Jonathan Winters appeared in more than 50 films, has authored books and produced an impressive collection of original art, some of it available in his 1988 book of paintings titled Hang-Ups. This is part two of the interview we conducted approximately 3 years ago.
en: Tell me more about your studio.
JW: Little candy cash register that sits on a box that my grandfather had, a kind of a big square chest. The cash register is from NCR. I’ve got things I’ve collected from Dayton… a picture of the art institute. I’ve got pictures of guys I’ve worked with... Art Carney, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and paintings that Native Americans have done. I’m a collector.
It’s a little bit of everything. I don’t work on an easel so much as a big drawing board. I’ve got a radio, and I paint to music, mostly from the 40s -- Duke Ellington, Count Basie. And I have a desk. I do my writing there. It’s a comparatively small area that I paint in. You go up a series of stairs, almost like a loft. I’ve got a little table there with my acrylics, and I go to work.
en: I also was a painter when I was young. In recent years I've set up a studio in my garage every summer.
JW: What kind of painting?
en: Abstract expressionism, impressionism, surrealism.... I read that you were into Dali and Magritte.
JW: I love Magritte. I’m working on a painting now. It’s a hearse, and behind it there’s a trailer with a U-Haul label on it – it’s like a cartoon really – and the caption is, “You can take it with you.” I’m very influenced by cartoonists. I’ve done some cartoons, had a couple published, one in Playboy, one in the old Saturday Evening Post.
Charlie Adams, Peter Arno, George Price, those are my guys. I’ve done a couple serious things. I’m not an activist of any kind. I mean, message stuff. There was one you saw, A New Member... It didn’t play too well in the south.
en: How did you get interested in screen printing?
JW: Joe (Petro) is a guy who knew my boy. We’ve put together some stuff. I did a
book of short stories. Put some artwork in that.... Joe’s back in Kentucky.
en: I have Kentucky roots. I’m a descendant of Daniel Boone.
JW: Southern Ohio, once you get into Kentucky....
>>> breaks into southern dialect<<< played football against Hamilton...
en: What are you doing to promote what you do?
JW: I just finished a picture this past September. It will be out in late summer. We’re in touch with each other. I’m working with Joe. I just sent him some books and he’s putting them in a shadow box kind of thing.
en: What makes your work unique?
JW: Well, that’s an interesting question. All I ever hope to do with anything is try to be a little bit different from the guy on the wall. As I mentioned earlier, I look for style. A woman turned to me the other day and said, “How much is your largest painting?” The biggest I get is about 18 x 24. And I said $25,000. And she said, “Oh my God! I never dreamed it would be that much.” Well, I said, “The painting’s a joke. The idea is worth $25,000.” And she didn’t get that, so she said, and I get this a lot, >>> alters voice << “If you weren’t Jonathan Winters, you couldn’t ask those kind of prices.” And I said, “But I am Jonathan Winters.” Why would I put Henry Walker, or Lyle Davenberger on my painting?
Sink or swim. I get annoyed very quickly. If you don't want to pay that... Now the woman is wearing heavy jewelry, pulls up in a brand new Jaguar... You’re talking to a guy who’s 77. I see these assholes coming in with all this glass on their hands bringing in a Delta flight, dickering with me... and I say, “Look, let me tell you something. You’re best bet is to go to Tijuana and get something on velvet. That would be tops $35 and a picture of Elvis.”
I’ve only painted 150 paintings in my life. They’re not all 25,000 for crying out loud. My drawings are like $500, framed pen and ink things. Red Skelton, for an 8 x 10, gets $45,000.
But you’re dealing with people. People say, “After you die do you think these will be worth anything at all?”
“Well, I sold my clothes for 200 dollars after they were worn out. Collectible people, they will collect anything. I don’t know. I can’t tell. I’ve bought paintings I never heard of the guy, he wasn’t famous. I buy things I like. I don’t care what the name of the guy is. If I like the painting, and I see some interesting strokes that he’s done with his brushes and his subject matter, I’m gonna buy it. But a great many people >>voice change<< “Unless it’s Kuniyoshi, or unless you’re talking about Magritte or Reginald Marsh or Winslow Homer, uh, I don’t know. Do you think your stuff measures up to that?”No, I’m not in any museum, except possibly the Dayton Art Institute, and probably in the basement there, but no... Look, if you don’t like the painting, get out of the place right now. Take a walk. I just don’t have time to go back and forth with these people.
en: Is your work in galleries
JW: Not now. A guy has been on me from a gallery in Beverly Hills. They take such a cut out of you. They want 70 and you get 30. They talk about a cocktail party and some exposure, but what do you come away with? It used to be when I did a show in the 70s, they took thirty and I took seventy. But now it’s just turned around. Automatically most galleries, just 50-50.
TO BE CONTINUED
Jon Winters photo courtesy Christina Bergstrom
http://www.bergstromsphotography.com/
More artwork by Jonathan Winters
http://www.jonathanwinters.com/
Read part one of the Jon Winters interview here:
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