Posts from the “1970s” Category

Don Herron: Tub Shots

Posted on September 20, 2018

Sur Rodney (Sur), 1980. © Don Herron, courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art

When artist Don Herron moved to New York City from Texas in 1978, the fledgling East Village art scene was just beginning to take shape. Soho was the capital of downtown New York, but artists were starting to take up residence in the Lower East Side, where rent was affordable and young artists could find a tight-knit community of peers.

While getting to know New York’s art luminaries, Herron conceived of a project he titled Tub Shots, wherein he would photograph downtown cult figures in their bathtubs. From 1978 to 1993, he photographed art stars like Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Peter Hujar, and Annie Sprinkle, along with Warhol Superstars like Holly Woodlawn, and International Chrysis.

Some artists collaborated with Herron to stage a scene, while others opted for a bare bones approach; a few were exhibitionists, while others posed demurely. Each portrait offers a glimpse of the subject as they were rarely seen—in a space that is both private and sensual, vulnerable and daring.

Herron died in 2013, but a selection of his photographs are on view in Don Herron: Tub Shots at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York. VICE asked downtown icons Sur Rodney (Sur) and Charles Busch to share their memories of working with Herron and being part of the East Village art scene when the photos were made.

Read the Full Story at VICE Online

Charles Busch, 1987. © Don Herron, courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Art, Exhibitions, Manhattan, Photography, Vice

Arlene Gottfried: Sometimes Overwhelming

Posted on September 19, 2018

Wedding Party in Connecticut, 1977. © Arlene Gottfried, courtesy of powerHouse Books.

Arlene Gottfried (1950–2017) was a paradox of the best kind: the infinitely shy artist who can blow the roof off the joint while singing gospel, or approach any person in order to take their photo. Hailing from Brooklyn, Gottfried spent her childhood in Coney Island where all kinds of characters loomed near and far.

She took up photography, casually snapping some of the greatest New York scenes ever caught on film, documenting an era of life that once defined the city, but has long since been erased. In Sometimes Overwhelming (powerHouse Books). Gottfried chronicles the charismatic figures she encountered on the streets and the beaches, the nightclubs and the parks, the boardwalks and the parades, the circus and the dog shows.

The result is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the times, of the magical and memorable personalities that peppered public life, when everyone was so distinctive, to really stand out meant you had to take it to the next level. It is those rarefied beauties that Gottfried loves most, the stars who fell to earth and glitter like fireflies of a summer night, floating past you down the street as they go about their business.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Women on Riis Beach, New York, 1980. © Arlene Gottfried, courtesy of powerHouse Books.

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Books, Feature Shoot, Photography

Jenny Holzer on the Power of the Word in Art

Posted on September 7, 2018

In the beginning was the word, and the word was art – though rarely do we conflate the two. Image and text are largely considered distinct forms that have rendered their application as distinct disciplines. Invariably, though, artists traverse boundaries to question, examine, provoke, entertain, exalt or otherwise engage with new ideas.

The word in art, as art, is a realm all its own, one inhabited by the few who dare to delve into its depths. Visual Language, a bi-coastal group exhibition presented by Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, and FACTION Art Projects, New York, celebrates the power of the word in art. Here, artists including Jenny Holzer, Guerrilla Girls, Betty Tomkins, Ed Ruscha, DFace and Shepard Fairey present their own take on the word, using it for a wide array of expression, be it political, ironic, poetic, typographic, abstract or conceptual.

Jenny Holzer is perhaps the most renowned and respected contemporary artist to use words as her métier. Hailing from Gallipolis, Ohio, Holzer arrived in New York City in 1976 at the age of 26, becoming an active member of Colab, the downtown artist collective that included Kiki Smith, Tom Otterness, James Nares, Jane Dickson and John Ahearn, among others. Holzer gained early recognition with Truisms (1977–79), a series of epigrams she penned, printed and wheat-pasted as anonymous broadsheets on walls around Manhattan. Her gift for aphorisms was impeccable as she brought together poetry and pithy witticisms with a populist punch, making them available to the general public at a time when graffiti and street art was making its presence felt.

Read the Full Story at AnOther Online

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, AnOther, Art, Exhibitions, Women

Richard Bernstein: Starmaker

Posted on September 3, 2018

Cher. Courtesy of The Richard Bernstein Estate Archives

When Interview announced that it would cease publication earlier this spring, a flurry of flawless faces that once graced the magazine covers suddenly began to reemerge – each portrait more entrancing than the one that came before. Grace Jones, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, the list goes on. They were all created by the same artist, who rendered them as unforgettable icons of our time – the very same artist who wrote he word “Interview” that appeared over their heads: Richard Bernstein.

Born in the Bronx but raised on Long Island, Bernstein returned to the city to study art at the Pratt Institute in 1958. He adopted a cultured New England accent with a splash of effete-ery, and headed downtown to cavort with the new generation of gay artists like Billy Name, Gerard Malanga, and Danny Williams making their name in Andy Warhol’s Factory scene.

Bernstein travelled to London when the Swinging 60s was at its height, then returned to New York in 1968 and joined the scene as it was taking shape at Max’s Kansas City and the Chelsea Hotel. Bernstein got his start in magazines when he began working with Peter Hujar on Newspaper and Picture Newspaper, a short-lived document of the city’s queer scene. The first issue gave us a taste of things to come: Bernstein’s iconic cover and centerfold of Candy Darling that left nothing to the imagination.

By 1972, Bernstein began what would become a two-decade odyssey as the cover artist for Andy Warhol’s Interview. He joined the magazine just as it was taking shape, transforming from an underground movie magazine to a luscious glossy that brought Hollywood glamour back to life in an effervescent celebration of downtown art, culture, and style. Bernstein’s covers perfectly defined the times, becoming eye-catching emblems of the era.

In celebration of his work, Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha have put together Richard Bernstein Starmaker: Andy Warhol’s Cover Artist (Rizzoli), a sumptuous history of the artist’s life and legacy. In conjunction with the launch of the book, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, will host Richard Bernstein: Fame (September 7-October 27, 2018). Here, the authors take us on a whirlwind tour through a singular career.

Read the Full Story at AnOther Man

Joan Rivers. Courtesy of The Richard Bernstein Estate Archives

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Painting

Dapper Dan: Harlem Hustle

Posted on August 30, 2018

“I’m from the east side of Harlem, which was the power base when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. I was always in awe of the Rat Pack – they influenced fashion. Before that, it was James Cagney and Edward G Robinson, the guys who played gangsters in Hollywood movies. But my biggest influence came from the Italians in East Harlem. Those were the first people in the ghetto we saw with Cadillacs, diamond rings, silk suits, all that.

“The experience that shaped my relationship with clothes and how transformative they could be came about as a result of how poor we were. We used to put paper in our shoes to cover the holes in the sole. Then we got more innovative and started putting in linoleum, because it didn’t wear out as fast. One day, when I was eight years old, I came home and my feet were killing me. My oldest brother took me to a Goodwill store. He asked, ‘You see any shoes you like?’ I saw some split-toe shoes with tassles. I took off my shoes and tried them on. They felt good. He said, ‘OK, take your shoes, put them on the rack. Let’s go.’ I will never forget that. I took care of those shoes like they were a living thing. They made me feel like somebody.

“Those shoes were also my initiation into elements of criminality. Later on, I used to boost my own clothes. I call it the ‘Robin Hood complex’. It’s OK if you need it. That led to me being involved in street things. I grew up before the drug epidemic. When that came, I chose to retreat. I went back to school and got pretty radical.“

Read the Full Story at Dazed

Photography Petra Collins. All clothes Gucci-Dapper Dan collection. Styling Emma Wyman.

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Dazed, Fashion, Manhattan

Brave, Beautiful Outlaws: The Photographs of Donna Gottschalk

Posted on August 30, 2018

Self-portrait in Maine, 1976 © Donna Gottschalk, courtesy of the artist

Growing up in the city’s Lower East Side, Donna Gottschalk came out just as early activist groups such as the Gay Liberation Front were forming. While an art student at Cooper Union, Gottschalk used the school’s silkscreen shop to print ‘Lesbians Unite’ posters and stencil ‘Lavender Menace’ on T-shirts.

After seeing the exhibition of Diane Arbus’ work held by the Museum of Modern Art just after that artist’s death during the early 1970s, Gottschalk recognized the power of photography to preserve the people she held closest to her heart. She began to take intimate photographs of her friends, family, and roommates with an intuitive understanding that one day, this would be all that would remain of them.

Tragically, many of those featured in her work met with early deaths, including two of her siblings. To cope with the loss and protect the memories of those she loved, Gottschalk packed up the photographs and put them in storage for 40 years. It is only now, as she approaches 70, that she has delved back into her archive to reflect on the incredible people at the forefront of the Gay Liberation Movement from the late 1960s throughout the 70s.

In Brave, Beautiful Outlaws: The Photographs of Donna Gottschalk at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York, we meet those Gottschalk knew and loved, including Alfie, her childhood brother who transitions into Myla, her adult sister, just prior to her death from an AIDS-related illness. Here, Gottschalk takes us back to a pivotal time in history, as a new generation of activists transformed the conversation around sexuality, gender, identity, visibility, and representation, giving us an intimate glimpse into their private lives.

Read the Full Story at AnOther Online

Alfie in Mary’s Dress Age 16, 1974 © Donna Gottschalk, Collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, AnOther, Art, Photography

Marcia Resnick: Bad Boys

Posted on August 28, 2018

Fab 5 Freddy, copyright Marcia Resnick

While living in a loft in Tribeca during the 1970s, American photographer Marcia Resnick began creating a series of portraits of the enfants terribles living in her neighbourhood, capturing an era of anti-heroes whose influence continues to be felt across the worlds of art, music, film, and literature today.

Whether photographing artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, writers such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, musicians like Iggy Pop, Johnny Thunders, and Mick Jagger, or the baron of bad taste himself John Waters, Resnick had an eye – as the title of her new book suggests – for bad boys; punks, poets and provocateurs.

Every night, Resnick would infiltrate New York’s downtown art scene, hitting up CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and the Mudd Club to catch the latest happenings. Here, she discovered subjects that she could photograph there and then, and also at her studio. Here, Resnick reflects on her Bad Boys photo series, which can be found in full in Punks, Poets & Provocateurs New York City Bad Boys, 1977–1982 (Insight Editions).

Read the Full Story at AnOther Man

Klaus Nomi, copyright Marcia Resnick

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Manhattan, Photography

Rough Trade: Art and Sex Work in the Late 20th Century

Posted on August 16, 2018

Untitled (Hustler’s Handshake) from the portfolio Teenage Lust, c. 1981, Vintage gelatin silver print, Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City© Larry Clark

In the years between the sexual revolution, Stonewall, and the advent of AIDS, the repressive respectability politics of the 1950s fell away, allowing a generation of men and women to come of age expressing their sexuality with more freedom than ever before. As social attitudes relaxed, many artists explored massage parlours, go-go bars, pornographic theaters, and strip clubs – the spaces where sex work flourished.

Greg Ellis of Ward 5B, has curated Rough Trade: Art and Sex Work in the Late 20th Century, a new group exhibition currently on view at ClampArt, New York, until September 22, 2018. Organised to coincide with David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night, this exhibition takes a look at the relationship between artists and sex workers.

Some, like Wojnarowicz and Mark Morrisroe, drew upon their traumatic early histories as hustlers, while others like Larry Clark and Tomata du Plenty documented their friends, lovers, and acquaintances involved in the sex industry. Rough Trade also includes works by John Barrington, Kenny Burgess, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Fred Halsted, John Sex, Jane Sherry, Pedro Slim, Samuel Steward, and Tommy Vallette, as well as related ephemera. Speaking to Another Man, Ellis shares his insights on this fascinating side of art history.

Read the Full Story for AnOther Man

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art

Michael Abramson: Light on the Southside

Posted on August 10, 2018

Between 1975 and ’77, Michael Abramson (1948-2011) created an extraordinary body of work documenting Chicago’s Southside nightclubs as the subject of his Masters thesis for the Illinois Institute of Technology. Abramson made the rounds, carrying a camera and strobe light to catch all the action going down at Perv’s House, Pepper’s Hideout, The High Chaparral, The Patio Lounge, and The Showcase Lounge.

The sound was afterhours, featuring the funky, soulful vibes of blues artists like Little Mac Simmons, Bobby Rush, Lady Margo, and Little Ed. But Abramson wasn’t checking for the musicians on stage — he came for the crowd on the dancefloors and the bars, shooting half a dozen rolls every night inside this rarely seen milieu. “It was a living self-contained theater,” Abramson said of those heady nights.

Now a selection of the works will be on view in Michael Abramson: Light on the Southside at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR (August 2 – September 2, 2018), bringing the scene back to life. It is, in the words of British novelist Nick Hornby, an admirer of Abramson’s work, “One tiny corner of the world over a handful of evenings a long time ago; but that tiny corner of the world has, for decades now, meant a great deal to an awful lot of people scattered all over the world.”

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Categories: 1970s, Art, Feature Shoot, Photography

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Artrouble

Posted on August 7, 2018

The Motels

Hailing from London, David Allen arrived in Los Angeles in 1976 on what he describes as “an angry whim”. One day while at the newsstand checking for NME, he spotted a magazine with the word Slash written across the front, in a blood-splattered font. Intrigued, he read a story in it before heading to the magazine’s office, where he embarked upon a career in design. Suddenly he was an outsider on the inside of the emerging punk scene.

It was while he was hanging out at the Masque, a nightclub just off Hollywood Boulevard, that Allen was approached by a young photographer named Jules Bates, who had seen a flyer Allen had designed and wanted to collaborate on the cover for Nick Gilders’ album featuring the hit, Hot Child in the City. One thing lead to another, and Bates proposed they start a company with his then-girlfriend Phyllis Cohen, a make-up artist from Vancouver.

Allen named the crew Artrouble, and together they began creating album covers for emerging punk bands like the Dickies and Devo, New Wave bands like Oingo Boingo and the Motels, and pop stars like Shawn Cassidy and Peter Frampton. When Bates died in the early 1980s, Artrouble came to an end. Now, on the 40th anniversary of its launch, Allen looks back at the LA collective that defined an era.

Read the Full Story at AnOther Online

Canterbury Punks

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther, Art, Music

Bruce W. Talamon: Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972–1982

Posted on August 7, 2018

As staff photographer at SOUL Newspaper during the 1970s, Los Angeles native Bruce W. Talamon knew the score: “always respect the artist and don’t fuck up the vibe. Always be on top of your game, and take any chance you can”. These lessons served him well documenting artists such as the Jackson Five, Parliament-Funkadelic, Donna Summer, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye; the legendary soul, funk, and R&B acts of the 1970s that turned pop music into an unforgettable trip on the Soul Train.

Every Saturday morning, kids and teens across the United States tuned into Don Cornelius’ dance extravaganza. In the decade before video killed the radio star, the sound of Black America hit the high bar as artists like Al Green, Bootsy Collins, and Rick James burned up the stage. After they turned off the TV they hungered for more; more photos and stories about their heroes. So, they read SOUL.

Talamon jumped on the scene, quite literally, when he walked on stage at Wattstax to photograph Isaac Hayes in 1972 – unaccredited. The young photographer had picked up a camera the year before, and decided to forgo his studies as a law student for something entirely different – something no one in the mainstream media was covering in any depth. It is fortunate that he did; as without Talamon, there would be no photograph of Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire walking with a white umbrella towards the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Now, in his new book published by Taschen and titled Bruce W. Talamon. Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972–1982, the artist takes us back to this pivotal era in history, when glamour, grandeur, and grooves reigned supreme.

Read the Full Story at AnOther Man

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Music, Photography