The taxi ride from Laguardia was fast and furious. Dodging pedestrians and slipping around parked and slow-moving vehicles at an amusement ride pace, we were headed to 3 West 51st street and the Women's National Republican Club where Everett Raymond Kinstler had kindly got us a room through his reciprocal club membership. Assuring ourselves that our limbs were intact, we (Ed Muno and I) emerged from the cab in front of the singularly unimpressive facade of the Club and stepped beneath scaffolding rising all the way to the top of this 9-story building. Gleeful that there was an elevator, we ascended to our 7th floor room with twin beds and a screenless window which looked out on the labyrinthian scaffolding. The only source of circulating air, the window remained open exposing us to the random, all-night noises of traffic, construction, trash pick-up, and the denizens of Rockefeller Center. But, hey, we were across the street from Rockefeller Center...and we had come to videotape an interview with Ray, as he likes to be called because he says it makes him feel younger.
Born in New York City in 1926, Kinstler dropped out of high school and became an apprentice comic book artist at the age of 16. This launched a remarkable illustration career that later included pulps and paperback covers. About the pulps popularity, Kinstler wrote "We could always sell the two C's, ‘cowboys and cleavage'. With either one, you had a sale." Besides numerous "Ranch Romances" work, he illustrated "The Shadow" and "Doc Savage."
By 1960 Ray parlayed his illustrious illustration abilities and embarked upon a portrait artist's career painting the likenesses of "Right Stuff" astronauts, Scott Carpenter and Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Later he began painting the portraits of celebrities and government officials. Of the more than 1200 portraits he has completed, Ray has painted the portraits of five U.S. presidents including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The Right Stuff author and Kinstler friend, Tom Wolfe says that "Ray is the John Singer Sargent of our times, with a little bit of [James MacNeill] Whistler thrown in for good measure, and the completely unique Ray Kinstler above all."
My first contact with Ray was through correspondence I had with him related to the A. Keith Brodkin Contemporary Western Artists project. Every six months I send project updates to participating artists. In early September 2007 Ray e-mailed me saying, "Naturally I would be glad to be interviewed, taped...whatever might be of interest..." I thanked him for the offer and his support of the project. I considered his offer courteous and something I believe he thought was expected of him. Moreover, in imagining how busy his life is, I resolved that this was something I would not pursue.
Almost immediately after I sent the January Brodkin update, Ray responded in part, "I would be pleased to be interviewed and contribute if I can to your project. Not having any response from a similar offer, I assume you have no interest in my participation." Well, this caused me great anxiety and anguish. I immediately apologized for my silence, told him that I was honored by his desire to participate, and that we would determine a date and time posthaste. April 23 became that date.
On Wednesday morning, April 23 we took a short, fast and furious taxi ride to Gramercy Park and the National Arts Club in which Ray has his studio. Founded in 1898 the Club made its home in the Samuel Tilden mansion in 1906. For those interested, Tilden ran as the 1876 Democratic candidate for President and was a crusader against Tammany Hall corruption. We arrived to find Ray just inside the door, sitting in the entranceway, head bent down, his elbows resting on his thighs with his hands clenched together between his legs. With eyebrows rivaling those of character actors Ed Begley, Sr., Jeff Corey, and Milo O'Shea, Ray stood up to greet us, to shake hands and give a quick tour of the Club and his studio. A gracious and thoughtful host, Ray asked if our accommodations were satisfactory and was concerned that our visit was to be a memorable one. We assured him of our contentment.
In the studio we took our places. Ray seated in the chair in which many of his models/clients had sat; Ed behind the videocamera; and me off-camera. Knowing that Ray had been interviewed numerous times and had been in the presence of famous and powerful people, I was a tad anxious. I was concerned that I might bore him, that he might deem my questions derivative and unoriginal, or that he really did not want to tell that certain anecdote one more time. I had even fantasized that Ray's friend singer Tony Bennett would drop in to say Hi...of course, that would have been a good thing. As I finished my introduction, Ray's striking clock inopportunely chimed to which I remarked, "For whom the bell tolls..." Without missing a beat, Ray declared with unrestrained arm and hand gestures, "It tolls for thee...not me, for thee!" My anxiety evaporated after thee.
For the next two and a half hours, Ray regaled us with life and career anecdotes. Speaking of his long association with our Museum beginning in the 1970s, he told us with humor and dramatized dialogue (derived from a keen ear for authenticity, much like his keen eye for likenesses) the delightful back stories to the portraits of Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan that he painted for our Museum. Afterwards, we had a late lunch at the Players Club next door. Then, Ray left us to attend to some aggravating business that had just emerged...some artist disregarding or ignoring artwork dimension guidelines that Ray had set for an event that he was chairing. He was a wonderfully charming and precariously modest raconteur.
The next day we left Manhattan in another fast and furious taxi ride to Laguardia. As we flew to OKC, Ray flew to Atlanta to paint the portrait of yet another president, Jimmy Carter.
The interview with Ray Kinstler is available to researchers, educators, and collectors in the Dickinson Research Center reading room. For more about the Brodkin Project click on http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/research/r_keit.html.
Now, for a complete non-sequitur... Groucho Marx once said, "Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... now you tell me what you know."
All I know is that "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." Chuck Rand, Dickinson Research Center Director, quoting Marx and missing Lennon.