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The collection
Tolstoy once said "Art is bringing people together".
The following review in Italian and English will introduce
you to a subterranian California artist who has had a continuous impact
on global cultural affairs for the last 50 years. Until recently Michael
Bowen's highly valued paintings, drawings and assemblages have been known
only to a small elite group of international collectors.
On this page are links that will give you a peek
into his vast and growing body of work and take you behind the scenes in
the creative firmament of the Beatnik led cultural revolution of the 1950s
and 60s.
The 1967 global happening, engineered by Michal
Bowen, his Guru, John Starr Cook, and the staff of the San Francisco Oracle,
called the " Summer of Love", culminated in the historic 1969 Woodstock
Festival and continues to bring people together who desire artistic and
spiritual liberty while caring and sharing with one another.
LA NAZIONE
Prato speciale Carmignano Domenica 6 Decembre 1998
THE MASTERPIECES OF MICHAEL BOWEN LEADER OF the ART Revolution
Saturday December 19th 1998 in the gallery of Carmignano
In mostra le opere di Michael Bowen un leader della rivoluzione artistica
Sabato 19 Dicembre la saletta adiacente al salone ospiterà i lavori di un artista, vero
leader nella rivoluzione culturale, un artista di grande prestigio
lo statunitense ed attivista, ruolo che gli è stato riconosciuto: Michael Bowen.
Il pittore e' considerato a Carmignano e ha accettato la proposta della Pro Loco
con entusiasmo, come artista che nutre amore per la nostra terra.
E' un personaggio conosciuto per la pittura ad olio,
come acquaforgio di fama internazionale e filosofo spiritualista. Ha esposto le sue
opere in molte mostre d'arte orientale ed occidentale.
E' famoso nei musei statunitensi ed europei. Per Carmignano e' un grande onore poterlo ospitare.
(rinaldo rasa edited some lineas of the italian language newspaper article)
Heres what they are saying about Bowen in Italy
"He is the father of Performance Art.!"
by Stella Spinelli
"Everyday he expresses into the canvas
the activities and experience that were flooding his life."
Saturday the Pro Loco, cultural association of Carmignano will have the
honor to inaugurate the exhihition of paintings by Michael Bowen,
paintings of San Francisco, Mexico, Hawaii, India and Tuscany.
Michael Bowen is a famous artist who is known all over the world; he is a
philosopher, spiritualist, historian. He is an exponent of the greatest
prestige of the |"Beat Culture". His best works have been shown in the most
famous Museums. From the Whitney Museum in New York to the De Young
Museum in San Francisco. He lives now here among us in a characteristic
ancient villa of Carmignano. Here he lives with his young Florentine wife,
Isa, and their son Indra age 2, his 28 year old daughter Maitreya, and
major domo, Mr. Ram . He also maintains his other studio in Hawaii kept
by supporters.
Michael Bowen has led a fascinating and itinerant life: born in Bcverly HiIls,
California, December the 8th 1937, he attended the Chounard Art Institute in
Los Angeles. In this city at 16 years of age he created his first art studio. For one
year he lived and apprenticed with the great artist, Ed Keinholz, collaborating with
him and others in the pre-beat movement that has drawn personages of prestige
such as Andy Warhol.
In 1957 he moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Since then, and thanks to
many exhibitions in famous galleries of that city, his works have been acquired
and protected by many European and American collectors. In the early 1960s he
went for the first time to Mexico, which has become the favorite goal of his
painting tours. Back in San Francisco he created the greatest example of
performance art, the "Human Be In", with his collaborator in performance art,
Allen Cohen, with whom he also created a great magazine of science, art, and
metaphysics called, the San Francisco Oracle, that expressed to the public the
concept of the "Beat Art". He has inspired the cultural revolution in the U.S.A.
where he played the role of activist leader. The years between 1966 and 1998 see
the "Hi8" style of Bowen. Everyday he expresses into the canvas the activities
and experience that were flooding his life. Since that time he has become one
of the principal catalysts in artistic circles of the International avant garde. He has
sojourned in India and in England where he has known John and Yoko Lennon.
He has lived in Japan and in Cambodia where he has united the visual symbolisrn
of east and west. His paintings are rich in sophisticated mysticism, the fruit of his
complete experiences and prolific paintings in different lands.
Stella Spinelli
translation, I.Paoli
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