Born to Art
Leonard Xkanazy the LT School of Art , and the Anti LT Archives
While there have been numerous shows of the work of Xkanazy, his disciples, his rivals and artists clearly in his orbit (no matter how much they protest that description), this is the first work which authoritatively describes the historical development of this movement. While not endorsed by Xkanazy (as if that was in the realm of possibility), if does contain the one full interview he has given on the record. That alone would make it worth serious attention.
There will be no attempt here to summarize Xkanazy or his work. One can imagine Leonard L. Xkanazy would derisively say that attempts to describe him, or his work (or anything else for that matter) are failures, by definition. Once Xkanazy heard that his “disciple” Lenny KingJr called him a “conceptual artist/found object sculptor”. LLX shook his head sadly and laughed quietly and derisively. The critic Irene Servecia y Cerveza refered to his work as “Faux Contemporary”. Even his muse Madam XK once observed, “Good thing there are no boundaries to art because if there were he’d be outside them and have to retire.” As for other artists, you will have to decide yourself what, exactly, Xkanazy is, and is not.
The curator of this book, has had frequent contact with Xkanazy, and some of the responses to comments about Leonard are contained in the chronicle of events and reactions. Nevertheless, this work can in no sense be considered authorized, other than that curator, Howard Lipke, has the rights to republish the works presented here. The curator has decided to take his chances with reaction of Xkanazy and the other artists represented here. After all, if there is not risk, is it art?
Howard Lipke 2017
Part 1 Essential Xkanazy Works
The first work, below, Leaning Tower of Pisa Penholder with Pop Top
Xkanazy’s masterpiece, and the school is named
( It should be mentioned that colors in the photographs of the sculpture may appear different to different people and at different times. This change in color perception phenomena was not often noted until recently)
Figures 1 a,b,c…
Photog
Inspired by the LT breakthrough Xkanazy created the sculpture:
Do Bears Balance Giant Apples on their Heads in the Woods?, when he observed that this apple did so in his sister’s living room. (which is in her house, which is in the woods.)
Figure 2
“Hubble Picture” is the nickname for the following work, whose true title is the caption. This work is as close to a definition of Xkanazy as we are likely to find.
Figure 3
This illustration symbolically represents the universe, and serves to document my claim, as of 1/14/2001, to all objects individually and in combination, not previously claimed ( such as Andy Warhol’s soup can pictures), as art, authored by me.
– Leonard Xkanazy
The following photographs were taken by Xkanazy in museums of obvious works of art either not recognized by the curators or simply untitled., thereby reverting to his oeuvre The sarcasm of Xkanazy’s title of the collection reflects his opinion.
The photos below are part of a collection titled: And they thought they knew art, Or maybe they were just untitled.
Figure 4, below, is a photo of a cleaning cart in a Chicago museum, that Xkanazy claims not only as his work of art but (for commercial purposes) as a completion sculpture to Duane Hanson’s: “Janitor, 1973” exhibited in the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Figure 4
Figure 5, below, is a photo of an electric chord on the floor of a University of Chicago museum is claimed as a sculpture in exhibit at that museum. It does not seem to matter to Xkanazy that it was an archeology museum.
Figure 5
Part 2: The Disciples
Figure 6, below is by Xisto and 7, is by Xistna
Figure 6
The line around Xkanazy’s work, above, represents my claim, as of 2/23/2009, to owning the artistic idea of the wrapping of anything not previously wrapped as art.
– Xisto
Figure 7
The work, above, represents my claim, as of 2/28/2009, to owning the artistic idea to anything previously wrapped, as art, as an original work of unwrapped art.
– Xistna
The above two works are best put into context by an e-mail sent anonymously to the artist, P.V.T. Nick another artist in Xkanazy’s orbit.The e-mail reads:
“The art world is in turmoil. She is revealed, Xistna. She claims, believe it or not, that anything that Xisto owns by the fact that it is wrappable (and not previously claimed) when it gets unwrapped, she then owns the unwrapped piece. Needless to say Leonard is very upset, He believes any unwrapped work (theoretically or actually unwrapped), reverts to his claim. Leonard does not think of himself as litigious (I must say none of the members of the LT school, except you, is very self aware) but, he has threatened to contact his attorney. I have no idea what is going to happen next, but I hope these folks sort it out, and go back to the work. We do not need their creativity blocked by petty squabbling.”
Figure 8, below is a photograph of P.V.T. Nick’s sculpture:“Leaning Tower of Dibba with Tang Electrolyte Enhancement”
Figure 8
Also notable is the claim by PVT Nick that he owns artistic credit for the wrappings after the piece is unwrapped. Below is a discovered e-mail response to him after this claim.
“I know you have already established yourself as an important member of the LT School, but your primacy in recognizing that the wrappings themselves are ownable as art is a breakthrough. Of course, Leonard will claim them, as he does everything under his “Hubble” piece, but it can be argued that his claim was only for things existing at the time of his claim, not for future things. I think when the dust clears there will have to be a sharing of credit among you, Leonard, Xisto and Xistna for the used wrappings as art, but everyone will know it is really you. Leonard will be certain that any claim Xistna has can be discounted, because she is both a woman and an Hungarian.”
Surprisingly the wrapping of the wrappings have not yet been discussed.
Part 3: Collaborative works
Figure 9, below, a photograph of the sculpture titled: Leaning Wall of Leland Street with Afganart by Xkanazy and PVY Nick.
figure 9
Figure 10, below, is Xkanazy’s Photograph of Sculpture: KingJr’s Three Headed Baby Jesus Employs a Mapmaker Photographed and Framed
figure 10
Figure 11, below, is Xkanazy’s Photograph of Sculpture: KingJr’s Three Headed Baby Jesus Employs a Mapmaker Photographed and Framed and Wrapped with a headset by Xisto
figure 11
Figure 12, below is Xkanazy’s Photograph of Sculpture: KingJr’s Three Headed Baby Jesus Employs a Mapmaker Photographed and Framed and Wrapped by Xisto, and unwrapped by Xistna
figure 12
Part 4: Performance Pieces
Piece # 1: Titled: Modesty Almost Prevented Me.
1 Find an unoccupied store (the more upscale the better)
2 Get hold of the rental agent
3 Tour the store as an art gallery, nodding and commenting with a companion, if you have one, about the quality of the works,
(e.g. A states: Look at that! If I didn’t know it was an Xkanazy I might have thought it was a 3 million plus Twombly.
B Replies: You silly, you know Xkanazy was never even slightly influenced by Twombly. He is a pure original.
A: Oh yeah, I forgot.
Performance Piece #2
This piece is best describe in an interview Leonard recently gave. (Or, perhaps the interview was the piece, I just don’t know anymore.)
Interviewer: It is an honor to meet and talk with you Mr. Xschteen.
LX: I know, but you should really spell my name correctly. It is now spelled Xkanazy. I changed it recently. It was a pronunciation issue. Also, not to sound too crass about it, but the world is what it is, this will increase the financials of my previous work, signed with the old spelling. And, I don’t have to die, be critically ill or maimed to get this “bump”.
I: There is so much I want to talk to you about, since you are so elusive, a Salinger, or a Pynchon, if I may.
LX, Must I suffer not one, but two comparisons? Well get to it, I don’t have all day.
I: Thank-you, what about your greatest work, The retrospective show. How….
LX I must correct you immediately. That, or those were not my greatest works, I would say “Leaning Tower of Pisa Penholder with Pop Top”, or perhaps, my next work would be that. But, go ahead.
I: Then let me ask about that seminal work. How did it begin, how did it all begin?
LX: In 1966, when I was very young, with the acquisition of a plaster Leaning of Tower of Pisa pen holder. I had dabbled with crayola and, with small pencil and pen sketches over the years, and some paper sculptures, but the real start was with that acquisition. Then we must move forward many years, when, seemingly, idly contemplating the structure, and the plastic top of a pop bottle… the top fit exactly, EXACTLY, on the tower. And, voila, a masterpiece, as well as a school of Art existed.
I: How long then before the next well known piece, eponymously titled:
“This illustration symbolically represents the universe, and serves to document my claim, as of 1/14/2001, to all objects individually and in combination, not previously claimed ( such as by Andy Warhol’s soup can pictures), as art, authored by me. Leonard Xkanazy”
figure 15
But widely known as the” Hubble”
LX: It wasn’t long, before, but it is a painful subject, and one of the few times my creative genius failed… that sniveler, Xisto, now considered a respected member of the LT school, understood that by wrapping the piece he could claim the wrapping of every piece of which I had become the auteur. And then the law suits, when that minx Xista, I think she is a cousin of Smurfette, by the way, it figures, tried to claim that anything that had been wrapped, was her creation, once it had been unwrapped. What a disaster. But all was saved once the LT school was established, and I understood it couldn’t all be about me, it had to be about the art. I was so wrapped up, uhem, involved, in the creative process that I just couldn’t see it.
I: Yes the LT school, but first can we return to the piece “First World Retrospective of Twenty-first Century Art”, performed? Shown?
LX: Both, both, BOTH.
I: Yes, of course, at the Chicago Museum of Contemporaneous (CMCsA) Art it caused quite a stir, for its indisputable genius, but also for your decision not to offer it to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art (CMCA). As we are social beings, please first discuss your decision.
LX: OK, I did agree to the interview. When I considered the way CMCsA handled my seminal piece “Crumpled Notecard” was treated I realize I could not work with them again. I had installed Notecard (see below) on a platform next to a lovely chair (artistic ownership still in dispute) by the east second floor elevator. The next time I returned to the museum, it was gone, “deinstalled” if you like. Obviously, my relationship with them was over, except of course with their Wolfgang Puck Café, I can’t blame poor Wolfie for the museums idiocy. I may be temperamental, but, after all, I am not a monster.
Figure 16 Photograph of “Crumpled Notecard” 11
I: The whole art world sympathizes. If you are ready to go on, may I ask about the Inspiration for the FWRTCA?
LX: I realized that this was a once in two or three people’s life-time opportunity, depending of life expectancy. If I could get several artists to create pieces beginning at midnight, at the museum, as soon as the first two artists were done, it would be a complete retrospective of all the art of the current century, ever completed in any century. As luck would have it KingJr and P.V.T. Nick were those geniuses, and myself, since when KingJr and P.V.T. were done, so was FWRTCA, c-o-n-t-e-m-p-o-a-n-e-o-u-s-l-y. If I may quote Burma Jones: “Whoa! “
I: But there were problems, were there not?
LX: Yes, yes. The first was defining the beginning 21st Century. Was it January 1, 2000, or 2001? Just to be safe, we held the event twice, the first time in secret so that, if the century was to start the NEXT year, the event would be held then too. Of course, there was difficulty with the secrecy, and plenty of kneeling and begging etc. etc. to the/all the deity/deities that no one else would hit on the idea sooner. Then, there was the worry that someone at the international dateline would hit upon the idea also. I was so naïve then, I actually thought someone else might have the creativity to do this work. Can you believe it?
I; If I may also echo Burma Jones: “Whoa!” Quite a coup. Timeless art, and coincidentally, the establishment of a great new house. The “ LT Contemporaneous” as it is now known. The only museum which redresses the natural balance, you can see the art for free, but must pay to get in the gift shop.
I know your time is limited. May I address one more area, your name?
LX: I am often asked to explain my art. Ask Bobby Zimmerman. Good-bye.
Part 5: The Critics
From the interview partially quoted above:
Interviewer: I understand that you wanted to respond to the comment in a review of your work. The critic Irene Servecia y Cerveza wrote: “Other critics, the ‘usual suspects’ have written that much of modern art, Duchamp, Warhol, is art about art. I disagree, this is not art about art, it is about keeping a straight face when stuff is called “art”. The funniest work the “artist” can present without laughing is the greatest work. For example Richard Prince’s Drink Canada Dry which you know reads “My father was never home, he was always drinking booze. He saw a sign that said Drink Canada Dry. So he went up there.” Though an old joke, it is too funny to be art. There is one exception to this principle, that is the work of Xkanazy, and perhaps that of the other members of the LT school. This is serious modern art, with no humor whatsoever, the only such modern art which passes that test.” Your comments?
LX: When are you going to understand that I don’t talk about my art?
Part 6: The Rival
(At least LLX thinks they are)
Cy Twomky
P. Popko