The Art Dockuments are finished and published online.  36 total Art Dockuments are now available to read and see at http://www.artdock.net. Each Dockuments includes many pictures of Los Angeles artists and such luminaries as Marcel Duchamp, Vermeer, Monet, Margaret Bourke-White, James Turrell, Franz Kline, George Sugarman, and Jose Clemente Orozco.

The Art Documents tell the stories of the Art Dock, the world's first drive-by gallery in a Los Angeles loading dock in the 1980's. The story is told in 4 acts, a preamble, and epilog. The Preamble tells the tale of how the gallery came about as the Cosmic Humeroid's joke. Act I, The Manifesto, tells the story of the Art Dock's early years when loft living and art galleries were illegal in the industrial area of downtown Los Angeles. Artists tried to hide their occupation in old warehouse buildings and were constantly threatened with immediate eviction by city building inspectors.  Act I includes a manifesto about art's commoditization, and standardization, and the concept of art in a loading dock as a metaphor for the utility of all art. Act II, The Community Gallery, is about how the downtown artists used the gallery as a community resource and place of experimentation. In Act II there are references to two significant deaths. The murder of Peter Ivars, the host of a cable television show, in his downtown loft and the tragic death of Bonnie Calvert in a leftist fire bombing of a movie theatre in Italy are portrayed.  Act III, The Art Olympics, is about art in Los Angeles at the time of the 1984 Olympic Games, when the city was pushing its cultural aspirations. Almost any art activity was possible, and the Art Dock got its share of publicity.  Act IV, The Business of Art, tells the story of how the gallery attempted to be a commercial success to hilarious results. In Act IV is Art Dockument 29 "Dissolving Views" where the art never arrived for the heavily promoted opening. Epilog relates what has happened to the avant-garde art scene in Downtown Los Angeles in the 30 years since the gallery closed. The epilog looks at the rise of the temples of art, which some have referred to as a new religion and the new contemporary art museums as America' cathedrals.

The Art Dockuments are serious, but witty, investigations into art and the life of the artist, its reality, its misery, and its joy. Many of the dockuments are hilarious as the artist struggles with city authority and deal with each others curious personalities. The story of each exhibitor in the drive-by gallery is followed by a postscript for 2011, which identifies what the artist art doing today 30 years later. Most of them are still artists, but make a living my other means. One artist is homeless and lives in a van near the beach in Northern California. One artist formed an underwater filming business, which caters to the needs of Hollywood. Another has become a doctor of oriental medicine.

The Art Dockuments were inspired by Marcel Duchamp, who said "the most interesting thing about artists is how they live." The Art Dockuments provide a vivid portrait of contemporary American artists. Please read and enjoy The Art Dockuments and anticipate its conversion from website to book.

Carlton Davis, AIA, CDT

Architect, Artist, & Author

Principal

The Art Dock

Pasadena, CA