Think of it like: You unlock a secret level you never even imagined was in a game. It’s an invitation to go in an unexpected direction. Today, I am invited to a hidden beach. Waiting there for me is the father I never thought I’d meet.
When I search for him online, I realize the level I’ve unlocked is massive. Kingsley Cello is just about as famous as a living painter gets. There are hundreds of hits: articles in fancy-sounding art magazines and reviews of solo exhibits at major museums.
Here are questions the search engine pops up when I look for his name:
What is Kingsley Cello best known for?Controversial neoclassical paintings. (I have no clue what that even means.)
What is important about Kingsley Cello?The artist’s dark vision and fairy tale interpretations have influenced many other artists.
What was the scandal about Kingsley Cello?In his 2012 Whitney Museum show, Cello’s extremely violent painting,Prince of Denmark,enraged critics.
Where does Kingsley Cello live?The reclusive artist does not disclose his place of residence.
I searchdollar value of Kingsley Cello paintings.
They average two million dollars.
3
I text mymother:I got this email from Kingsley Cello.
She texts back right away:Hm.
I wait, but she doesn’t write more.Hm what?I ask, after a few minutes.
Not a great guy.
What kind of not great?I press.
Just not. Why is he reaching out?
What’s he like?
Strange, she writes.Obsessive. Wounded.
He’s my father, I write back.
No answer from Isadora.
Is he my father?I write.He says he’s my father.
No answer.
HELLO IS HE MY FATHER BECAUSE HE SAYS HE IS.
Hold on, she texts.I’m at a fruit stand.
YOUR FRUIT IS NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW JUST TYPE YES OR NO.
Yes.Then she adds another text:I didn’t think he knew where I was.And another.Did he ask about me?
I ignore her and read some more about Kingsley online. The art magazine articles are filled with phrases likegrandly sordid imaginationandthe enfant terrible of twenty-first-century neoclassicism.The story from Wikipedia is that Cello burst onto the art scene in what was probably his late twenties. (He gives different birth dates to nearlyevery interviewer.) He never admits to attending art school and first attracted attention with a New York pop-up exhibition in a warehouse space rented for him by an anonymous patron.
His early paintings were considered audacious. They show women (and occasionally men) laughing. Some figures are in baths or showers. Some are watching television or cooking dinner or doing some other mundane activity. None of them wear clothes.
The articles chronicle his rise to fame as a critical darling, but later he became a controversial figure. He started making work with classical literature and fairy tale references. Some people say Kingsley “eroticizes suffering” and others think his work is “juvenile and needlessly violent.”
He never brings journalists to his studio and seems to do all his interviews sitting on park benches in different cities, mostly managing not to reveal much about himself at all. He says he’s American but was raised in Italy by a strict and horrific grandmother. He also says that he grew up in a hardscrabble town in the Midwest.
