Angel Ortiz LA2
I really want to get past this LA2 issue
Mail to Steve Fishman on Oct 26, 2022
It was interesting meeting you last night. Sorry if I was a bit terse about LA2 Angel Ortiz. To me it is so obvious that it is ridiculous. So in your face. So racist. So obviously a form of class discrimination. And so on.
I have been pushing to correct this wrong for years. It has cost me a lot. Certainly has black balled me from any elevated position.in the art world. No question about my meeting with Deitch before he went on to be the Director of MOCA. I innocently believed I should let him understand that someone is going to look at the large Whitney and his Keith Haring book and discover this Angel " Ortez LA2" "oversight". I mean how could one of the most powerful contemporary museums in the world not give proper credits to the artwork in their museum art history book? How could Deitch assume the position of the head of such a prestigious establishment and not understand this racist "oversight"? I mean really Los Angeles has such a large Hispanic population.
Then there is the corruption of the education system. Reading a painting like a Haring LA2 collaboration is like studying hieroglyphs. LA2's art is his tag, TNS his graffiti crew, his other street name - LA ROCK. And Keith’s art we can all spot. Without giving credit to LA2 all these students of modern art history, even PhD students, are learning to read a Keith Haring artwork all wrong. Haring was just a graphic artist before he started his long collaboration with LA2. Look at the Deitch and Whitney book KH was the Radiant Baby, the 3 Eyed TV, a Barking Dog - throw in a UFO, a pyramid and you got the art package. LA2 took the naked graphic image and covered the picture plains making it into art not just a graphic.
Then there is the deception in the art auction world. Selling painting as Kieth Haring when really they are collaborations. I mean really we must also protect the extreme racists who would ever want a Hispanic art work in their house. A lie is a lie no matter who is the recipient of the "oversight". A collaboration might be less valuable than a one done solely by Keith Haring. Deception in art economics. I have been in lengthy emails conversations with Jane Panetta curator at the Whitney. The best I did was to get her to say they would go to his studio and buy a couple of art works and put him in the collection. I was very much against this. Beyond my need to get art history corrected and to have Angel Ortiz get his rightful place in art history, this move is just a way to make them feel better and does nothing for LA2. They have soothed their guilt and hides LA2 in some closet never to see the light of day for his true contribution to American Art history.
One point I want is to reprint Deitch and Whitney book.
And so on. Go to the NO!art 1999 site. https://no-art.info/artists.html. I am the head of NO!art West NYC, Dietmar Kirves, in Berlin is the Head of NO!art East. Dietmar has build an incredible site. Go to search and look up LA2 Angel Ortiz. You can get a look at some of my work on behalf of LA2 and gain some appreciation for how much work Dietmar has done to develop this site.
BTW I have noting against Keith haring. It is correcting the wrongs that is needed.
I am playing the end game. I have a major archive I must save. It is mostly underground, in the different areas I documented - homelessness - drugs - crime - gangs- tattoos - art - a photographic history of a cross-section of the Les minority community. and so on. Save my wife art, my art, get someone to understand what my larger struggle is about. My art and concepts are way off the radar.
NO!art - Dietmar - did much to bring Boris Lurie’s art work to an intellectual crowd in Europe. It is safe to say so much of what got Boris into the light would never have happened without Dietmar. I brought Boris back to life in NYC.
To get some understanding of Boris;’s work - see his early work at
►https://shop.mjhnyc.org/products/boris-lurie-nothing-to-do-but-to-try#:Look at this art work and see if you can find LA2.
