June 28, 1989
Wednesday, 6:20 pm

Simon Watson, Bill Dobbs, Hunter Reynolds and I met at Simon's an hour before the 4:00 Feldman meeting yesterday. The whole of ART+ met the night before to decide how to proceed and to make sure we didn't contradict each other.

The Ronald Feldman Gallery is going through renovations and he kept us waiting for about five minutes. We were then ushered into the front office -- I didn't know it was there -- behind the desk in the second gallery space. It was lined with magazines and books.

We sat around a small table and I started by saying we found the statements by Kostabi quoted in Vanity Fair disturbing but the aftermath we found horrifying. Kostabi's letter explaining the whole thing was unacceptable.

Feldman told us a tale about how he felt the "performance piece" was a case of very poor judgement and in very bad taste. He told Kostabi so. But he will support Kostabi, or at least not sever his professional connection to him. He brought up what was going on in the Soviet Union -- making us look like Stalinists.

We gave what is now our standard pitch: it was not just the statement we found disturbing but the use of AIDS as a vehicle for controversy and careerist publicity.

It was to no avail.

Feldman claimed Kostabi was set up by Anthony Haden-Guest, that he set him up after the piece came out by inviting the mother of his child to a party. Kostabi's statement to Vanity Fair was not accepted because they won't let him mention Haden-Guest. This made me want to go after Newhouse even more.

Ronald Feldman was not going to change his mind. He's a feisty guy used to art battles. He brought Joseph Beuys to America and has consistently shown political art and unpopular artists. He deserves respect. He doesn't agree with Kostabi for doing what he did but will not dump him for doing it. Any attempt to change his mind made stand his ground even more.

This put me in a very awkward position since he is the type of pragmatic businessman with sympathy we need more of. After all, I would want him to stand behind me as a dealer if I took an unpopular position.

He did seem to budge a little once we were able to make the connection between "gay rights" and the AIDS crisis. To a liberal like Feldman "gay rights" is one of many political labels he gladly accepts with the package but with little comprehension of what it means in political terms.

Too often activists use the term "oppression" without backing it up. You must make it clear just how this oppression operates and how Kostabi's remarks fed into it.

Kostabi passed himself off as gay for a number of years. He was what Jim Fouratt calls a "fake gay." Feldman laughed and asked how you do that. Then, sensing gay was no longer fashionable he made the most vile and vicious denunciation in order to clear himself and Haden-Guest aided and abetted him. That's the crux of the situation and we want to seize the opportunity that has opened up for attention along with everyone else.

I'm not sure Kostabi realizes what he's done, that the link between AIDS and gay bashing is now acceptable and that is a form of oppression because of the acceptance of his statement as controversy worth reporting in a major magazine.

Feldman seemed to change his mind a little at that point, but not much. We left his gallery without much of anything.

ART+ met later that night at the Paula Cooper Gallery where Hunter works. Aldo Hernandez brought his poster for us to wheatpaste and we rewrote the letter we're sending out to make it stronger.

After thinking it over I've decided to accept Kostabi's position that what he did was part of an unfinished performance piece. It is up to us to finish the script. Ronald Feldman is part of the piece, everyone is.

We have to be careful to keep the theme in line with AIDS and not just generate publicity for Kostabi. We can't change Feldman's mind. There is nothing Kostabi can do to make up for his statement. The ball is in our court, are the stars of this drama and we have an opportunity to keep the AIDS crisis in the spotlight, no matter how dimly that light flickers.

Feldman used the excuse that Kostabi's statements were entirely within the exclusive art world and therefore not damaging. He compared it to Beuys. Feldman is both a snake and an angel and he needs his thinking aired out in public where they will not hold water. (Simon Watson has often said the same thing to me, about the art world's "otherness" from the rest of life.)

Our letter states: "What kind of person would say these things, what kind of person would represent him..." We must give power to the word BIGOT again and let the freedom of speech issue resolve itself.

I don't know how to do it. We'll see, we'll learn.

Simon didn't agree with me that Feldman is in on the piece. He says we've just pushed Feldman up against a wall and he's not going to move, he'll go to the mat because he believes in what he's doing. I still say he's in on it.

I gave David Hixon a check for the studio and will move in some time next week. On Friday I'm going away on Friday to Saratoga. When I came home I finished a little "Manito Section" drawing, worked on a "Pool" drawing and sorted things out. Later, I'll go out wheatpasting the ART+ Kostabi poster.