Steven F. Arnold (1943-1994), trend-setting American artist and protégé
of Salvador Dali, was a visionary filmmaker, photographer, painter,
illustrator, set and costume designer, and assemblage artist.
Steven Arnold was born on May 18, 1943, to a seamstress mother, and a
hardware clerk father in Oakland California. At four or five years old,
he found a chest of theatrical costumes and make-up belonging to his
uncle in the attic of his parent's house, and from then on devoted
himself to the art of transformation, constantly dressing up to amuse
himself, his fashion model sister, and his babysitter. His parents
encouraged his fantasies, and allowed him to build sets and puppets to
put on shows for the neighborhood children, to whom he said, he never
related.
In the fall of 1958 Arnold entered Oakland Technical High School, where
he met his lifelong friend, muse, and collaborator, Pandora. The pair
became inseparable, and would spend hours in Steven's bedroom drinking
champagne and Romilar cough syrup, smoking opium, marijuana, and
cigarettes, dressing up, and playing with make-up. Steven's bedroom in
1959, as Pandora remembers, was "like LOUIS XIV - beyond belief for a
child". Steven and Pandora's high school art teacher, Violet Chew, was
the pair's mentor and main source of inspiration. Chew taught her
students by ancient Chinese methods, which worked from the inside out,
encouraging students to confront problems on a soul-level, and to use
their art as a means of exploring and solving these problems. She also
introduced the young Steven to antique and junk shopping, art history,
cutting-edge fashion, and Eastern spiritual traditions, which made a
lasting impact on Arnold's philosophy and art. She saw great potential
in her student, and arranged for Arnold to drop homeroom and physical
education in order to spend three periods with her each day. It was
also around this time that Violet Chew's friend, artist Ira Yeager
noticed that "it was Steven who actually initiated 'hippie' dress in
San Francisco, before it was fashionable."
After graduating high school in the Spring of 1961, Arnold won a full
scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. In the spring of 1964,
after earning perfect grades for two years at the Institute, Arnold
took a break to study abroad in Paris and enrolled at Ecole Des Beaux
Arts. Disappointed with the stiff, traditional curriculum at Ecole Des
Beaux Arts, Arnold and a group of American classmates rented villas on
the small island of Formentera off the coast of Spain. For the next
several months the group lived communally, taking LSD every day,
experimenting with paints and costumes, taking up residence in caves,
and exploring the small island.
Returning to San Francisco in the Spring of 1965, Arnold resumed his
studies at the San Francisco Art Instuite, turning his eye on
filmmaking: writing, directing, and designing three short films over
the next two years. By late 1967 Arnold was on the verge of graduating
from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his final student film,
Messages, Messages, was drawing critical attention, and went on to win
invites to Cannes' Director's Fortnight, the Chicago International FIlm
Festival, and the Toronto Film Festival. Due to the critical success of
their film, Arnold and collaborator Michael Wiese decided that
Messages, Messages was worthy of a more elaborate hometown premier than
the San Francisco Art Institute could provide, so in February of 1968,
shortly before their graduation, the pair rented the Palace Theatre in
San Francisco's north beach for the occasion. In addition to Messages,
Messages, Arnold also curated "a rare collection of early surrealist
films by Man Ray, Melies, and old French animations." The evening was
such a huge success that theatre's owner offered to allow Arnold to
continue holding screenings. This led to the March 1968 inauguration of
Arnold's Nocturnal Dreamshows, the very first of the weekly midnight
movie showcases that became nationally popularized in the 1970s. The
Nocturnal Dreamshows also launched The Cockettes, an influential,
groundbreaking psychedelic San Francisco drag troupe, into underground
fame. Since 1967, Arnold had also been illustrating posters for local
businesses, and was among the original group of rock poster artists in
San Francisco, creating some of the first handbills for the famed
Matrix nightclub, which was later credited for originating the "San
Francisco sound" of the psychedelic '60s.
In 1969, Arnold began filming Luminous Procuress, which went on to win
him the 1972 New Director's award at the San Francisco International
Film Festival, an extended exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American
Art, and a second invite to Cannes' Director's Fortnight. Salvador Dali
was so impressed with the film, that he arranged a private screening at
the St. Regis Hotel, to which he invited New York's elite, including
Andy Warhol, who also praised the film's genius. Arnold became a
favorite of Dali's, and in 1974 went to study with the master in Spain,
helping Dali to embellish and inaugurate his Museo-Teatro Dali. After
returning to California, and failing to make any progress on other film
projects, Arnold was driven to find new modes of expression. By
establishing his Los Angeles photography studio and west-coast salon
Zanzibar, Arnold did just that.
From 1982-89, Steven Arnold found his niche, designing and shooting
tableau vivants for four books, leaving thousands of living tableau
photographs and negatives unpublished. He also left behind a social
legacy in Los Angeles which, according to many who saw Zanzibar at it's
height, has never been equaled. Arnold adored the vast cross-section of
society represented at his nightly Salons, but also culled inspiration
from his dreams, world religions, sexuality, fine art masterpieces,
Jungian archetypes, social attitudes, excess, and artifice, working all
night, and waking each afternoon to sketch dreams and visions into his
growing collection of sketchbooks. In addition to his photography,
Arnold also translated these drawings into a large body of paintings
and assemblage sculpture between 1990 and his his early death in 1994.
This prolific period led to brushing shoulders with the likes of
Vogue's Diana Vreeland, actress Ellen Burstyn, psychedelic explorer
Timothy Leary, Simon Doonan, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jay Leno, Warhol
Superstar Holly Woodlawn, The Cars, George Harrison, Blondie's Debbie
Harry, and John Waters' stars Divine and Susan Tyrell, among others.
Arnold was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 at the height of his popularity
and died in 1994. His works are in the collections of the Whitney
Museum of American Art in New York, Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany,
the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Cinematheque Francaise in
Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MoMA), the Oakland
Museum of California, the ONE Gay and Lesbian Archive and Museum in Los
Angeles, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Steven Arnold's vast artistic catalog continues to be exhibited
worldwide, and is the focus of the upcoming documentary Heavenly
Bodies, slated for release in 2014.
