Ed Kienholz

1927 (Fairfield, Wash.) – 1994 (Hope, Idaho)

Kienholz is easily underestimated – online sources, and pictures in general, don’t readily do justice to the way that his most notable tableaux and installations (e.g. Five Car Stud, Roxy’s, the Beanery, the State Hospital, Portable War Memorial, The Illegal Operation, Back Seat Dodge) represent unusually powerful images of the seamy underside and questionable mores of his time. Irwin, Bell, Berman and Ruscha were among the close-knit group associated with the important L.A. gallery Kienholz co-founded. Tinguely collaborated with him, while Klein honoured him (alone among his American artist friends) with a piece of his Void.

Ed Kienholz knew…