Outlaw Marriages (27 page)

Several Rauschenberg quotations reinforced that he and the pop artists had much in common. Among his most frequently repeated statements were “The strongest thing about my work, if I may say this, is that I chose to ennoble the ordinary,” and “I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly because they're surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable.”
50

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, both men's names appeared in news stories reporting on the astronomical amounts of money institutions and individuals were spending to acquire their work. The Metropolitan Museum of Art paid $20 million for Johns's 1955 painting
White Flag
, the Museum of Modern Art paid $30 million for Rauschenberg's 1955 work
Rebus
, and a private collector bought Johns's 1959 painting
False Start
for a jaw-dropping $80 million—the largest amount ever paid for a work by a living artist.
51

Despite the fact that Rauschenberg and Johns both continued to create new pieces into the beginning of the twenty-first century, critics repeatedly stated that their finest works—which also meant those that were the most valuable—were the ones they'd created during the period from 1954 to 1962 when they'd been a couple.
52

Although the breach between Rauschenberg and Johns never entirely healed, they made progress in that direction. By the early 1970s, they no longer avoided crossing paths, as they were both willing to attend the same exhibit openings. The two men were frequently spotted at these soirees chatting amiably with each other.
53

Rauschenberg granted more interviews than Johns did, but one quotation from the more reticent of the two men received a great deal of attention. During a dinner party at the home of a leading art collector, the host expressed the opinion that Rauschenberg was the most influential figure in the history of American art. Suddenly realizing that his statement could be seen as a slight to Johns, the host quickly turned to the artist and said, “After you, of course, Jasper.” Upon hearing the comment, Johns instantly smiled and said, “No, including me.”
54

With regard to the personal lives of the two men, biographers and journalists documented that Rauschenberg entered into a number of romantic relationships after he and Johns separated. These partners included a dancer in the 1960s and two artists, one in the 1970s and another in the early 2000s. Johns, by contrast, either didn't have other lovers or succeeded in keeping them out of the public eye.
55

It's curious, in light of the fact that Johns's fear of the couple's sexuality becoming public was the reason they ended their relationship, that many news organizations reported on the outlaw marriage in the obituaries they published when Rauschenberg died in 2008. The
Los Angeles Times
said the two men had been “romantically linked,” the
New York Times
mentioned the “intimacy of their relationship,” and the Associated Press—in a story that was reprinted in newspapers around the world—stated: “Rauschenberg met Jasper Johns in 1954. He and the younger artist, who both became world-famous, became lovers and had important influence on each other's work.”
56

Turning Literary Works into Sumptuous Films

…

Merchant Ivory Productions was widely recognized, during the final decades of the twentieth century, for setting the gold standard when it came to adapting iconic novels into high-quality motion pictures. The company created films that are distinguished by their opulent sets, exquisite attention to period detail, and superb writing and acting. Two of Merchant Ivory's most highly lauded works are
A Room with a View
and
Howards End
—both movies won multiple Academy Awards.

The company was founded and led for more than four decades by same-sex couple Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. As producer, Merchant used his endless supply of energy and chutzpah to raise the money needed to make the films and his abundant charm to persuade such legendary performers as Anthony Hopkins, Maggie Smith, and Emma Thompson to star in them.

As director, Ivory brought to filmmaking a refined aesthetic style, ensuring that the movies were beautiful as well as sophisticated.

James Ivory was born into a middle-class family in 1928. His father owned a lumber company in the small town of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and his mother took care of James and his younger sister.
1

The boy was fascinated, from an early age, with the world of filmmaking. “
Gone With the Wind
held me spellbound,” he later wrote, “and I was old enough when it came out in 1939 to appreciate that it was something more than the usual.” By the age of fourteen, he was already determined to carve out a career in the world of motion pictures.
2

After high school, he enrolled at the University of Oregon, majoring in fine arts. He traveled to Europe between his junior and senior years, splitting his summer between France and Italy.
3

Next came film school at the University of Southern California. As his master's thesis, Ivory made a documentary, titled
Venice: Theme and Variations
, which examined how artists of different time periods had viewed the beautiful Italian city.
4

It was while studying Venetian art that Ivory became acquainted with Indian paintings. He was so taken by the works, in fact, that he made them the subject of his second film,
The Sword and the Flute
. The movie looked at Indian miniatures in the United States and was first screened at a party in New York City in early 1961.
5

Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Rehman was born into an upper-class family in Bombay, India, in 1936. His father earned his living as a textile dealer, and his mother took care of her son and his six sisters.
6

To ensure that Ismail received the best possible education, his parents sent him to private schools where his classes were taught in English. His flair for being a producer surfaced early, and he was already putting together variety shows while he was in secondary school.
7

He continued his education at St. Xavier's College in Bombay, majoring in English literature while spending his free time staging more shows. It was during his undergraduate days that the young man fell in love with movies, setting his sights on relocating to America and producing films there.
8

Ismail also proved, while still in college, that he had a talent for raising money. His profits from producing a variety show during his senior year were so substantial that they paid his tuition to New York University, where he earned a master's in business administration.
9

By the time he finished graduate school, Ismail had changed his surname to Merchant, believing it was more cosmopolitan than his original one.
10

In early 1961, one of Merchant's friends invited him to a party at a New York City apartment where a film with an Indian theme was to be screened. The work was titled
The Sword and the Flute
, and it was directed by a young
American filmmaker named James Ivory.
11

Ivory and Merchant met at that New York screening. Recalling that evening many years later, Merchant said, “Conversation flowed,” but Ivory politely disagreed, saying, “Not quite. Ismail kept popping up to telephone important people.”
12

Regardless of whether their initial chat was smooth or disjointed, the two men soon created a partnership that encompassed both their professional and personal lives. By late 1961, they'd not only founded a production company but also were living together as husband and husband.
13

Merchant Ivory Productions chose
The Householder
as its first project. The film is a humorous coming-of-age story about a sheltered young man who's thrust into an arranged marriage. Most of the expenses to make the movie, which was shot in India, were paid by investors Merchant brought on board. Although critics praised the work, it didn't do well at the box office.
14

The couple's next several releases were similar to the first one in that they feature Indian subjects but with a Western audience in mind. All of the films received praise from critics but didn't appeal to a broad viewership. They also shared the fact that their screenplays had been written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who'd been born in Germany but was now living in India.
15

As the various productions unfolded, it became clear that Ivory and Merchant, although they had very different personalities, complemented each other when it came to making movies.

Biographers who've written about James Ivory use adjectives such as “reserved,” “withdrawn,” “understated,” and “genteel.” An actress who worked with the director on his earliest films reinforced the same general theme when she described him as “retiring” and “not able to push himself on his own.”
16

Ismail Merchant's biographers, by contrast, opt for adjectives such as “extroverted,” “ebullient,” “brash,” and “aggressive.” One author described the producer as “a volatile man of quicksilver mood changes” who also was “extraordinarily self-disciplined and almost totally absorbed in his work” as well as one who was “intensely and deeply practical.”
17

When writing about Ivory's gifts as a filmmaker, biographers say he possesses “wonderful taste” that has manifested itself in “movies noted for the beauty and expert composition of their imagery. Ivory makes pictures that have atmosphere and resonance, and always a sense of style. It is often said that Ivory's films have his unique stamp on them—special qualities that enter into them: sophistication, tolerant affection, sharp wit, a feeling for place.”
18

With regard to Merchant's skills as a producer, one colleague created a vivid image of him by saying, “He's like an elephant outside the financier's door. You can see him through the glass, he won't go away, he is very patient, and there is always the chance that he will come crashing in.” The demands on Merchant's ability to raise money grew significantly during the company's early years. In 1961, the couple's first film cost only $125,000 to make, but, by 1974, that figure had grown to $750,000.
19

Merchant also developed a reputation as a producer who stretched a dollar as far as he could. For one film, Ivory wanted a cache of expensive jewelry that his partner knew they couldn't afford to buy. “I went to the Gem Palace, a wonderful jewelry shop in Jaipur,” Merchant recalled, “and asked if I could perhaps borrow a bit of jewelry for the film. The owners filled up two briefcases with about $2 million worth of jewels and brought them, without any form of security, to the set.”
20

One night in the mid-1970s while Ivory and Merchant were at home watching TV, they saw a British-made film based on a book by American novelist Henry James. “I can do better than that,” Ivory muttered. “Why should the English be doing this sort of thing and never the Americans?” The director meant his statement as a casual one, but Merchant took it to heart, saying that if his partner wanted to adapt literary works to the big screen, he'd find the money to do it. That conversation set the couple on the course that transformed their production company into the most highly regarded independent filmmaking enterprise in the world.
21

For their first project in this new direction, Ivory and Merchant chose James's novel
The Europeans
. The film is a study of transatlantic manners and character that opens with the arrival of two siblings, who've been raised abroad, to a rural area near Boston in the 1840s. The brother, an artist, successfully woos and marries a wealthy young woman, but the sister, who is beautiful and fashionable but also opinionated and manipulative, is stymied in her effort to marry a socially prominent man when he concludes that her artful manners mean she can't be trusted.
22

The Europeans
, released in 1979, was embraced not only by critics, such as the one from the
Chicago Sun-Times
who praised it as “elegantly composed,” but also by fans of art films. Encouraged by the success, the director took on a second work by Henry James, and the producer not only raised the money but also cast a star to lift the film to a higher level than any of the couple's previous ones.
23