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Richard Fliehr |
Richard Fliehr (1949)
Richard Morgan Fliehr was born on February 25th 1949, and by the mid-70s was one of the most sought after performance artists. Fliehr was one of an estimate 5000 babies who were illegally taken away from their birth parents by The Tennessee Children's Home Society. His birth name was either Fred Phillips, Fred Demaree, or Fred Stewart depending on which, presumably forged, documents you look at. A corrupt judge had managed to concoct a scheme to take away the newborn babies of people on public assistance and put them up for a adoption to wealthy out-of-state families. Eventually the law caught on to the scheme, an award-winning 60 Minutes expose was filmed, as well as a made for TV movie starring Mary Tyler Moore, who would win an emmy for her role, named Stolen Babies. His adopted mother, Kay, was the director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. His father Dick Fliehr was a gynecologist, who eventually went back to school and received his master's degree and doctorate in both English Literature and Theatre. He eventually became the president of the American Community Theater Association, a fact that Fliehr regularly mentions as an influence in his ascent to performance greatness. Fliehr was far from a perfect student, it took him five years to graduate from high school. He made his way to the University of Minnesota and played football his freshman year, but his grades weren't good enough for the University to let him play the next year. He floundered for a while, without much direction, eventually taking a job as an insurance salesman. Through selling insurance he met an owner of a bar, who asked him if he had any interest in being a bouncer. Fliehr, thinking the job would be a great way to meet women, quickly accepted. During his first week there, a large tough looking guy walked in the bar. He was world-renowned power lifter turned performance artist, Ken Patera. They met just before the 1972 Olympics, the last major weightlifting event Patera participated in before deciding to use his incredible strength to make some of the most interesting body art of the time.
Patera and Fliehr ended up living together and, after Patera competed in the Olympics, eventually broke into the art world together.
It wasn't long before Fliehr followed in Patera's footsteps.
Ask anyone who the best performance artist of the 20th century was in nine times out of ten, Fliehr is going to be the top person on that list, if not, he's number two. But why? What about Fliehr makes him great? The person had been done before... did he simply do it better than anyone else? Is it the longevity of that persona that makes him the best? Fliehr embodies the theme of this site, Enduring Persona, perhaps better than any of the artists featured here. It's hard to say exactly what makes Fliehr so incredible, but he nonetheless is. He's not without his critics, there are many. But even the most aggressive of his naysayers will readily admit that nobody has accomplished what he has. There are far too many facets to the debate to be detailed here. The most common one is that Fliehr has been accused of being predictable. Predictable, perhaps when viewing many of his performances side by side. But, in the context of where he performed them and why, the perceived similarities of each performance would simply not be noticed. Every single one was done in a different place with different people, and each served their purpose perfectly. What's more important, however, is how this enduring persona was capable of making people react. The pieces described on the next two pages alone should cement his legacy. These are two of, literally, thousands... |
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