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Johnny Ace, An American Genius.
 I
met Johnny Ace twenty years ago when I caught him stealing the
battery from my car. Suffice to say that we developed a friendship based
on our mutual interest in American pop culture in general and popular
music in particular. Išve watched his work evolve and Išve come to
know him as well as anyone can.
Often inarticulate and always paranoid, Ace reveals little about his
personal history. This much is known. He was born in the early 1930s in
east Texas. There was trouble as a boy and he took to the road. At some
point he picked up the rudiments of the guitar and harmonica. That and
petty theft kept him afloat.
In 1954, Ace was released from prison in Oklahoma and migrated to St.
Louis to resume his life as a pick-up player. That brought him into the
emerging rock n' roll business. For the next decade he was consistently
at its fringe. It is said that he did the cover art for Duane Eddyšs
first album and played harmonica on Bruce Chanelšs early sixties hit, Hey,
Baby. He worked with Little Richard, Larry Williams and The Del
Vikings, although often only as a roadie.
There was more time in prison, four years in the mid-sixties and two in
New York in the 1970s. Ace was disfigured in a riot at Attica and has
been reclusive since then. Rumors swept the art world years later that
Ace lost both hands in that riot and painted with the brush between his
teeth. The rumor was debunked when it was traced to Ace himself. On the
positive side, he took part in an art-based rehab program for recovering
addicts while at Attica and began seriously developing his interest in
the visual arts.
His first boards appeared around the South in the 1970s. Critics quickly
noted the strong colors and his workšs precision. (Ace attributes his
sense of color to a period when he hid among Rastafarians in Jamaica in
the late 1960s. His precision is inexplicable it is at odds with every
other mental habit Ace has ever evidenced.) For the next decade he
wandered the South, producing art now and then and playing guitar in
roadhouses. He claims to have toured with The Sex Pistols and
produced several rap albums during that time. In 1990, he settled in
Atlanta to be near several of his illegitimate children.
Ace is recognized as Americašs foremost photo surrealist, a genre he
invented. He inhabits a universe somewhere between folk and
pop art much like The Lovinš Spoonful or The Mamas & The
Papas, as Ace puts it. That ambiguity and the difficulty of matching
his work with most sofas has kept his sales limited to a small but
growing cult.
Acešs technique is unusual, but sophomoric. He conceives a picture,
decoupages the photos on a board and proceeds as if it were a coloring
book. Everything but flesh gets painted and laminated with multiple
coats of polyurethane, an effect that creates what one critic called
"a Coney Island on acid" sense. As Ace says, "any fool
can do it". In short, it is Acešs message, not the medium, that
invites serious interest.
Acešs Elvis boards are the best explication of that belief. He stands
mute before the Elvis cult that, at once, deifies and
makes a cartoon of Elvis. Acešs Elvis is nuanced. He has dreams and
insecurities. Sometimes he is shrewd and sometimes a buffoon. Acešs
Elvis is, I believe, real. Acešs Elvis is the perpetually fame-stunted
nineteen year old that surely was the man in actuality.
Johnny Acešs day is coming. He is an American Original, a unique talent
the equal of Howard Finster or Roy Lichtenstein. (Thatšs why Forbes
magazine recently named him "the best investment in contemporary
art in America.") As his friend, I only hope that his fame and
fortune arrive in time for him to enjoy it and repay me all the money Išve
loaned him over the years.
Terry Hammons, Ph.D.
(Hammons is a semi-retired academic, detective novel writer, and
traveler living in Atlanta. He has taught and dabbled in politics and
business. He holds a Ph.D. in American Intellectual History and wrote a
history of the cattle industry in Oklahoma.)
The Critics Speak:
"This is what happens when democracy runs amok. All standards go by
the boards and the dreams of opium eaters constitute art."
Robert Hughes, The New York Times
"Women havenšt been objectified like this since Ruebens. Johnny
Ace is a pig."
Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp
"Gear. Fab. Johnny Ace is just like real rock nš roll. Itšs loud,
dumb and mostly stolen from somebody else."
John Lennon
"Ace achieves the peculiar blending of word and image that
characterizes a distinctly American contribution to modern art.
Fortunately, his pieces also make excellent cheese boards."
Tom Wolfe, The Painted Word
"Acešs stuff is great. If I was alive, Išd buy it."
Jim Morrison
"Priscilla wants to sue him, but I like it. Thank you very
much."
Elvis Presley
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