Martin Mull: Actor, Comedian, Musician & Postmodern Artist

Many of us first came to know actor and comedian Martin Mull through television shows in the mid-1970s such as "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "Fernwood 2Nite". He went on to appear in numerous television shows and films over the last three decades. I recently discovered that Martin Mull also performed as a musician early in his career and recorded several albums. According to his biography at AllMusic.com, "While his peculiar sense of humor is evident on all of his albums, Mull is no Weird Al-style parodist; his albums are skewed singer/songwriter pop/rock with a strong jazz influence, which just happen to have funny lyrics."

Despite his long career and popularity in the performing arts, Martin Mull's first real love was art. Although he is still active in his acting career, much of his time is now spent creating and displaying his artwork. His paintings have been displayed in galleries and museums throughout the United States and overseas. He currently has an exhibition of his paintings traveling the country titled "Adventures in a Temperate Climate: A Retrospective of Paintings by Martin Mull". It is currently on display at Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. It will be there through January 21, 2007. Previously this exhibition was on display at the University Art Gallery at San Diego State University and at the Las Vegas Art Museum.

I attended a Gallery Talk by Martin Mull at San Diego State University, which was held in conjunction with the exhibit. He spoke and answered questions for about 45 minutes to a room full of people, many of which were art students at the university. As you might expect, he was often quite funny. He answered several questions from the audience about his artistic techniques and the meaning of some of his imagery. He also told some personal stories about his career as a painter. His love of painting began as a small child. He said that, according to his mother, he began drawing when he was 3 years old. He drew trains and zoo animals on the back of bills, or anything that he could get his hands on. That love of art never faded. He went on to earn both a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts from Rhode Island School of Design. He says that it was just luck that he became an actor. What he really wanted to be and what he considers himself is a painter. He started playing music and acting for money to support his painting career.

I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Mr. Mull after he spoke. I asked him if he would be offended to be called a "celebrity artist," and he answered that he would rather just be called an artist. I also asked him if he thinks his acting career helped or hurt his painting career. And he said that, for a time, it hurt because people didn't take him seriously as painter, and that "they thought I was like Red Skelton, painting clowns".

Martin Mull's artwork is very impressive but somewhat odd. His paintings often consist of 1950's era images of people in strange poses or positions overlaid onto sometimes unrelated scenery. He says that the images are largely based on photos from old Life and Look magazines. In the exhibition catalogue, Libby Lumpkin, Director of the Las Vegas Art Museum and co-curator of the exhibition, states: "Mull's artistic practice of deconstructing the constructs of Modern American culture has positioned the artist among those exponents of Postmodern art who appropriate images from popular culture and render them in paint. The group includes to a greater or lesser extent, artists such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Mark Tansey, David Salle, and Neo Rauch."

You will find links to online galleries where you can view Martin Mull's artwork as well as the work of other celebrity artists at PopLifeArt.com.