The MuuMuu’s. The housecoats. The AquaNet. The cheesecake. Several things come to mind when you think of the Golden Girls, but Bea Arthur’s stacked rack isn’t one of them.
That’s about to change thanks to Lenora Claire, who just a couple of short years after placing the winning bid for a nude painting of Bea Arthur on eBay, is hanging her piece next to dozens of others in an ode to Dorothy (Arthur), Rose (Betty White), Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia (Estelle Getty)—Golden Gals Gone Wild, the art show. 
The eBay purchase, Claire says, came about completely by accident—in a mad search for the Golden Girls DVD sets, she came across a listing: NUDE PORTRAIT – BEA ARTHUR, GOLDEN GIRLS.
“I thought, ‘What? I’ve got to click on this,’” she laughs. “I got in a bidding war with this person and $110 later it was mine.”
As it happens, the piece was done by Los Angeles local Chris Zimmerman, who’s work is tied in with the Tom of Finland crew.
The two hit it off, Claire wound up with more of Zimmerman’s work, but the Bea Arthur piece—the crown jewel, if you will—got primo placement over her bed.
Some friends gawked, some laughed, some were even repulsed.
At one point, Belinda Carlisle made an offer on the piece.
But since art is supposed to make you feel something, the strong reactions got Claire to thinking: Why not an art show?
And thus Golden Gals Gone Wild (name changed so she doesn't get sued by Disney/Touchstone) was born.
A long time Golden Girls fan (from Sophia’s supermarket rebellion to the infamous condom episode), Claire says the idea for doing the art show was further inspired by interviews she did with Julie Newmar and Cassandra Petersen (Elvira)—two smoking hot older women, she says.
“As a woman living in Los Angeles, you’re very aware of this ageism,” she says.
“I saw these two hot older chicks and I thought, ageism and sexuality. We don’t really address that culturally. So with the Golden Girls, it’s funny, it’s camp, everybody loves them, but there’s depth to it.”
Which is why the show has attracted so much attention. What started with one painting from one artist has turned into a showcase for more than 30 artists, including Ed Mironiuk, the artist behind Saturday Night Live’s TV Funhouse, and Party Monster Michael Alig, doing his piece from behind bars and sending it to James St. James of World of Wonder, which is putting on the show in their gallery.
Expect puppets, mosaics, nudes, underwear, an oil painting of the girls as hoes with Different Strokes’ Mr. Drummond as their pimp—all there for your enjoyment as you nibble on a piece of cheesecake, Jackie Beat performing original tunes about the Golden Girls as a DJ spins in Depends.
While it might all sound a bit camp (and it is, Claire’s quick to assure), it comes from a place of deep love for each of these women, and a desire for people to look at the art, remember fondly a bit of classic TV and, hopefully, take a bit of that nostalgia home.
“I want them to seriously come in and seriously buy it,” she says. “It’s all for sale. It’s a FART movement… putting the fun, the fuck, whatever you want the F to be, into art. It’s fine art. I’ve sold art, I’ve worked in galleries, I’m very serious about it.”
But even with visions of the ka-ching of cash registers dancing around in this curator’s head, she’s not above doing a bit of guess work when it comes to speculating on the rack most likely to bring the crowds in.
“I’ve seen photos of Betty White, because she was a pin up girl in the 40’s, and at least in her young days she had a pretty rocking body,” Claire says.
“It’s hard because Bea always covers up with those weird (drape) looking things, so she could have huge old knockers under there, I don’t know. Estelle Getty doesn’t really have anything. I would say probably Rue or Betty has the best rack.”
Find out if she’s right this Saturday from 8pm to midnight at the World of Wonder art space in Hollywood. For more information click here.
Betty White as Rose, by Ed Mironiuk
Ross von Metzke © 2007 Gay Wired; All Rights Reserved
Comments