Art Chantry: Tartuffe (1983) & TV-Headed Televangelists
Graphic design in Art Chantry’s words is ‘’not art at all. It's anthropology and politics and economics-almost ANYTHING except art''!
Origins of Grunge Design Pt. III discussed that televangelist Jerry Falwell had gained momentum with his Christian conservative Moral Majority organization and the Ronald Reagan administration. Moral Majority`s executive director Robert Billings was Ronald Reagan's campaign adviser. It is worth noting that Ronald Reagan had appointed individuals with Religious Right`s ideology, as example :
‘’Dr C. Everett Koop, an active opponent of abortion rights, was nominated surgeon general. Robert Billings, who founded the National Christian Action Coalition, as named undersecretary of education, while William Bennett, a staunch supporter of social conservatives` views on education, was appointed to chair the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1985, moreover, Bennet was named as Reagan`s secretary of education’’ (Johns, 2015,p.595).
This post discusses Art Chantry`s design Tartuffe (1983) and his poster for Mike Johnson of Dinosaur Jr. Both posters demonstrate not only Chantry`s criticism of televangelists, but reflect grunge music scenes stance on religion. Pearl Jam`s frontman Eddie Vedder has vocalised his disbelief in religion, explaining that before the Bible people survived without it:
‘’There was no God, there was no story, there was no myth and people lived on this planet and they wandered and they gathered and they did all these things. The planet was never threatened. How did they survive for all this time without this belief in God? That just seems funny to me’’ (Criswell, 2011,p.65)
Chris Cornell expressed similar beliefs:
‘‘So many bad things–as well as good things–have happened based on people blindly following religion, that I kind of feel like I want to stay away from any type of specific denomination or any religion period, for no other reason than just that.’’ (THE STANDARD Chris Cornell #2, 2008)
*Check out these previous posts on Art Chantry and why he is the ultimate grunge designer:
Tartuffe (1983)
Figure 1: Art Chantry`s poster design for Empty Space production of Tartuffe (1983), (Art of the poster, 2012).
Tartuffe written by Molièr in 1664, is a critique of those individuals who claim to be religious and practice religion in order to conceal their criminal or immoral behaviour. Art Chantry`s design for Empty Space production of Tartuffe (1983) portrays Molière’s religious hypocrite as a TV-headed televangelist.
Chantry`s design is a protest against televangelists, specifically Christian ministers who use television and radio to advocate and promote Christianity. In the 1960s and 1970s televangelist figures such as Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts and Rex Humbard ‘’entered first-run syndication by each purchasing airtime on more than 300 local stations and attracting weekly audiences of between 1 million and 7 million viewers’’(Murray, 2018,p.135). At the same time, religious radio stations tripled to thousand outlets during the 1970s (Murray, 2018,p.135).
In the 1970s and 1980s, evangelicals emphasized propositional truth and experiential piety, yet in 1980s financial and sexual scandals ‘’brought down prominent televangelists Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, and Jimmy Swaggart’’. (Murray, 2018,p.136). Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 1989 after eight mail frauds, 15 wire frauds and one count of conspiracy.
Bakker had hosted his show The PTL Club, yet misuse of money became to prominence. In 1987 Bakker had used $279,000 of PTL money in order for the church secretary Jessica Hahn to remain silent on her claim that Bakker had sexually assaulted her in a hotel in Florida in 1980. PTL became questioned further of the $4.2 million monthly income and $7.2 million in expenditures (Bertram, 2021). Whilst scandals had surrounded the televangelists, People for the American Way (PFAW) advertised the Media Fairness Project with prominent conservative televangelists such as Jerry Falwell and targeted the ‘’moral majoritarians: urging their nationwide audiences to view anyone who disagrees with them as a sinner and anyone who won't conform to their narrow orthodoxy as un-American’’(Sinitiere, 2015,p.111). This conservative orthodoxy promoted by religious figures who had committed fraud and sexual misconduct, is reflected in Chantry’s design.
He's addressing such contrast in the televangelist ideology and behaviour, at the top of the design highlighting Tartuffe (a religious hypocrite) and denoting a male figure in a suit, holding a cross whilst his head is a TV. The religious figure in Chantry`s design is not positioned in the same ground level as the figures surrounding him. The small crowd around him does not even reach the height of his extended right hand, connoting power over them. The crowd is looking up to him and one of the crowd members (on the left) has a biblical book in his pocket, as the Christian cross symbol suggests. The religious figure is dressed better and is greater in size, further accenting his differences with the crowd.
The extended right hand and the face on the television screen looking upwards, mimics a theatrical performance which is symbolic of televangelists' charismatic personalities. Chantry with such portrayal accents the televangelists fraud scandals and does not portray them as trustworthy as the theatrical gestures connote distrust and falsity. Just like the discussed tool poster for the The Night Gallery (1991), cut-outs that resemble 1950s newspaper material accent the idea of recycling. The recycling style is symbolic of protest.
He is recycling American culture in order to demonstrate the repeating falsity`s, critical points and fraud in American society. Particularly the problematic nature of televangelism and its relationship with media. As discussed in Art and Design of Raymond Pettibon , Raymond Pettibon had addressed criminal cult figure Charles Manson and his glorification and self-accreditation as Jesus and God, in such criticising not only Manson but religion.
Figure 2: Chantry`s poster for Mike Johnson of Dinosaur Jr. (n.d), (The Art Chantry, Underappreciated Artist Appreciation Page, 2009).
Chantry also had used Manson. His design for Massachusetts rock band`s Dinosaur Jr.`s Mike Johnson`s show uses a police photograph of Manson in prison. The Seattle graphic designer explains that the Northwest region of the United States has the reputation as ‘’the serial killer capital of the world…The Manson Family used to vacation up this way. This place is weird- a lot of occult stuff. All this stuff is a factor in what happened in the music’’(Morey, 2014,p.117). Besides Manson’s connection of Northwest, Gary Ridgway known as the Green River Killer was convicted of 49 murders in Seattle. Ted Bundy began committing murders in Seattle in 1971 and Robert Lee Yates had committed murder of 18 women.
The title ‘Built To Spill’ is symbolic of a natural inability to upkeep and maintain. Stylistically it is using a curved font style, which is reflective of the 1960s psychedelic aesthetic. This is reflective of the Hippie counterculture in the 1960s which Charles Manson was an advocate for but in a cultist format. Just like Pettibon had put Manson on a slanted cross symbolic of Manson`s failure, the same idea can be identified in Chantry`s work especially with the addition of the police photography Manson. The police photograph of Manson indicates his fraudulent and criminal persona. With this acknowledged, both the design for Tartuffe and the Charles Manson poster indicate fraud.
If Tartuffe indicates a religious hypocrite in the form of televangelism, Manson is denoted as a convicted criminal. As discussed, televangelist figures culminated criminal convictions as the example of Jim Bakker demonstrates. Yet, the charismatic and theatrical portrayal of the televangelist figure indicates a more dangerous nature to it, as the television screen connotes a propagandic element. Despite the crimes that Bakker had committed, after receiving parole in 1994, he returned to American television screens with his Christian broadcast The Jim Bakker Show in 2003.
Walter Benjamin explained that exhibition value and cult value should be considered in art. Unlike in art but in photography the exhibition value is more important than cult value. However, it does not mean that cult value is not present in photography, because:
‘’the cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge for the cult value of the picture…but as man withdraws from the photographic image, the exhibition value for the first time shows its superiority to the ritual value’’(Benjamin, 2010, p.16).
In his theory, Benjamin proposes that photography, unlike painting and film art, mostly relies on the portrait of the human to generate cult value. In such a way, the subject in the photograph is responsible for bringing their cult status. The use of Charles Manson in the exemplified design, is the strongest indicator of such. Manson is the most famous figure across cults for his criminal activity, which includes the organisation of American actress Sharon Tate`s murder in 1969. Therefore, the cult status that he holds and the display of his face on the design, makes it controversial and provoking as Manson’s face is used to promote a rock concert.
Rock music has never been accepted in religious settings besides Christian rock music, therefore the poster is exercising the idea of rock being related to cultism or satanism. Regarding the cult value, Benjamin indicates that art can achieve the cult value without denoting loved ones, absent or dead. Therefore, when considering collage, from Benjamin`s framework, it is more effective and complex, as it can combine photography and art. More specifically, Dada art collage, known as photomontage in such cases, is even more complex as it combines cult value and exhibition (photography and painting art).
*BTW check out these posts on religion & rock music :
Hola , Fascinante Ensayo. La Religión Y La Música Siempre Han Estado Marcada Por La Controversia. Un Saludo.