Jonathan Winters: [discussing the art studio located in his basement]: So when you do come out of your basement, it's a little bit of a treat.
Carson: It's like the papers have been signed and you're out!
Winters: So, you're kind of an out patient, you know? Come and go as you please. But it's a great little place for me to work. You had Dong Kingman on, an old friend of mine.
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Artist: Dong Kingman
Year: 1976
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Carson: One of the fines water colorist in the world.
Winters: He's a great guy. Wonderful sense of humor.
Carson: This is for you
Winters: I'm working in inks. These are ink pens and, boy, they really give you bright colors. That's an unusual title. It's called, "Whale." [audience laughs]. "Whale with Teeth".
Carson: A very multi colored whale, also?
Winters: I have a lot of influence by the Indians, Mexicans, Aztecs, South Americans do a lot of them. You know, bright colors with cloth, and uh, with their artwork. This is called uh, this is called uh, "Bird with a Split Personality." [audience laughs].
Carson: Seems logical
Winters: Here's a religious bird standing on a religious turtle.[audience laughs and claps]
here!!!
Winters: Here's a man who hasn't got it all together. [ audience laughs] He's dressed up for something that just isn't going to come off.
Winters: This is called "A Kitty Who isn't Paying Attention" [audience laughs]
Winters: I have two more, this is pencil, this is called "Hollywood Pool Man" [audience laughs]
Carson: There are fish
Winters: There are fish all throughout his body there. He's kind of far out and strange little face.
Carson: You're selling fairly well, aren't you? at your art show...
Winters: Fairly well....This is called "An American Easter." Peoples say. [using a high pitched mocking voice] "I don't understand. Where's the bunny and the eggs and things?" [audience laughs] But, uh, there's a lot of things going on in there. That's the great thing about surrealism is that you see what you want to see.
Carson: Were you influenced by [Salvador] Dali?
Winters: I have always been a great admirer of Dali.
Carson: Most people forget that he's a fine technician when he draws uh realism [I think Carson means impressionism] uh a seascape or something, it's absolutely startling.
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e.g.
The Tartan 'El Son' (1919)
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Winters: He's a great, great painter. Paul Klee is another guy that I've always enjoyed. And I have great respect for René Magritte, who is a Belgian painter, a surrealist, great humor, great painter.
Carson: What do you think of the price of art has become absolutely fantastic. You know, like the Vermeer that was just returned to Ireland [sic - actually it was stolen from England probably by someone from the Irish Republican Army] for $4.5 million for one painting.
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Carson is referring to this story: Janson, Jonathan. “
Vermeer Thefts: 1974 - The Guitar Player.”
The Golden Age of Dutch Art, www.essentialvermeer.com/fakes_thefts_school_of_delft_lost_sp/vermeer_theft_02.html#.WvzGFa6nGUk.
"On Saturday night February 23, 1974, Vermeer's Guitar Player was stolen from Kenwood House, in Hampstead, London."
The Guitar Player
(De gitaarspeelster)
c. 1670–1673
Oil on canvas
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Carson: I find it hard to put that kind of a value on something.
Winters: I'd feel a little scared to own something like that.
Carson: Imagine having a $4 million painting on a wall?
Winters: I think that the thing to do would be to build a concrete room, you know, blocks about this thick [holds arms out about a yard]
Winters: And uh just put the painting up on that and visit once a month, you know, under heavy guard and just sit there, with a flashlight and look at it, you know, and then, "OK, boys, let's go upstairs." When you get up around that kind of money, boy, that's a lot of money.
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Just to round things out, another seascape, this time from Paul Klee, perhaps hunting for a multicolor whale:
LITTLE REGATTA
PAUL KLEE
1922
Watercolor On Paper
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