{"id":14158,"date":"2019-11-01T17:18:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T21:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=14158"},"modified":"2019-11-03T10:57:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T15:57:25","slug":"willie-alexander-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/11\/01\/willie-alexander-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Art Of The Godfather Of Boston Punk, Willie Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s here. It\u2019s life. It\u2019s everything. Bam!\u201d Willie \u201cLoco\u201d Alexander tells me as we tour a retrospective of his paintings and collages at the Manship Artist Residency + Studios<\/a> in Gloucester.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old\u2019s paintings and collages, dating back to 1961, fill the walls and are tucked into shelves and alcoves throughout the big, rambling house of the late sculptor Paul Manship. The \u201cAlexander Retrospective,\u201d curated by Susan Erony, is on view at 10 Leverett St. from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3. Hours are Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"Willie<\/a>
Willie Alexander at a retrospective of his paintings and collages at the Manship Artist Residency + Studios in Gloucester, Oct. 18, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The paintings read like broadsides scrawled in red, black and turquoise atop rusty backgrounds: \u201cFish Eye,\u201d \u201cCorn Dog,\u201d \u201cUncle Moe,\u201d \u201cYves Tanguy,\u201d \u201cAngels here now \u00bd off,\u201d \u201cCelia Cruz.\u201d They bring to mind both 1950s painterly abstraction and folk art yard signs. The collages, often worked on both sides, are full of jangling headlines, show fliers, kittens, Hollywood stars, clippings from The Gloucester Times newspaper. \u201cThey\u2019d start small and then they\u2019d just get bigger,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019d turn them over. They\u2019re photo sculptures.\u201d<\/p>\n

They all feel like glimpses into Alexander\u2019s bustling mind. He says, \u201cYou can see I put in all of them church bulletins, newspapers, things I got off the streets. They make me feel good, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an upstairs closet is an altar to mid-20th century movie star Ava Gardner. \u201cShe was somebody I was in love with when I was a young boy in Gloucester. I saw \u2018Show Boat\u2019 at the Strand [theater] and she sang \u2018Just My Bill\u2019 and I melted.\u201d As if she was singing right to him. \u201cHalf of it was because of the cleavage, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n