This doesn’t need much explanation, really. I’m feeling a little guilty here, as I promised by buddy Christopher a paint by number full sleeve tattoo and I still haven’t delivered. I will. Soon – and if/when it makes it onto his arm, you know I’ll share it here. In the meantime, check out these classics. The shot below is very timely with the Koons retrospective up at the Whitney and belongs to my pal musician Bushwala, aka Billy Galewood. He’s on tour this August so you could hear and see it (him) in the flesh. I don't think I need to tell you the inspiration for the others – they're like art flash-cards – rather, FLESH cards.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: HEAD FOR THE (HUDSON) WOODS
If you live in New York City, you discover various “weekend escapes” not long after arriving. I’ve been going “upstate”, as we say here, for more than half of my life. It’s been a low-cost alternative (compared to the nosebleed expensive Hamptons) that I’ve seen grow in popularity over the years. What happens is, people get weekend places, meet someone, fall in love, make a family and often-times make that permanent move to their own small town. If you want to read more about the psychology of moving “upstate” check out “30 Things You Need to Know About The Hudson Valley Before You Move There”,here. It’s right on the money. And speaking of money, you CAN get a small two-bedroom upstate for about $100K – if you really look (but you’ll need to put in $50-75K to redo the kitchen, bathrooms and finishes, almost surely.) But two hours away from the city $250-300K is the sweet spot. If you drive further away, it gets cheaper.
This is all backstory to a new project called Hudson Woods. My old buddy and former photo editor for Us Weekly, photographer Brittain Stone, has a place in nearby Accord with his InStyle Creative Director wife, Rina and their two kids. Last year, he told me of this new project he was involved in and I was intrigued to see it come to fruition. On 131 acres, Hudson Woods is 26 architect-designed houses crafted from locally-sourced, sustainable materials. They’ve made it their mission to connect with local craftsmen, retail, food sources, you name it, so this isn’t a foreign zone plopped down but an integral part of the area, that will help sustain it. These houses aren’t cheap, but they seem to have everything you could dream of. You’ll find yourself in the midst of like-minded neighbors (most probably New Yorkers) in an idyllic setting. Being upstate all these years, I’ve dreamt of projects like this – gathering together my city pals to make a utopian community in the woods – but these guys have actually done it! (No small feat.) If you think there are lots of modernist houses upstate, I can tell you too, that the inventory is practically zero. Plus, if you’re going to spend $600-700K you might as well have that investment in a community rather than as a one-off, which makes it harder to resell. I hope someone I know buys one so I can check it out. In the meantime, I can dream, can’t I?
CALVIN SEIBERT'S SUMMER SAND CASTLES
Growing up in Colorado, Calvin Seibert spent a lot of time at construction sites. Back then, he was thousands of miles away from an ocean, but that didn’t stop him from building castles out of the massive mounds of sand. I first met him YEARS ago (we’re talking 80s) when he was assisting my friend, artist Rodney Alan Greenblat. We recently reconnected and I found out among other things, he’s been making these amazingly sandy complexes. His castles are not so much sand castles as they are brutalist structures of his architectural inspirations like Paul Rudolph, Gottfried Bohm and Giovanni Michelucci.
“I always had an affinity for architecture which I attribute to growing up in a neighborhood and town that was constantly under construction. As I was becoming more aware of the architecture in the wider world, Brutalism was one of the styles of the moment.”
Calvin’s tool kit? A 5-gallon pail to tote water and sand, a plastic placemat for leveling surfaces and another little piece of plastic for getting those sharp edges. That’s it. But they key is making sure the texture of the sand is just right. Too dry; weak and crumbly. Too wet; hard to shape.
“I walk to Penn Station, take the train out to Jones Beach, I walk for 40 minutes so I’m so far out I can build a castle and have it be there several days later because no one’s bothered it.”
He spends the entire day and would go longer but the light goes and then so does Calvin, leaving his follies to the elements. All that’s left are these photos and maybe a little sun kissed glow on Calvin’s happy face.
HAPPY 4TH FROM ED, ANDY, GEORGIA & ME!
I thought I’d give you a little sampling of some of the most famous works most closely associated with these Unites States. This isn’t a museum survey that is all-inclusive… it is deficient in many areas – but this is just me, not a curatorial body, so take it for what it’s worth. Warhol appears a few times as does Ed Ruscha, two of my favorites. When Obama ran in 2008, I created this HOPE piece for Art For Obama from a vintage paint by number original. When it was auctioned, with the proceeds went to his campaign, the buyer ended up being in his administration and subsequently, I got a tour of the West Wing! (It was also made into a soap box for Anthropologie.) So, I had to include it here – sue me if I’m not quite in these guy’s league. It’s a free country, isn’t it?! I’m SO excited that the new Whitey Museum, whose mission is to highlight American artists, is opening up next Spring just a block from my studio in the Meatpacking District. I have to say, I AM proud to be an American artist –specifically, a gay New York one – but I really it doesn’t differ much from being an artist from anywhere else in the world. The best work grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you, no matter what country the maker lives in. That’s why it’s called “universal truth”. But it takes the viewer to mean ANYTHING at all. That is what makes it art.
JANITORS TRASH STUDENT ARTWORK AT THE KUSTAKADEMIE
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, an art school in Germany has some harsh crits. A janitor (or janitors) trashed over 60 students art. There’s been a long standing divide between students and janitors over art being left in the hallways and the janitors made their point. The artworks were recovered from a dumpster behind the school, where students found that their work had not only been thrown in the trash, but smashed to pieces and their frames broken and stomped. Needles to say, the students are pissed. Some of the works were final projects and others had already been sold. The school has produced such greats like the late Joseph Beuys, and Gerhard Richter, one of the top 6 artists in the world, according to a Vanity Fair poll. It’s hard to prove what the financial loss is, but according to the students, the worst is the total disregard shown to their work and art in general. Custodians apologized in a letter sent to all the students, saying that none of the workers were given orders to destroy the works. (Guess they just decided to be proactive.) But so far, no one has said who is responsible for the art massacre. All I can say is, KUNSTS!
MY BUDDY: NAKED SOLDIERS SHOW OFF
Every day during World War II was potentially the last for any given serviceman, so to help bolster troops morale, many commanders encouraged them to form tight “buddy” relationships for emotional support. Many formed intimate friendships. When they weren’t fighting side by side, they relaxed together, releasing tension in boisterous (sometimes naked) play. The full extent of this nude horseplay can’t be known, as cameras were rare and film hard to process, but some men did document their male bonding in anonymous photos, mostly kept hidden away until after their deaths. LA photographer Michael Stokes has spent years searching out these pics and building an archive of over 500 images. His collection includes soldiers and sailors from Australia, England, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the USA, cavorting on the sand in the South Pacific, shivering in the snow of Eastern Europe, posing solo in the barracks, and in great happy groups just about everywhere. These images show men barely out of boyhood, at their physical peak (HELLO?!) responding to the reality of battle by living each day to the fullest—a side of the war never before made public. The intro is by Scotty Bowers, the 89-year-old ex-Marine and author of Full Service, the best-selling memoir of his (gay) sexual exploits in Hollywood, and how the war forever altered his attitudes about sexuality, just as these photos will alter our attitudes about World War II and war buddies. Produced by Taschen, the book is out this month and available to pre-order here. The last innuendo – the price is 69 dollars.
RIP: THE AMERICAN MALL, 1955-2005
Yes, while you were busy shopping online, you murdered the mall. I know you didn’t mean to – and don’t feel TOO bad – there were other determining factors, as well. Between the mid 50s and ’05, around 1500 malls were built across the country using in the golden age of shopping. But that’s ended and no new enclosed mall has been built since ’06. Half of all of the malls in the U.S. are predicted to close in the next decade.
In the 70s, two gleaming Ohio malls were symbols of the U.S. boom years. They were always filled with shoppers but now the fountains inside are dry and nature seems to be taking over. (Either that or a zombie attack is eminent.) The demise of the Rolling Acres and and Randall Park Mall have been documented by photographer Seph Lawless in his book, Black Friday: The Collapse of the American Mall:
“The goal was to show the world a different side of America. A vulnerable side. I think an abandoned mall is symbolic of the economic decline of America… People fled the state to find jobs and the problem hasn’t gotten any better. My city is not only losing jobs. We’re are losing people and it’s frightening.”
The irony is not lost that Lawless’s book is available here – only online. The internet has also provided photographers a way to promote and self-publish great documents.
MILK GALLERY: MAGNUM CONTACT SHEETS
RIP. The contact sheet is dead. I spent a LOT of time in my life looking at these. As a former Art Director, I got to look at them, good ones, more than most people, I guess – from Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber, Duane Michaels, Irving Penn. But now, with digital photography, they are no longer “a thing”. A new exhibit, “Magnum Contact Sheets” reveals just how photographers that shot for the venerable agency, Magnum, have captured and edited their best shots the better part of the 20th century. It’s the photographer’s first look at what they’ve captured on film, and gives the viewer a look inside how they shoot and think and what’ ends up being THE shot. This show includes both celebrated icons of photography and lesser-known surprises and functions as an “epitaph” to the long-lost contact sheet. This exhibition expands upon the exhibit of the same name that premiered at the ICP in 2012. Its runs through July 6. And you can purchase a limited edition book and enlarged versions of these shown here. I’m seriously thinking about Elizabeth Taylor by Burt Glinn.
PIPE DREAMS, WISHFUL THINKING, GRAND GESTURES AND DIRTY LIES
Ayn S Choi is ASC Projects. She has a great space on 26th Street and organized a group show of her artist friends that opened last night. I was lucky enough to be asked to be among the those asked to contribute. When Ayn was titling the show, she asked everyone for suggestions and just after I read my horoscope (Aries) by my friends Starsky + Cox. In it, was a phrase which was a different tense, but Pipe dreams, Wishful Thinking, Grand Gestures and Dirty Lies came from my horoscope that day. Ayn liked it so, that's how things happen sometime. It's big group of diverse work by seasoned artists and somehow, under that heading with Ayn's guiding hand, it all came together and looked fantastic. It was a fun opening. I went with an artist friend, Calvin Seibert, who I hadn't seen in eons and got to chat with a few artist pals like Judy Rifka, Mike Cockrill, Joachin Carter and my old Vanity Fair collague, writer Anthony Haden-Guest for a brief moment. Ayn snapped this shot of Anthony looking at the Jennifer Wynne Reeves piece in the exhibit. It was a last-minute addition and it's wonderful that it was included. Jennifer died last week and she was stilled being mourned and missed by those who knew and loved her. Looking at it, it hit me that this is what artists do; live their lives (just like everyone else) but they leave mementos of themselves that illustrate the lives, for us to remember and appreciate them by. As wonderful as that legacy is, it still would have been nicer all around had she been there herself. Pipe dreams...
NEW JEFF CITY: KOONS AT THE WHITNEY AND BEYOND
As you may know, the Whitney retrospective of Jeff Koons is the last exhibit to be mounted at the Breuer-designed, brutalist location. Next year, the new museum designed by Renzo Piano, will open at the beginning of the Highline in the Meatpacking District. (Yay! Just one block from my front door!) The first thing I noted when arriving last night on the 4th floor was the hushed tone. Normally, I’d expect a raucous opening night crowd but I think everyone was kind of in shock at seeing the GIGANTIC play-doh sculpture that so much has been written about. Reader’s Digest version of the story?; Collector Bill Bell agree to put up the considerable dough to make it nearly 20 years ago and he and his wife Maria saw it Wednesday night for the first time. It took THAT long to fabricate. It looks just like you’d imagine but it is made of stainless steel and it’s SO big, they had to remove the front doors of the museum to get it in. The pink mylar wall-mounted balloon (10 feet in diameter) was also a shocker to see as well as the kitty in a sock and the massive purple heart suspended from the ceiling. That room is a knockout.
I won’t take you through the whole exhibit, because it is some 35+ years of work but it dazzles from floor to floor. It was great to see sculptures that I saw when the were first shown in the 80s once again like the stainless steel bunny, the Pink Panther and the centerpiece of the Banality series, Michael Jackson and Bubbles. The Made in Heaven series which features Jeff inflagrato with his wife at the time, Italian porn star Cicciolina was less shocking that I remembered and were warned in the press, although there are full penetration reproductions in the catalogue, which DO NOT fail to stop one in their tracks. The latest additions were the Libery Bell which looks exactly like the Liberty Bell would (eh), the million pound black granite Popeye, a black granite “ashray girl” in the courtyard and a few others. Some were being completed up to this last weekend.
The show opens to the public today and is up through mid-October and although I didn’t make it there yet, the Split Rocker flowering live sculpture just made it’s debut in Rockefeller Center, right where – in six months – they’ll be lighting the Christmas Tree. If you aren’t in New York City, you can get the latest issue of Vanity Fair, to read all about it or go to select H&M shops to get the his Balloon Dog purse, while supplies last. (H & M was a major sponsor of the exhibit… so.) Well, I’ll tell you, this is as big as it gets for any artist, anytime in their career or anywhere in the world, for that matter. The sale of Mr. Koons Orange Balloon Dog at auction recently for $58+ million makes him top dog in sales among artists still drawing breath on the planet. And, at 59, you know he’s got another 25+ years to make even more outrageous work. Gotta keep those 128 employees busy – baby needs new (solid gold) shoes!