Hi Friends. We have not been putting information up onto the internet lately, but that is because we are working hard on several new things. When they make their way out into the world (soon), you will be the first to know. ALSO, we have lately received a number of heartening email messages from people in various parts of the world, and for these we thank you! Kind words are always welcome.

Mike Kelley died yesterday. My favorite piece by Kelley is the installation ‘Pay for your Pleasure,’ which was originally put in the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 1988. A hallway is lined with pictures of Baudelaire, Wilde, and those sorts of people, with quotations from each of them about the artist’s (necessary) transcendence of moral constraints:

I ERECT MYSELF AT THE EXACT POINT WHERE KNOWLEDGE TOUCHES MADNESS, AND I CAN ERECT NO SAFETY RAIL.
‘BALZAC’

THE FACT OF A MAN BEING A POISONER IS NOTHING AGAINST HIS PROSE. ‘OSCAR WILDE’

IN OUR OH-SO-CIVILIZED SOCIETY IT IS NECESSARY FOR ME TO LEAD THE LIFE OF A SAVAGE.
‘COURBET’

THOSE WHO RESTRAIN DESIRE DO SO BECAUSE THEIRS IS WEAK ENOUGH TO BE CONSTRAINED.
‘BLAKE’

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND LAWS. I HAVE NO MORAL SENSE. I AM A BRUTE.
‘RIMBAUD’

etc

At the end of the hall is one of J.W. Gacy’s clown paintings.

The society’s website has the complete text.