THE WALL
There’s a cinder-block wall on Burgundy Street, just the other side of the Press Street Tracks that divide the Marigny from the Bywater. It’s privately owned, and on private property. During the early part of May, this year, the owner gave permission ( in writing, I’m told) to a couple of local artists to paint that wall, on the side that faces away from traffic, that is seen from the Marigny, especially the XO Gallery at Dauphine & Press Streets.
It was beautiful. Magnificent work. Sort of stylized graphics, painted with the methodology of grafitti artists, but so cool looking that people would pull over on the shoulder and take pictures, stand on the grassy knoll and stare, a really amazing vision along a stretch of dismal railroad track.
Now Fred Radtke has painted the entire wall a bland messy grey. Not even all the same grey. It looks like somebody shit on the wall in black & white. It’s horrible and depressing. It’s also private property, commisioned art, on privately owned land.
How long is this asshole going to be allowed to deface other peoples’ property in the name of the City of New Orleans? This was a crime; legally, morally and artistically. Somebody please, throw this moronic bastard in jail for while, and let him paint over the scribbling in the day room at Central Lock-up. Those motherlovers will beat his frickin ass like he deserves.
Lord David
Pirate & Artist
Skull Club
New Orleans
?
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Why can’t a private property owner sue the son-of-a-bitch?
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
The property own needs to become involved. People quietly putting up with this and not seeking legal recourse is what allows him the freedom to do this.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
If you want to set a trap for the Ghost, I have the freakin’ canvas: an entire stringwall around our new lower level. We must wait to cover up the wall for many months (elevation grant poop), but I’d be willing to talk with some artists about tres kewl art on those walls.
Since we work from home, our house is almost never empty. If Radtke shows up on our property, I will take pics and have him arrested. We WILL press charges. (remeber kids that we don’t go to sleep until 6am or so)
Granted we are in Sugar Hill, but I see the Ghost’s handywork all over town. It will only be a matter of time before he tries to do his B/S at our place.
Think it over.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I agree, the solution is for the private property owners to take a stand and insist that the police investigate. They should at least question Radtke and if he’s as narcissistic as I think he is he will probably admit it. At that point, he needs to be arrested and prosecuted.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Oy. Does anyone know who the property owner is and how to contact him/her? I’d love to talk to them and do a story on this, because it’s not just another example of the Ghost vs. graffiti kids, where all parties are in the wrong, or even the Ghost vs. NOLA Rising, where semantics can make the Ghost look not-so-bad. This is exactly what I talked about in my response, where I said that AG does “support people who want to have artwork on their own property and their right to not have it painted over by someone who deems himself judge, jury and executioner.”
This is just insane.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I am beginning to get real real sick & tired of this guy…that’s a shame.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Lord David, could you get me an address on that property? I’ll see if I can get Karen over at http://SquanderedHeritage.com (one of the best sites in NOLA) to give me some tips on tracking down the ownership.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Remember the first Dirty Harry movie, and the villain who faked his own beating and then kidnapped the kids on the bus?
From the moment I laid eyes on Fred Radtke, he’s reminded me of that guy.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
here’s a question: does this guy have people working for him?
just seems like he’s everywhere. what does he do for a living? does anyone know what part of town this creep lives in?
no one can hide forever.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
1. Get wall re-graffittied.”arti
2. Put up camera and sign saying “Private Property. You are trespassing and videotaped.”
3. Make multiple copies, send one to City Hall and post on intertubes.
Termite, I hear that Radtke employs a cadre of grey-washers.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Maitri, Termite… I have seen his helpers.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:28 am
A note to one & all concerned…
First and foremost, thanks for the support.
I’ll track down the owner and check out their position on all of this. I seriously doubt that they’ll jump through the hoops of putting a camera up on a site to catch Radtke, especially one that’s already painted. It’s expensive, and I imagine the camera would last about a day, outside, a block from St. Claude Avenue.
Anyway, look for a follow-up post here in a few days, as I research alternatives and neighborhood activities.
Thanks again, to one & all.
LD
June 4th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Finding the name of owner is trivial, unless someone is trying to hide. If you have an address you can go to the Orleans Parish Assessors web site and search by Address.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
maitri , chilly gentilly and all…
i’ve given this more thought than i should… this guy has gotten on my last nerve.
one final question.. is Radtke from Nawlins’?? if so, than he has many weaknesses…
this is key. :)
we could always bribe him with food.. … …
*Mominem. best damn name out there. hands down. :D
June 5th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Y’all haters aren’t even on Fred Radtke’s radar. Say what you want, do what you want; he will never permit the thought or will of any other being to interfere with his own. Radtke owns the walls. Don’t you see his mark on them? Cede him them gracefully. All this tinny outrage, this bourgeois “private property” nonsense, this veneration of lesser so-called artists… feckless whimpering that will be muffled soon by the supreme grey shroud of aesthetic inevitability.
New Orleans is Radtke’s: his canvas, his masterwork. Others may move about its streets, home to work to bar to home, but Radtke is a larger system. He is a universe unto himself, unstoppable and unappeasable. He shall eat you, he shall eat the lurid squiggles. Verily he shall eat New Orleans, bite by blank rectangular bite, and there will be nothing but a Great Grey Silence, an end to visual noise and frippery.
Once, I thought I hated Fred Radtke too. I was stupid, I had not understanding. Now I have seen the unlight, the undark. How wrong I was! And how right he is, a rightness beyond all reckoning.
No-one can stop Fred Radtke. Nothing can stop the eternal quilt. His is twilight without sunset, clouds without rain, fields without crops. The Grey Ghost is time, and space, and oblivion.
Bow, you insects, bow to him. Bow to the uber-aesthetic.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:32 am
OMFG, I love this guy! I mean c’mon, look at these quotes:
“feckless whimpering that will be muffled soon by the supreme grey shroud of aesthetic inevitability.”
DELIGHTFUL!
“he shall eat the lurid squiggles.”
LMMFAO
I mean…what a way to start my day! “Nothing can stop the eternal quilt….”