This weekend the Fruit Stand Collective will be making a rare appearance at the Nest. After a hiatus last year, they are back and ready to "Juice Life While It's Ripe!" You may have some questions... We have answers!
What is Fruit Stand Collective?
Fruit Stand Collective is an ancient order of artists and art enthusiasts who shelter the beacon of liberty and creativity throughout the ages within and through the humble, agrarian institution of the fruit stand. We are proud to bring our heritage and deeply held traditions to the city of Napa during the 2008 Open Studios.
What is the history of Fruit Stand Collective?
We're glad you asked.
The Roots.The Dark Ages were an era of ignorance, superstition, and social repression (some folks still live there). The people were starved for culture (much like in Napa) and they cried out to the monks who lived in walled gardens to answer their prayers for salvation. Too busy fiddling under their robes, the monks were clueless. But one monastery resident, the bee keeper’s son, was an extremely gifted artist. He began painting still lifes of the exotic fruits and vegetable growing only on church property and would hold them up above the garden walls for people to admire. The peasants came from towns far and wide to peer at the delectable paintings. The young artist soon had a following and decided to take his show on the road. Building a portable model of the monastery walls and displaying his produce-themed paintings—he invented the very first alternative gallery and is known as the founder of the Fruit Stand Collective.
Soon, members of the rapidly expanding Collective began travelling throughout Europe, constructing their Fruit Stands, accepting new members into the Collective, and bringing the light of creativity and expression to the people. Among scholars, Fruit Stand Collective is credited with hastening the spread of the Renaissance.
Coming to the New World. Around the year 1540, a small group of Basque Fruities from the coastal town of Bilbao (this was prior to Bilbao’s notoriety for its miraculously formed titanium mountain) set sail as stowaways on a merchant ship headed for America. Being the forward-thinking spirits they were, staying in their small town and keeping day jobs to support their art-making habits was no longer an option, when a destiny as grand and uncharted as moving to the New World awaited them. Upon landing in what is today Northern Mexico, while their fellow Spaniards searched for food, shelter, and the promised riches of their new home, the Collective set up the first American Fruit Stand on a beautiful crescent beach, much like a contemporary refreshment cabana. Instead of edibles, however, they offered paintings on conch shells, carved wood statuettes, and other art sundries. They were ridiculed and occasionally shot at by the other settlers, but they struck up a very fortuitous relationship with many of the Coahuiltecan Indians who lived there. Perhaps it was the rejection by their own people that made them less threatening to the native peoples, or perhaps it was a shared appreciation for objects of intrigue or beauty with no inherent value that enabled the Collective members to befriend the Coahuiltecans. Through barter, the Collective was able to obtain all the food and necessities they required from their industrious and well-acclimated new friends. For the first time they were able to survive off of the fruits (no pun intended) of their creative labor and illogical pursuits.
Growth and Expansion. The Fruitstand Collective was in full swing as news of the Industrial Revolution began to filter across the border. They were curious about the new immigrants who had traveled from all over the globe to the new world, only to find themselves toiling in harsh working conditions. In an age of the new mass production, they knew they needed to bring their passion for one of a kind creations to a new audience and expand the Collective. Packing their families and fruity wares into covered wagons, they began the long journey north. They met more like minded spirits along they way as they marveled at the new and exotic vegetation they encountered – cactus, pinecones, alfalfa sprouts. In every town they slept, they set up a fruit stand, some of which still stand today throughout the southern states. Finding themselves in the heart of the new industrial world, they knew they had found their new home when they reached New York City.
The Big Apple. New York City, the glamorous shining beacon of culture, excitement, entertainment and dynamic growth of big business presented a conundrum to members of the Fruit Stand Collective. They lived in a time of new break-throughs in science and medicine, the expansion of the telephone and telegraph and the start of the automobile industry, but this was also a Victorian age that was all about restrictions. If an artist wanted to show or sell their work they had to be a member of National Academy of Design. This was a problem for the unconventional members of the Fruit Stand Collective who thrived on innovative concepts, controversial subject matter, and progressive styles of creative expression (ideals not tolerated by the Academy.) The members vowed to remain independent and true to their fruit art and befriended the Ashcan Artists, a group of artists who also shunned the Academy. While the "Fruities" were all about nature and the fruits of the earth, the "Ashcans" were all about the gritty urban environment. It seemed odd that the two groups would become fast friends, but each group had something to offer the other. Times were tough and Americans wanted relief from the grit and increasingly fast pace of New York City—they wanted to be amused. Lured by nature and the sea, the "Fruities" moved to Coney Island and established a Fruit Stand like no other. It offered refreshments, affordable art pieces, even rides and entertainment. They flourished during the Roaring Twenties and survived the crash of the stock market and even took their Fruit Stand concept to the 1939 World’s Fair. After being inundated with the World’s Fair message that the future was full of wonder and awe, the "Fruities" decided to leave new York in 1940 to discover what the future held for them in Chicago, Illinois.
to be continued...
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