Mark
Kostabi fights Morton Downey
While
Taping TV Show
March 3rd, 1989 was the date
for a melee between talk show host Morton Downey Jr. and New York artist Mark
Kostabi while taping a program titled "Art or Garbage?"
Rewritten from an article originally published in 1989
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Five years ago Morton Downey Jr.
left Sacramento in humility after resigning from his KFBK radio talk show for
telling a joke about a "Chinaman" on the air, then publicly dressing
down city councilman Jimmy Yee when Yee failed to see the humor.
Today the conservative maverick Downey is a smash hit on syndicated
television. A loudmouth by his own admission, when he yells
"Bullshit!" at his guests the studio audience chants in a goon-like
frenzy. "There are
critics," says Downey, "that think my show is the worst America has to
offer. I think it's the best
America has to offer."
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Five years ago
Mark Kostabi was an emerging artist
in the star-making frenzy of Manhattan's red-hot gallery scene.
Two years worth of glad-handing and business card collecting paid off and
the young marketing genius from Whittier now had several one-man shows under his
belt and was selling his paintings for up to $5,000.
Today he hires art students to think up and execute the paintings for
him, and told Robin Leach "I think anyone who buys one of my paintings is a
fool." Kostabi's honesty about
the fraudulence is what he is now known for, a conceptual gimmick that
ironically brings him more attention.
Today Downey and Kostabi are
more famous than ever because of a fight that broke out while one was a guest on
the other's show. "It was a playful joke that went too far," said
Downey's publicist John Murphy. "In
the beginning it was all fun, but got out of hand."
Downey allegedly came out of it with a broken thumb while Kostabi
reported body bruises and facial cuts.
Asked
to come on TV and demonstrate his practice of paying assistants to create and
execute the art, Kostabi claimed in a police statement that Downey "began
verbally abusing me by referring to me as an 'A-HOLE.'" The artist says
that Downey started doing an impromptu performance piece by wrapping a phone
cord around his neck and spitting on an easel.
"I good naturedly participated in the performance," said
Kostabi. "At one point I
sprinkled ashes over the top of his head. Downey
then physically attacked me."
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New
York Post reporter Jerry Tallmer witnessed the brief taping at WWOR's Secaucus,
New Jersey studio. "The two
wrestled to the floor and somewhere along the line the fight took a serious
turn." Kostabi tried to throw
a cup of paint at Downey and hit a cameraman instead. Downey began shouting "You're dead, c--------r,"
and smashed a phone to the ground while Kostabi scrambled free.
Then Tallmer reports that someone announced the show was over and Kostabi
was thrown out of the studio. The
program was retaped six days later without Kostabi, and Downey refused to let
anyone air tape of the original program.
Dozens
of newspapers carried details of the incident.
It played mostly into the hands of Kostabi who is eager to turn any kind
of attention into new sales. After
calling his New York office to get information for this article I was sent a
press package with nine newspaper accounts of the fight, nine earlier articles
on Kostabi, a six page biography, copies of the artist's sworn testimony to the
Secaucus Police Department, and copies of the complaints filed against him by
Downey and two WWOR employees.
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Downey
's publicist Murphy was surprised. "I
can't believe they're sending out press kits on this because it's under
litigation," in a recent phone conversation Murphy told me "Downey is
innocent in this case." Downey
was acquitted once before on charges that he assaulted a guest on his show, gay
rights activist Andrew Humm. Meanwhile
Kostabi claims a $40,000 painting that appeared on the show hasn't been returned
and he will file counter charges against Downey.
Update:
as of December, 2003
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Mark Kostabi
had his biggest retrospective show ever in Venice, Italy in November of 2003,
showing 180 paintings. A 240 page catalog book, Kostabi a Venezia, accompanied
the exhibition. He also has a new
CD of piano compositions out, "Songs for Sumera." His 1996 "Counter Intelligence" was just purchased
by the Galleria Nazionale d'Art Moderna in Rome.
His paintings are in the collections of such people as David Bowie, Bill
Clinton, Debbie Harry, Luciano Pavarotti, Axl Rose, Brooke Shields and Sylvester
Stallone. He has had well over
79,000 visitors to his website: www.kostabi.com.
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Morton Downey Jr.
made more news in 1989 when he claimed that neo-nazi skinheads attacked him in a
bathroom at the San Francisco International Airport.
Authorities could never verify the attack, and many believe it was a
publicity stunt. A few months later
his talk show was canceled. He
tried to make a comeback with a less hostile show, but it quickly failed. In 1996 he was operated on for lung cancer.
He quit smoking and became an anti-smoking advocate, but the cancer took
him in March, 2001 at the age of 67.
Below you'll find a police report and a court document from the event
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finit
