Two Fish Pedaling a Tandem Bicycle in Opposite Directions

Feb 7

The Periodic Inscrutable by Arthur Trope

Don’t know about you, but I’m in need of a weekend. After prepping the entire canon for next week’s S-MCSS2 run, not to mention the debacle on Thurs, I’m due. Speaking of, I came across a bunch of non-canon material in the prepping this week. This one’s based on an abstract painting Artie did years ago called “Two Fish Pedaling a Tandem Bicycle in Opposite Directions”. Which is a pretty straightforward title now, but you should’ve seen the abstract. I’ll see if I can track down an image & run a side-by-side. I recall seeing it in a catalog once from the Tate Modern. Artie was painting a little in SF in the 80’s and he was connected in the LA art scene & a guy named Gagosian, who owns some galleries, got interested in his work & gave him a show. David Bowie bought 2 of his pieces, including the fish abstract & Artie ended up w an invite to hang a group of charcoal sketches at the Tate in London, next to a David Hockney exhibit. Technically it was next to the men’s room, over the water fountain, around the corner from Hockney. But it was the next collection you saw when you rounded the corner, if you were headed to the loo. Anyway, the painting doesn’t look at all like two fish on a tandem bicycle. It looks like a bad photocopy of a Rorschach test. The Times wrote a review & drew connections to Gloria Steinem & wondered whether it was a statement on feminism or anti-feminism. The Guardian said the collection “reached new heights in navel-gazing - except for the Hockneys, which are sublime”. But Artie was always fond of the piece, esp the title, & at some point he sketched this more literal version of 2 actual fish actually pedaling a tandem bike in opposite directions. He made it his personal logo, which means it’s on his business cards and he printed some t-shirts. He refers to it as his “family crest”. He titled the sketch ‘New Heights in Navel-Gazing’ bc now the old title doesn’t work bc it’s too literal. When Bowie passed away, Artie inquired about buying the painting back from his estate, but no one on the Bowie side knew anything about it. I suppose if, when we die, our souls turn out to be just single-panel comics, this’ll be Artie’s. -Ed.