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During this time of economic strife, shouldn't it make sense that the federal and state governments recognize our marriages? We want to pay taxes, but we don't like being treated as second class citizens because of religious bigotry. President-elect Obama promised to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which prohibits us from getting federal benefits, 1,138 of them. We must hold him to his promise." NEW YORK ARTS MAGAZINE -February 2008 Francis Nelson The iconoclastic stance Charles Merrill takes as both an artist and activist goes far beyond the formalized calls of civic duty. “There is only so much you can do with paint on canvas,” he says. Nonetheless, Merrill continues to lay paint on canvas to express his perception of the violence permeating the increasingly intolerant attitudes of society. His latest series, Gay Activism in Art Form, was presented recently at Broadway Gallery in New York City with the intent of causing a stir in the social fabric of our time. A series of paintings were accompanied by a video installation arranged by Brandon Cuuichi, allowing viewers to witness Merrill being interviewed about his work. His paintings present the uncanny juxtapositions of primitive forms and saturated candy colors, childlike imagery and sensitive, sexually violent issues. Merrill incorporates iconography into his prolific generation of homosexually- charged imagery from both past and present. His work is politically charged, and is often inspired by new developments in current events. Merrill states that the pink triangles that reoccur in this body of work morbidly reference the badges that homosexuals were forced to wear in World War II by the Nazis, not the contemporary, re-purposed symbol of gay pride. The pink triangles—along with the target and rainbow symbols—serve as the focal point for many of the canvases, introducing a feminine and effeminate vernacular. A disquieting dialogue is formed by the interplay of arrows and triangles aimed towards these soft emblems, at times penetrating them. Merrill works in both acrylic and oil paints to generate a bold and social dialogue across 36- by 48-inch canvases. His messages are clearly spoken through disquieting titles such as Oppressed Sexual Minorities and In Remembrance of Mathew Shepard. The paintings do not debase the idea of high art, rather indicate a shift in how art can be a platform for real and open social discourse. In this way Merrill’s work speaks to the history of political painting as in Soviet Constructivism, where visual composition is driven by the incentive to access the largest audience possible in the most effective manner. Merrill’s paintings communicate that there is something beautiful and universal about a rich and varied social fabric, that is at risk of being lost or destroyed by the blind acceptance of ancient religious texts. In Merrill’s view, texts such as the Bible and the Koran are embedded in society and continue to dramatically shape the violence that plays out through various forms of racism and oppression. While Merrill condemns religion for the suffering and discrimination homosexuals have been inflicted throughout modern history, he is also on a spiritual mission of his own. Merrill is drawn to the spiritual nature of various Native American and indigenous groups, who at times perceived homosexuals as enlightened, special beings. His simple forms and rainbows—inspired by Native American symbols—recall a time when homosexuality was not a weakness, but a gift. Merrill brings to light an issue that remains both politically and socially volatile in today’s society. For Merrill, gay activism is equivalent to a fight against religious faith. His aim is to overcome the effects that organized religion has inflicted worldwide in the psyche and subconscious of our modern society. Known for his secret performance of burning a Koran at his undisclosed quarters in a Chicago hotel, Merrill has also repeatedly destroyed, or “edited” specific sections of Biblical text for similar reasons. While this was done reclusively, it was a potent and personalized demonstration of how repressed minorities must carry the burden of discrimination. Additionally Merrill has at times worked more publicly as a performance artist, repeatedly taking a marker and scissors to eliminate specific sections of Thomas Kinkade’s Family Bible. These performances raise questions concerning the social responsibilities of the artist. When using art as a platform for social discussion, it seems that the artist must also gauge the public’s reaction to the work, in order to see if they have produced an accurate reflection of society and social issues. “The role of the artists is to do thing that the politician won’t do or say,” Merrill states, and it is precisely this notion that has led him to make decisions such as refusing to pay taxes after the Clinton administration signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which excluded homosexual marriages from key tax benefits. Recently, a particularly painful turn of events came about when President Bush began promoting the amendment of the Constitution against gay marriage. Merrill feels that these trends of prejudices are the product of increasingly theocratic government structures. Merrill finds religion to be a source of oppression for homosexuals, but he also sees religion as a force that denies individuals their self-responsibility and autonomy in the world. He believes that prominent religious texts need to be continually examined and raised to question in society. Merrill is an individual who chooses to follow, rather exclusively, scientific reasoning. While he admits that the feedback he has received from the gay public has been 50/50, he argues that even a large demographic of homosexuals are religious. His paintings emphasize the violent pain of oppression, but also the hope of change and progress away from prejudices that infringe upon individualism. All proceeds from the sale of his work go to the William Institute UCLA, Sexual Orientation Legal Think Tank. The Protest Art of Charles Merrill BURNING THE KORAN (QUR'AN) EDITING THE BIBLE Religion, Sexuality and Art By Michael Lucas Charles Merrill’s artistic temperament was evident right from the start of our interview. Defining himself as three-quarters gay and one-quarter straight, he said that whatever the gender of his partner, he likes smooth skin and the smell of night blooming jasmine. He lived the earlier parts of his life-he’s now 73-on a grand scale, starting off in the fashion business in New York City, then studying acting with Stella Adler. After a stint with the Navy in Japan, he met his wife, Evangeline-who collected Kandinskys and Pollacks-at a gallery show of his work in Palm Beach. They remained together for 28 years until her passing in 1990. A self-made millionaire he moved among high-society during the years of his marriage. Later, he moved to North Carolina and immersed himself in Native American culture. Today, Merrill is an activist (as a protest for inequality, he refuses to pay taxes) and an artist who views religious zealots as dire threats. His oil paintings include LGBT and religious symbolism. Recently, he edited the Bible with scissors and ink to eliminate the Right Winger’s hit parade of anti-gay passages. He knows the Koran in translation, but burned a valuable antique edition of it given to his late wife by King Hussein Jordan. We spoke with Merrill about his latest works before the opening of his New York art exhibit, which includes his oils and a video installation. You cut out specific verses from the Bible, but burned the entire Koran. Why is that text is dangerous ? The Koran is responsible for 9/11. This kind of thing is foreseen in the Koran, actually, with the non-believers heaped in piles and set afire. The non-Muslims who don’t believe that the book talks about that very obviously have not read the Koran. They have their silly fantasies that the Koran is peace and light and Khalil Gibran [the Lebanese artist and poet], but it is not. Even [President] Bush goes around calling Islam “a religion of peace.” He’s full of crap ; it isn’t. Why don’t we hear more criticism of the text ? [The Muslim] strategy is to intimidate people out of saying the least bad thing. But if everyone cowers like the media does, what chance do we have of preserving our freedoms and our legal system over time ? It is up to the artist to edit the Bible and burn the Koran, because artists have the courage to do things that so-called leaders in politics dare not do. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I had many phobias of death. Now, though, I think, “If I get to that deathbed in the hospital and feel remorse that I haven’t made this warning against violence, then my life hasn’t been worth much.” How did the gay community respond to your religious-based performance art ? About 50 percent applauded me, and 50 percent were strongly against. Many people were concerned about the concept of burning a book, particularly a religious book. They’re clinging to the religious brainwashing they underwent when they were children. They hang onto that childhood father figure in the sky and twist it to where their make-believe friend Jesus helps them come out. I see faith-based gay organizations popping up all over the place ; to me, that’s oxymoronic. Maybe if they would read the apocalyptic Book of Revelation, the end of the Bible, they wouldn’t think they had such a great pretend friend in Jesus. If you’ve matured as an adult you will get rid of all those tooth fairies in your mind, take responsibility for yourself and live out your potential as a human being. How would you describe the role of religion in our country’s current presidential debates ? It’s very important for the candidates to specify what is in their minds. John Edwards, for example, reverted to his childhood Southern Baptist religion when he had the tragic crisis of his son’s death. Well, a president simply is going to face many crises. Is he or she going to be adult, and effectively handle the crises, or are they going to revert to mythology and imaginary friends ? Is there any proven connection between praying and the successful resolution of a crisis ? When Hillary says that faith brought her through Bill’s sexual indiscretions, I want her to elaborate. All a candidate need do when asked about their religious beliefs is to say, “Oh, that’s very personal to me” and they get the knee-jerk reaction of “Oh we understand ; don’t bother to explain.” That mindset has prevented our society from making an objective assessment of the complete text of the Koran. Finally, how do you see these issues playing out in upcoming years ; are you an optimist ? I think that the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment will prevail, despite any setbacks. Paintings by Charles Merrill, through Aug 31, at Broadway Gallery, 473 Broadway, 7th Fl., 212-431-1079. Visit his web site at merrillcharles.com. NY Blade Milton Fletcher Artist, gay activist and iconoclast Charles Merrill is enjoying a prolific period of creativity by addressing his social concerns in his art. A move last year to Palm Springs, California, with its brilliant sunlight inspired Merrill to integrate aspects of Cubism into his latest work, particularly the use of form and bright color. Like Picasso and the passion of his mural, Guernica, Merrill is working with a profound sense of artistic purpose. He states, “The role of the artist is to fix unjust laws in the fabric of society that need to be fixed.” What has to be fixed, according to Merrill, is the repressiveness of an increasingly theocratic US Government toward same-sex couples and the denial of equal treatment to all citizens as guaranteed by the US Constitution. In 1996, for example, President Clinton signed “The Defense of Marriage Act,” which disallowed same-sex couples the Federal tax benefits heterosexual couples receive. President Bush's efforts to amend the US Constitution against gay marriage provoked Merrill to stop paying his taxes in protest. In addition to being a lifelong artist, Merrill published and edited Art In Ireland magazine in the 70s. During this time, he interviewed artist Joseph Beuys, who introduced Merrill to the concept of “Social Sculpture.” Merrill explains, “Society as a whole is to be regarded as one great work of art to which each person can contribute creatively. Beuys said, ‘Everyone is an artist.’” This expansive definition of art’s role in the community gave Merrill a new perspective on creating art and inspired him to use it as a tool for transformation. Influential artists throughout history who were homo- or pansexual have also galvanized Merrill into action, including da Vinci, Michelangelo, Paul Klee and Andrew Warhol. As the artist notes, “Many artists of the past were gay, some of the most gifted.” Using boldly colored acrylic and oil paints on 36 x 48-inch canvases in his most recent work, Merrill’s visual forms are recurring motifs of triangles, circles, lines and arrows which, taken together, create the artist’s visual language of emphatic expression. These elements are also used to create symbols and references that reiterate—rather obliquely visually, but more explicitly in the pieces’ titles (like Oppressed Sexual Minorities and In Remembrance of Matthew Shepard)—Merrill’s strong passion against pervasive intolerance. Many of his compositions recall the styles of Soviet Constructivism and Kandinsky. However, the iconic upside-down pink triangles in his work have a more sinister reference—this was the emblem that gays had to wear in Nazi concentration camps. Merrill cites a spiritual reference to the symbol in his work, “In Native American culture, the Berdache, or two spirit ones, were gay or bi-sexual men and women accepted by the tribes as leaders of the spirit world, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse for example.” Merrill uses Cubist-like lines to refer to this influence rather than to depict the original symbol, the swastika, which included Berdache as part of its meaning, because it was perverted by the Nazis. Merrill is also a performance artist who makes his attitudes toward Christianity uncompromisingly clear; he uses scissors and a black marker to edit Thomas Kinkade’s Family Bible by cutting and striking out the hateful passages in the text. Perhaps most importantly, Merrill is altruistic. The proceeds from the work sold at his show at New York City’s Broadway Gallery benefits the William Institute UCLA Sexual Orientation Legal Think Tank. Ultimately, Merrill wants “to make social change, educate, to leave the world a better place for the next generation of oppressed people.” This is an admirable goal by a progressive artist. Milton Fletcher writes for NY Arts magazine and is director and curator of CyberGallery66.org. THE NEW YORK BLADE WWW.NYBLADE.COM APRIL 27, 2007 NATIONAL NEWS As a Protest, Gay Millionaire Refuses to File His Taxes By EILEEN MCDERMOTT Friday, April 27, 2007 “All of a sudden, I thought, ‘I’m almost 73, and if someone doesn’t do something about this now, it’s never going to change,’” said LGBT activist Charles Merrill of his decision to stop filing his taxes in 2004. Merrill—a self-made millionaire, artist, fervent atheist and cousin of the co-founder of Merrill Lynch—with the support of his partner of 16 years, Kevin Boyle, decided to take action against the anti-gay discrimination implicit in the United States federal tax code soon after selling his North Carolina farm three years ago. “I discovered that, since the farm belonged to me and not my partner, I could only exclude $250,000 in capital gains,” Merrill said. “When [heterosexual] married couples sell a property, they can take up to a $500,000 deduction,” he noted. Merrill was also married for 23 years to Evangeline Johnson, the only daughter of Johnson & Johnson founder, Robert Wood Johnson. Having experienced the benefits that the tax code afforded to straight married couples, he realized first hand exactly how unfair the laws were when applied to same-sex couples. “It’s unconstitutional to deny a segment of the population federal rights,” Merrill said. Merrill and Boyle had held a commitment ceremony that same year on their Edneyville, N.C. estate, but because the Federal government does not recognize same-sex unions in any U.S. jurisdiction, Merrill had no legal recourse. Frustrated, he chose instead to refrain from filing his taxes, an act which the artist describes as “civil disobedience performance art.” Boyle, an independent contractor, has not been affected by the couple’s noncompliance with the tax laws, but has pledged to go to prison with Merrill if necessary. That is an unlikely scenario, Merrill said, because he is not evading taxes, but merely refusing to file. The IRS is currently withholding 28 percent of his income until he files, but Merrill-- who recently withdrew all of his finances from Merrill Lynch and reinvested them in mutual funds with a higher rate of return to make up the difference—doesn’t seem like the type to budge. Before 2004, both Merrill and Boyle had also been active in protesting an anti-gay resolution passed in Rutherford County, N.C. in 1996. “They wanted to make it clear that they didn’t want the gay lifestyle in their town,” said Merrill, who founded Citizens Against Discrimination, organizing nearly 100 LGBT people from North Carolina and the surrounding area to protest the resolution. As a result of their visible role in countering the resolution, the couple soon began to feel a backlash from their small-town neighbors. “We once got a rabbit in the mail with the feet cut off,” Merrill recalled. “It really took [an emotional] toll on us. I wouldn’t eat all day and then I’d drink and try to moderate,” said Merrill, who is now an enthusiastic member of the religion-free Save Our Selves (SOS) recovery program. Boyle also started drinking and smoking marijuana excessively as a means of coping with the increasingly negative atmosphere. The couple decided to sell the farm in 2004. Today, Merrill and Boyle reside in Palm Springs, Calif., where they are registered as domestic partners. Merrill also made headlines recently for his passionate stance on the issue of religious freedom. (He acknowledged that it was more difficult for him to come out as an atheist in rural North Carolina than as a gay man.) A lifetime member and contributor to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Merrill is an outspoken blogger. He stirred controversy among fellow bloggers on the North Carolina- based Hendersonville Times News blog site when he changed his username from “Charles 6” to “Anti-Christ.” The New York Times Corporation, which owned the site, suspended Merrill. “The more I discussed gay and atheist issues, the more they started referring to me as ‘Charles 666,’ Merrill said. “So I thought, Since they’re calling me the Anti-Christ already, I’ll just change it.” The name incited fellow bloggers on the North Carolina- based Hendersonville Times News blog site, who sent content alerts to the online director. The Times has maintained that Merrill was blocked because “the username ‘Anti- Christ’ is a form of trolling.” A prolific artist as well, Merrill incorporates themes of LGBT activism and the spiritual customs associated with indigenous cultures oin his work. An installation will be shown in New York later this year, and will include a video piece featuring interviews with Merrill about his decision to stop filing taxes. Despite his commitment to tax equality for LGBT citizens, Merrill does not suggest that others refuse to file. “Most people can’t do this because they’d be fired from their jobs, or [in the case of wealthier individuals] they’re locked into taking advice from their stockbrokers,” Merrill explained. “I don’t promote this or advise anyone else to do it,” he said. “I’m in a unique position; not everyone has my income.” Merrill also noted that many LGBT organizations that have 501(c)(3) status and thus rely on tax-free donations could lose that status if they engaged in this type of protest. Ultimately, Merrill hopes to have his day in court. “I would wait for the OK from the LGBT legal organizations, but I would go to court with this,” he said. Although most LGBT legal experts agree that same-sex marriage rights must be approached on a state-by-state basis, Merrill remains confident that equality will win. “I think [the issue of tax inequity] will end up in Federal court,” he said. “I hope that this will be tested in the Federal courts and that [the issue] will be resolved before I die.” Education and biography University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Publisher and Editor - The Arts in Ireland magazine (1971-75) Dublin Mural artist (Palm Beach Florida) Norton Art Museum man show Guest speaker at National Gallery of Art, Dublin, Ireland Women's Democratic Club, Washington, D.C. Speaker Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, Fla. BBC Northern Ireland "Art can bridge the gap between peoples of the world". OUT IN THE BAY - NPR San Francisco BARRY LYNN RADIO INTERVIEW - Culture Shocks Alan Colmes - FOX Radio NYC Rachel Maddow-Ron Reagan Radio - Air America |
| CHARLES MERRILL IN VENICE |
Activism ART |
| CHARLES MERRILL KEVIN BOYLE 1991 |
