[Editor's note -- we received the following in response to Ted's Jan. 27 item. We've left the orthography unchanged so as not to risk interfering with the writer's wordplay and sense of style -- W.O.]
i read with interest the blurb on my litigation with THE HAYWARD GALLERy. some one sent it to you, and you have graciously published it.. it is welcome.
but true facts are that in l989-90 Hayward Gallery showed 350 paintthings,pain-things, paintings and flexi-collages plus by me. at the end of the exhibition, they took the paintings out of frames without my authorization and say they sent by British Airways. Most were lost, others were irretrievable damaged. Lawyers Allen & Ouvery offered me Pounds 65000 as compensation .. I said I will either take Pounds 65M or nothing. They then changed the lawyers to one David GOLD, who started playing games, intimidating me (I dontv take it lightly) and even said that no (white) judge will believe me because I burn my paintings as art, because I have burned dollars and made made sandwiches (in 1965 while at Harvard Law School); because i have been sowing seeds in Hyde Park .. that I hung my paintings upside down at my University of Birmigham Show in l962 ... David knows nothing about art .. he does now realize that my such innovative acts .. an artist does what you did not expect from art .. was forerunner of Beuys, Baselitz, Richard Long, McBrady, Walker and a host of 1970's "avant-garde"... David GOLD wasted time mala fide, egregiously perversely in bad faith..., till the claim re loss and damage toaintings etc became time-barred. hayward and david gold were smug and felt secure.
but laws changed .. now there is more potent race relations act, freedom of information act, human rights act .. judges have become more aware and enlighteded ... time has moved in my direction.i am confident hayward will falln their face in court .. and their lawyers themselves never hired any coloured person even as a cleaner untill the Eighties..
Hayward has only shown two ethnic artists in ONE MAN ALL MUSEUM SHOWS,one is a white Hindoo, another an African Negro. i was never even considered for an ALL-MUSEUM oneman show. So I mention the loss of my works, that I persevered.. did not show, but that not a single artist vshown at Hayward has superior credentials. That i was subjected to threshold discrimination. THIS IS CALLED CONSTITUTIONAL TORT OF outrage; and because HAYWARD AND david GOLD HAVE ACTED DISGRACEFULLY .. I AM ENTITLED TO EXEMPLARY AND PUNITIVE COSTS ON AN INDEMNITY BASIS. hENCE my claim is for Pounds 78.6 million pounds..it is not a fortune, the house i live in is worth more than that. any damages realized will be turned over to charity. but the principle is important .. no one has the prerogative or discretion to deny equal opportunity. i am 'it' suing the others who have shown hostility and contempt for laws...
your correspondent has referred to an article by KHALID HASAN .. that was a tongue in cheek humourous article. khalid hasan fully researched my credentials, and found no flaw or deficiency.. this you can confirm from him.. i am copying this to him.
true, i am not a big commercial success only critically acclaimed .. but THE TIMES wrote of my work in l962 as DISTINGUISHED and in l985 stated that IQBAL GEOFFREY .. never since Leonardo da Vinci has there been an artist of his intellect and genius for art. Humility is one thing, magnanimity is a different kind of cuckoo .. you tell me of anyone else who topped in three universities in law; has IQ of 440 and holds two postdoctoral degrees .. yet lives a simple ascetic life. there is a foot-long entry on me in the WHOS WHO IN AMERICA since 1962.
My belief is that what is deep inside me will enventually speak .. but I do not want to serve the society as a sycophant .. i will call a spade a shovelpfront. Racism is new terrorism, and abuse of prerogatives is agruelling fascism .. i wont take it lie-ing or lying down.
i do not take the law in my hands. like a civilized person, i sought to ameliorate and amicably settle a matter of grave concern (racial discrimination and stereotyping), now I am taking them to Court. They even bgot a 3-page article on my by DALYA ALBERGE killed at the TIMES which instead published a 2 page blurb on 20th dec 04 that Damien Hirst can draw (so can 8 Million other artists).\
I dont paint pretty pictures, i make a difference. I just say, please do not daVinci, Caravaggio, ElGreco, Goya,vanGogh or Duchamp me. In l980 I urinasted outside National Gallery in London, christened it THE ADORATION OF MAGGIE B(THATCHER), and Maggie Thatcher told me at a Party in her honour at the President House in Islamabad that she cried that night.
Now Hayward Gallery and their L L Bs (liars andv lawyers both) are rushing to bath room with dyhheria .. it is high time.
so my lawsuit is UNDERLAWYERING not OVERLAWYERED.
Respectfully,
Syed M J Iqbal GEOFFREY
MA LLM PhD DLitt FRSA AMBIM
PS: Khalid Hasan two days ago wrote me the only credentials he could not verify bis that he did not find SANGAMON BSTATE UNIV from which I obtained World's first MA in Human Rights l973 .. I told him it is because Sangamon State University is now called UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS at Springfield (you can phone them and find out about my MA with Highest grades, I spell my name otherwise than as lawyer as M J I JAFREE).
God bless yuou!
Posted by Walter Olson at February 13, 2005 09:37 PM