Sept. 25th, 2020
For folks who never really appreciated my work to raise Rhythmism from the narrowness of "my style" to the level of being a genre or as "ism", this Residency affords them the opportunity for just that. Appreciation in better than tolerance. Rhythmism was applied in commercial and fine art. Functional art and narrative art. Wearable Art, Art Education along with Art Therapy. All with varying degrees of impact, success and potential. All done by my taking the hit! Yes, "the hit"!. No one likes an innovator. Most do not like a Black male that is talented. intelligent and well educated. Not to mention I had zero family supports. Yet I insisted that Rhythmism existed therefore I persisted.
There were commercial illustrations that I lost due to my insistence to using Rhythmism. There were others I got for using subtle aspects of Rhythmism. Like with Playboy's OUI Magazine or MODE Avante Garde. This was the give and take all along the way. Then the flow of artistic peers who seemed to resent or be jealous that I was on that path in terms of my practice. Along with an art establishment that insures intelligent Black males, who Identify as "Black" not "Post Black", not "African-American" and very heterosexual will be aggressively marginalized or ignored.
While I was in Paris I sent my samples, ( the above Venuses ) to a major art dealer in Chicago who was handling the Imagists to great financial success at that time. She wrote back her positive enthusiasm to learn of the work that moved beyond the levels of those artists and insisted I see her as soon as I return to Chicago. That was 1978, There was no internet. Therefore she had no way of knowing I was Black.
When made my appointment and walked into her gallery....she screeched, "Who are you?". I stated I was Turtel and that we had an appointment. She loudly screamed I was a fraud. That no way could I have been the artist behind that work. Then she turned and walked away into an office. When I tried to follow her to try to clam her jets a bit, two of her assistants stepped up to block my path. One looked me up and down...then he said, "Well if you were gay maybe you would get a play"!
Conclusion being my being Black & Heterosexual was a no go! I never got gallery representation or such. Thank God for Not For Profit galleries and such.
Fortunately this has never been my experience at the Hyde Park Art Center since Allison and later Kate, arrived and they reopened in the current location in 2006. Their level of openness and appreciation is rare to almost unique in the art world. I know. I have made the rounds in New York, Paris, and a few other places. The same in various genres. Meaning commercial art. Art Education. Art Therapy. That type of exclusion and ever present resistance was always too common of a factor. However there was something called the American Dream and the Protestant Work Ethic! The process of pulling oneself up by ones bootstraps. Staying out of trouble. Working hard...and I added working smart. Yup! My Black ass went Yankee Know-How on them! Often smarter than all of them combined. Proof being this, my Rhythmistic Residency, Summer/Fall 2020 HPAC. I proved my hypothesis. A genre can be created and named by the innovative artist that was willing to take the hit to do so. It is documented. Rhythmism Lives!
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