, 69–122, especially 71.
  5. ^ See for example:2002 RBPA 2002-2 the Rat Bastard Protection Agency Edict of 19 January 2002.

New book on the Rat Bastard Protective Association

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New book on the Rat Bastard Protective Association -- maybe relevant here of for an article on Rat Bastard Protective Association? Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective Association by Anastasia Aukeman, 2016, University of California Press Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 19:56, 2 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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