Steven Arnold (II)

Steven Arnold (1943–1994) was a California-based multi-media artist, spiritualist, gender bender, and protegee of Salvador Dalí. His work consisted of drawings, paintings, rock and film poster art, makeup design, costume design, set design, photography, and film.

Steven also played an instrumental role in giving "The Cockettes", the famed psychedlic San Francisco drag troupe, their first chance to perform on stage in exchange for free tickets to his "Nocturnal Dream Show" - which was among the first-ever Midnight Movie showcases. This launched The Cockettes into underground fame. Early in his career, Steven also nurtured a prolific creative relationship with pioneer of the wearable art movement Kaisik Wong which lasted until Kaisik's death in 1989. Their work together included the production and design of a play titled "Dragonfly", and several tableaux vivant photography collaborations. Throughout his life, Steven's eccentric modes of expression led him to the upper-crust of both coasts, including encounters, in some cases lifelong friendships, with the likes of Vogue's Diana Vreeland, actress Ellen Burstyn, psychedelic explorer Timothy Leary, Jay Leno, The Cars, George Harrison, Blondie's Debbie Harry, John Waters' star Divine, and Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn. Among Steven's most notable early works is a rarely seen film gem titled "Luminous Procuress," starring Pandora and featuring The Cockettes, which was lauded by Salvador Dalí, and Andy Warhol, among others. In fact, Dalí was so impressed with the film, that he invited Steven, Pandora (Steven's muse, and the film's star), Kaisik Wong, and their entourage to help him open his Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres, Spain. "Luminous Procuress" was edited and scored by electronic music forefather Warner Jepson. The film continues to be screened worldwide, including showings at the Tate Modern, London, and CPH:DOX, Denmark. Steven's 1969 short-film "Messages, Message", which invited to Director's Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival, was recently featured at the Tate Modern, London, and the List Visual Art Center Film Night at MIT.

Although his early film work garnered him much attention, Steven was best known for his exquisite, surreal, black & white tableau vivant photography produced from the old pretzel factory he called Zanzibar Studios in Los Angeles. His photography has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, London; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; among others. Steven Arnold's works are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Cinematheque Francaise, Paris, France; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MoMA); the Oakland Museum of California; and the Cincinnati Art Museum. His works are in the private collections of: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ellen Burstyn, Cher, Salvador Dalí, Goldie Hawn, Yves St. Laurent, Diana Vreeland, and many others. Steven published three books of photography during his lifetime: "Reliquaries", with foreword by Ellen Burstyn, "Epiphanies", with afterword by James Leo Herlihy, and "Angels of Night." Details on some of Steven's early film work is to be included in the book Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000 to be released Fall 2010. Tokion and Lurve magazines have also recently printed articles featuring Steven's photography and sections of the upcoming retrospective biographical/autobiographical fine art book and documentary film, Steven Arnold's Heavenly Bodies, by Stephanie Farago and Steven Arnold.