Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

c ~ '" 0.0 ~ I Billy Bengston On Art And Racing ~ v 0> . 1 / ....... ~ "Museums " ~ They Rule Think Your Life ~ Even More Than .Q ~ ~ <: u Agajanian " By Wayne Flemington " At one point I actually ma de more money racing than as an artls !.'"ln tills shot by W lt M a ahony he's on his way to firs t Amateur In a 1 964 • race. Sometimes' Billy Al Bengston does thi ngs other pe ople thi nk are odd, but they mak e sense to hi m. Take the exhibiti on of his paintings now a t the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He thought they' d look bette r in smaller r ooms so he built his own partition s . In one of these little rooms there aren' t even any paintings, jus t an easy chai r, pil e at magazines and a T V set. If you don' t like art at all you can watch football or Dark Shadows . Bengston says ge tting a show Into the L.A. County Museum Isn't as Impo r tan t as the curators think . One reporter who asked whethe r this settled the question of whether his wor k was r eally art or not got the r eply: "I made tha t decision myself before the museum was around." t Bengston, who has been kicked out of three art schools, Is better known around ycle tracks as a racer, around the beaches as a s urfer. He's hones t enough to admit that the incongruity of an ex-motorcycle r a cer who helps to s ell his wor k, ure It does. Take me out of It and sales go down. it's all PR , al l bullshit. or buy, 95%,dO It because of something they've read about me." ts work in a Venice studio that's lavish by the usual s tandards . There's a skylight, a large green leary plant and an out-sized T -square tha t gth along a great white wall. Thirsty visitors are glad there's a coffee the Iatcnen. . led a way Billy talked abo ut racing. e rac ers are kept down by the promoters and the AMA. believe motorcycling won't come of age until riders made $100,000 a r un this way in Europe, or any other civilized country . pIe, why isn' t there advance publicity In the papers before ever y " I just did the chevron tiling as a lark." plains , but he still has a Iot of pleasant memories fr om his day s on the rnethmg hardly anyone els e has done - got second on a C- 15 In a half s us ed to ha te getting passed by r iders who couldn' t corne r too well . pass a guy on the corner It should be a r ule he can' t pass you on the sald, laughin g. And he lacks hi mself for waltin g so long before starting wish I'd spent more ti me on motorcycles when I was a kid," he said, offee Into the visitor 's cup. you like It?" he asked. d sugar . One s ugar." ne pole brown or sand brown ?" brown. Thanks ." In A Grass Hut yc llng was the first thing I felt na tural a t but I s pent mor e tim e su rfing else . " I lived in a grass hut on the beach; was the orlg1nal Moon Doggy In the Gidget series - but I left for Europe before they s tarted sh ooting. "All the s urfers I knew then are now avid moto rcycle r ider s ." Bengston doesn't mind criticism. " A critic Is the only one In the world 01 art who Is making ~ ny kind 01 statement besides our selve s, They are our own kind." "They're simple and they don't eve.. burden you. There aren' t many thlnc,s lefl lhat don't work the hell out of you. ' • Contrary to what some art-lovers might think , he doesn't race anymore. "I was going to go hell bent for election at Ascot until I found out I wasn' t that mean." Bengs ton broke his back on Ascot's wall, dodging a fallen rider . The AMA took good care of Bill' s bills but that doesn't stop him from criticizing them. He says the AMA has a " s tranglehold" on motorcycling. As the visitor loaded his camera B1lly leaned against the white wall next to the T-square. " Hey, what 1! I put on my LeBard & Underwood T -shir t? That' d be a gas, don't you think? "Sure ." " You know, you ought to shoot some of the new choppers. They' r e ge tti ng pretty weir d; look like T T machines . I don't know how they r ide 'em. I got on one the other day and jus t didn' t believe how far a way that front wheel was. You jus t s it down there in a hole an d s hift behind you. I couldn't even make a U turn. " Es theti ea,lly I like Harleys better than anything else, but I can ' t ride the m." Then he got back to sp eedway racing. He sald Jim Nicholson would s ti ll be the fastest around when he got out of hospital; fast enough to be able to barns torm around the country as a one-man s how, r iding in meets not sanc tioned by anyone and taking on all the local cha llengers . " Wi th promotion It would be eas y to mak e him the bes t speedway r ider in the U.S. YOU'd have to make him Into a personaltty, a glamour boy like Joe Na rna th , Give him his own photograph er . Start an inves tment company like they did with Mohammed Ali." • " Any shape that has straight lines and curves you can do a lot with." Billy doesn't like to see the racers give so much and get back so little. It used to be that way with his pamtings , " Back in '6 1 people moaned about the " The mistake m t people make when os they look at art Is tIIat the" don' t j ust look. They look lor an Idea. ' Photos by Wayne Fl emington price of m:l'i wor k - abo ut $1000 a painting . So I dropped the price to $100 or $200, • but I didn't sell any more than 1 did before." So B1lly went ba ck to asking what he thought they were worth, and now he gets $500 for s ome, $8000 for others . Thi s sp ring he'll even get a free ride to Europe for an exhibition in London , following one in Washington, D.C., in Ma rch. The phone rang. Somebody on the ir way up abo ut a painting. The visitor lett and thread ed his way through traffic, passing cl ose to Ascot on the fr e eway. On art schools " Get out as soon as you' ve taken what you can Irom tIIem," Ph otos of Paintings By Ed Cor nachio and Staff

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