The Politics of Art

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The Politics of Art

by Ron Aaron Eisenberg

Gene Elder’s eyes sparkle as he talks. The words tumble out, trying to keep pace with a brain that clearly runs on high octane.

He is an artist who delights in challenging the world in which he lives. He thinks big. Take his latest idea–Political Art Month.

“I thought since they moved Contemporary Art Month from July to March we had an opportunity to come up with something for July. Why not Political Art Month? Galleries are always looking for something to drive traffic.”

He defines political art as whatever an artist does. “If you paint bluebonnets, then that’s your political statement.” His Political Art Month (PAM, as he calls it) is a national celebration, and he is in contact with artists and galleries across the country.

Elder is gay. And his commitment to political activism springs in large part from that life experience. Like many gay men and women who grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, he did not share his sexual orientation with his folks until much later in life. He himself didn’t really know it, he says, until the ’70s.

Elder was born in Dallas–perhaps fittingly, on the Fourth of July. He’d rather not say exactly how old he is–“fiftyish” will do. He looks to be in his forties.

His family moved to Kansas and Odessa when he was very young, before settling in Big D. He is a product of some of the best schools in America, including Hillcrest School in Dallas, a top ranked public high school, and San Antonio’s Trinity University.

“I really had no interest in anything when I went to college; so I majored in art,” he says. “Trinity was good for me. It was relaxed and not terribly demanding. But it helped me become a more curious person.”

Vietnam loomed large back then, but Elder’s folks got him into the Naval Reserves, a pathway to avoid going to war. The military life did not suit him. So, like Muhammad Ali, Elder applied for Conscientious Objector status. It was granted, thanks to help from Maury Maverick, Jr. Elder was given a dishonorable discharge, something he says he is very proud of today.

He connected with his sexual orientation in the ’70s, after he took a job waiting tables at The Kangaroo Court, then a popular (now-defunct) River Walk spot in San Antonio. That’s where he met Arthur “Hap” Veltman, an openly gay and highly successful developer and restaurateur.

“I began participating in Hap’s lifestyle,” Elder explains. “That’s when I figured out I was gay.”

When Veltman opened the San Antonio Country, an enormously successful gay nightclub, in 1973, he asked Elder to manage it. Elder took his folks to the club shortly after it opened. “That’s when they realized I was gay. My mom cried for two years. She blamed herself for my being gay. I did not talk to mom or dad for a long time. But eventually we reconciled. We just didn’t talk about ‘it’.”

He says running a gay bar was “a huge graduate course in advanced art. I met artists of every stripe, some gay, some straight.”

He moved on from operating a gay bar to teaching paper making at the Southwest Craft Center. His life has revolved around art–and political activism–ever since.

Political Art Month, his latest project, is not an entirely new idea. He recalls that Blue Star Contemporary Art Center sponsored a political art month in the 1980s. He smiles as he remembers it.

“I painted a tomato on a United States Flag for the show.” The piece triggered a huge flap in San Antonio. Some wanted it banned. Some undoubtedly wanted him banned.

But Elder would be the first to say, “Isn’t that what political art is all about? Stirring passions? Getting people to think? Raising consciousness? Touching people’s emotions?”

When asked if he considers himself a gadfly, Elder says no. But there’s little doubt he enjoys ruffling fine linen and tromping across manicured landscapes.

Today, Elder is the archivist for the Happy Foundation, created in memory of his close friend and business mentor, Veltman, who died in 1988 of HIV/AIDS. The Foundation, says Elder, is chronicling the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender San Antonians.

His commitment to the foundation goes beyond politics. To Elder, it is a work of love, and a living memorial for Veltman. He puts it simply: “It’s my art project.”

For more information on Political Art Month, visit www.fellowpages.org/pam.