Art Belongs to Everyone: the Passion of Vincent Price

Mingling among my books are an assortment of artifacts, curiosities, and novelties; I have always prized trinkets of art and history and nostalgia. Perched in my art book library: a cheap made-in-China Jeff Koons balloon dog knock off, a three-footed polka dot pottery bowl made by a dear friend, and my Vincent Price action figurine.

Vincent nests atop a row of eclectic critical art writings: Robert Hughes, Robert Motherwell, Frank O’Hara. He is the guardian or perhaps the gargoyle of this treasure chest of the wonders of human creativity. 
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Vincent Price is best known as a charismatic, handsome actor in dozens of horror films spanning the ‘30s through early ‘90s. His urbane, campy sophistication and the mellifluous, velvet, baritone qualities of his vocal delivery elevated the lowliest movies of the genre into artful dramas. Classic performances include House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and House of Wax. My own introduction to Price was his iconic narration of Rod Temperton’s rap in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” a genius performance that helped catapult Jackson’s album to become the world’s bestselling record of all time.

Like everyone else, I enjoyed Price’s witty, dramatic flare in fun films over the years. But in 2022, I was commissioned to create a small collage tribute to the Crown Prince of Terror. And that’s when I fell head over heels. Vincent’s voice, face, and genius for menace could make anyone swoon, but discovering his passion for art history and work to democratize access and exposure to that knowledge is what really sent shivers down my spine. 
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When working on themed artworks, I like to immerse myself in my subject matter and learn as much as I can about the topic at hand. So I danced to “Thriller” in my library and spent a few cozy nights curled up with Vince and various bloodcurdling film flashbacks. But diving into some behind-the-scenes research, I found what was, for me, pure gold: not just a pretty face, Vincent’s first passion was art, and before he started acting, he studied for a degree in art history, from Yale, no less. 

Vincent Price, commissioned mixed media artwork, Lorette C. Luzajic 2022

Vincent Price was born in St Louis, Missouri, with English and Welsh ancestry. His family was wealthy with a candy empire and a booming tooth powder company, and so he was fortunately able to afford prestigious higher education. But as it turned out, his access to that knowledge benefited the rest of us. Price developed an interest in theatre after graduation, even as he started working on his masters in art history at the Courtauld Institute, quickly securing acting roles at the Gate Theatre in London. With his stately intelligence and quick wit, his stage presence was formidable, and he landed a variety of roles, moving into character acting for films. His first horror movie was Boris Karloff’s Tower of London. The IMDb puts him in 190 films, from minor cameos to starring roles, and 69 television shows.

Vincent’s acting work spanned sixty years from 1930 to 1990. With his good looks, cultured demeanor, and incisive wit, he was effortlessly popular with directors and a heart throb for the ladies…and for men. Vincent was married three times for ten plus years each, but it was an open secret that he was also gay, something his daughter confirmed posthumously.

Throughout his entire career as an actor, Vincent had two other passions. One was cooking. Vincent was a formidable gourmet and he loved to dine on his world travels and share his discoveries and experiences with others, inviting the masses to the pleasures of world cuisine. With his second wife, Mary, he wrote a 500 page cookbook, A Treasury of Great Recipes, aimed at showing people how they could create their own “dastardly delights” and "travel around the world using your cooker." He even had a TV cooking series for budget gourmet, Cooking Price-Wise.

His other passion was the one that preceded his involvement in theatre and film. Art was Vincent’s first love, his foundational interest, and perhaps even his raison d’etre. Price was an avid art collector, growing his collection with his film earnings. He was interested in an eclectic range of visual culture, from Rembrandt to Pollock. Vincent’s first acquisition was a Rembrandt drawing that he purchased on a payment plan with his own allowance when he was a young boy. 

He was especially interested in pre-Columbian art and artifacts and amassed hundreds of examples over the years. 

Price saw his position of privilege as an opportunity to democratize art and become a kind of art activist or advocate. He believed that art was not just for wealthy or elite people, but was something that everyone should experience and own. This conviction is what drove the extensive work he did to bring art education out of the scholarly and museum realms and encourage a wider populace to look, learn, and collect. 
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“The indoctrination of art at Yale and the Courtauld really set my life’s pattern,” he said in a 1992 interview, “And I’ve probably kept up more study in the history of art than most people who are in it professionally. Because I’m not a professional at it. I’m an amateur — in the French sense of the word, a lover.”

Early in his acting career, Price saw the potential of well-paid, idolized Hollywood actors to contribute to a thriving marketplace for artists. In 1943, he opened a small gallery in Beverly Hills- The Little Gallery- showing his own collection as well as emphasizing little-known local talents to his movie friends. “Our openings consisted of anywhere from 50 to 400 people cammed into our little room, drinking the strongest, cheapest vodka martinis we could make. Everyone came…” Vincent wrote in his memoirs. “…Tallulah Bankhead, Fanny Brice, Katharine Hepburn, and other assorted actors, writers, directors, and just people.”

Around 1950, Vincent and Mary visited a small college art gallery in Los Angeles. He saw the need to expose young people to art and donated ninety works from his personal repertory of paintings, drawings, and artifacts, establishing the first teaching collection at a community college. The East Los Angeles Junior College renamed themselves the Vincent Price Art Museum, eventually holding over 2000 works donated from the actor’s private collection. The museum is still active today, continuing Vincent’s legacy and his desire to expand access to art, broaden community participation and representation, and remedy historical erasures and omissions in the story art. 
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In 1959, Vincent wrote his memoirs, I Like What I Know: a Visual Autobiography. The book tells the story of Vincent Price through his love of art, his childhood introduction to museums, and his world travels to view art everywhere. This rollicking adventure from one artwork to another is at once erudite and down-to-earth, extolling the magic to be found in diverse works like the Arnolfini Portrait, Modigliani, Oaxacan pottery, Titian, Veronese, Yoruba sculpture, and much more. 

Double Day and Company, 1959

In 1962, Price established a monumental partnership with Sears to bring original art into everyday homes. He was given carte blanche to curate an ongoing collection of affordable works for the general public. Price travelled the globe, choosing works from historical and modern artists from a wide array of cultures to be sold through Sears. 

It was a major project that spanned nine years and brought original works into contemporary households. All in all, fifty thousand originals were sold through the initiative, empowering people from all walks to collect art. Prices ranged from $10 to $3000, with payment plans starting at $5 per month. Artworks were advertised widely and shown in Sears catalogues, with travelling exhibitions and displays in Sears retail stores. Price commissioned artists like Salvador Dali and Andrew Wyeth to create works specifically for the collection, and the partnership offered works by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Peter Paul Rubens, James McNeill Whistler, Georgia O’Keeffe, and many more.
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Perhaps due to the typically corny aesthetic of ‘60s advertisements, the project was later criticized as a corporate cash grab. But Price’s visionary work with Sears afforded thousands of people the opportunity to experience art and empowered them to collect originals through reasonable pricing and payment plans, as well as giving thousands of artists paying work and exposure. 

In 1972, encouraging interest in American art history, Price wrote the book, The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art,published by the Country Beautiful Corporation. Here, Price brought his expertise and insights to the expansion of general knowledge for Americans on their own legacy of visual art, with brief essays and colour plates on Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, Charles Sheeler, Elihu Vedder, Mary Cassatt, Horace Pippin, Childe Hassam, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, and beyond. He referred to his book in his foreword as a “biography of America” and suggested that readers visit the public galleries where the works resided to experience the pieces firsthand, saying, “the real thing will always come as a surprise.” In each short essay, Price highlighted interesting biographical snippets of the artist and background on the specific painting shown, with his trademark clever and conversational style.

Throughout these years, Price also served fourteen years on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, for the advancement of Native American artists. He collected Native American art and included essays on indigenous artists in his American art book. He was invested in the promotion and visibility of contemporary Indigenous artists. He used his celebrity to bring attention to Native American artists like Oscar Howe and Fritz Scholder. He also established the first creative writing awards for Indigenous students at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, and he read their poetry on the Johnny Carson Show. He helped Indigenous artists discover economic opportunities and ways to sell their work.

Another important art advisory role for Vincent was serving the White House Commission of Fine Arts by invitation from Jackie Kennedy! With the objective of making the White House a centre for American art, Vincent’s expertise and flare were invaluable. He gifted President Kennedy an Albert Bierstadt painting.

Price never stopped evangelism for his cause. Somehow between a prolific schedule of filming, writing, and haunting, he found the time to deliver over 400 lectures to different colleges and universities on art history, igniting passion for visual art in countless inquiring minds. He also recorded a series of narrated tours of museum collections, called the Colorslide Tours, for the Columbia Records Club, taking people on tours of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Prado, and the Louvre.

And he wrote a syndicated art column for the Chicago Tribune-New York News, published in the Washington Post, Allentown Morning Call, and numerous other papers throughout the States. Once again, Price’s objective was to empower people to look, explore, and learn more about visual art, rejecting scholarly elitism in favour of making his favourite subject accessible to everyone.

In a 1985 interview for the Clockwatch Review, Price summed up his passion for James Plath: “Art lifts the spirit. It edifies. For me, it’s the great escape!”

In a 1987 article for the Washington Post, Price wrote, “To my mind, museums do as much good as hospitals.”

If Vincent is most remembered for his exquisitely sinister and sardonic performances in dramatic horror cinema, it is his forgotten advocacy work that has changed the world. “Art belongs to everyone,” he said often, and his efforts to democratize art and empower people to engage deeply with visual art profoundly impacted his audiences of millions to become passionate, knowledgeable participants in the art of looking, in museum-going, and in collecting. The extraordinary popularity of art among people of all walks of life in North American life today is due in part to Price’s tireless cheerleading and promotion. He inspired countless fans to explore, understand, and discover visual art from the past and present. He championed both historic and modern artwork, as well as showing a wide audience what it means to appreciate creativity from many cultures.

“One thing is certain,” Vincent wrote in his autobiography. “The arts keep you alive. They stimulate, encourage, challenge…If at times I’ve been demanding…that you like this or that because I do…it’s because I believe this is a way to start seeing something you perhaps have missed…I hope that my life’s devotion to seeing may open a few eyes that have been shut by fear of seeing something new…Art is only another person’s way of seeing…it is, or can be, a way of seeing through another’s eyes the wonderful world of reality or imagination…of truth or fiction…of actuality or abstraction. The human mind and the human spirit are not, and never have been, one sided.”

Vincent’s evangelical zeal for art is a mirror of my own. You have often heard me say that “art is everything” and my work to promote ekphrastic literature is partly driven by my  conviction that writing is thinking, and that writing about art is an incredibly intimate way to look closer and engage deeply with images. For me, the power of images to connect us with other individuals and other cultures, and with our very soul, is unparalleled.

Nestled among my library of enchanted pictures, the Vincent doll is a droll reminder of the everyday magic available to all of us through human creativity. “Life is short and art is long,” Vincent wrote. “A man’s art, a civilization’s art, are its immortality.”
 
Lorette C. Luzajic