Chuck Connelly : My America @ The Andy Warhol Museum

Chuck Connelly: My America @ The Andy Warhol Museum for the Pittsburgh Biennial 2014 from PFPCA on Vimeo.

Surreal, fantastic, hideous and humorous but rarely boring

The once, hailed art star, Connelly is now known more as a character and cautionary tale than the actual living artist he still is.

From The Warhol Museum website

Chuck Connelly: Homo, 1979 Courtesy of the artist

"This exhibition, Chuck Connelly: My America, will mark Connelly’s first solo museum show and feature works from his beginning years in New York to the present day. Born in Pittsburgh in 1955, Connelly graduated from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia in 1977. In the early 1980s Connelly, based in New York City, exhibited widely and developed a highly inventive style of expressionist painting. During this period, Connelly was recognized as a key figure among the New York-based Neo-expressionist painters – alongside artists such Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat – and was collected by major institutions across the United States. In the late 1990s, Connelly returned to Philadelphia where he continues to live and work."

Amazingly, they say this is his first museum solo

From a 2008 blog post by David Grim

"Right from the start it was clear that Chuck Connelly was a bit unstable. He paced through the screen nervously, ranting and raving against his perceived enemies and the injustices of his life. He was shown haranguing a woman who I soon figured out was his ex-wife, and it was clear that being around Connelly must be a trial. He is the true manifestation of the artist as L'enfant terrible. He drinks incessantly, and becomes increasingly agitated until the point of violence. This isn't surprising as he is said to view himself as a Jackson Pollock-type, outside the realms of polite cultured society. Apparently he learned quite early that he would be allowed a certain amount of self-indulgence, given his profuse talent.

But evidently Connelly miscalculated the reception his act would generate. At one point he looked assured to attain the lofty ranks of art-stardom. He was represented by Annina Nosei, and courted by collectors and celebrities. He sold millions of dollars in paintings. Martin Scorcese even used him as his subject in his segment of New York Stories. According to the tale that director Jeff Stimmel spins, this tribute actually led to his downfall. After New York Stories (starring Nick Nolte as the infamously truculent artist) was released, Connelly was asked for his reaction to the film by The New York Post. He called the portrayal mundane and cliché, and made a rather unflattering comparison to Scorcese's masterpiece,Raging Bull."

But evidently Connelly miscalculated the reception his act would generate. At one point he looked assured to attain the lofty ranks of art-stardom. He was represented by Annina Nosei, and courted by collectors and celebrities. He sold millions of dollars in paintings. Martin Scorcese even used him as his subject in his segment of New York Stories. According to the tale that director Jeff Stimmel spins, this tribute actually led to his downfall. After New York Stories (starring Nick Nolte as the infamously truculent artist) was released, Connelly was asked for his reaction to the film by The New York Post. He called the portrayal mundane and cliché, and made a rather unflattering comparison to Scorcese's masterpiece,Raging Bull."

I admire his work the more I see it, especially the way he resists the clean packaging that can drive an artist's career.

Chuck Connelly: My America
September 27, 2014
January 4 , 2015