Shakespeare, After All…

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Having announced that I’m taking a break from Art writing in September to recover from a year’s worth of illnesses and ailments, compounded by the absence of any means of support for Independent Art writing, I’ve finally had time for something else!

In what little free time I have not spent working on surviving I’ve turned to Literature. Not one of the “Visual Arts,” per se, but an Art, of course, nonetheless.

It’s like he’s been there waiting for me for my whole life…Shakespeare, by John Quincy Adams Ward. I’m not a fan of any of the Statues in Central Park besides Bethesda Fountain and this one. Seen on October 27, 2024. Click any picture for full size.

Having been assigned to read James Joyce’s Dubliners as a senior in high school, the highest grade I was allowed to attain by my parents, so taken by it was I that I went on to his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and then Ulysses on my own after. And so ended my life’s experience with Literature (and formal education for that matter. Everything I “know” now I learned on my own, except how to read & write and basic math). My life then became an endless procession of Art book after Art book. Until September. With no Art pieces hanging over my head to finish, in late September I decided to try and begin to try fill that gnawing Lit gap that’s been there for a very long time indeed. Immediately, there was NO DOUBT in my mind who I would turn to first in this quest.

William Shakespeare (circa April 23, 1564- April 23. 1616)

Edward Hopper, Shakespeare at Dusk, 1935, Oil on cavas. Literary Walk, Central Park, 90 years ago. The same Sculpture I shot above, 89 years after Hopper Painted it.  The inscription on the base says it was installed here in Central Park in honor of  The Bard’s 300th Birthday, which was in April, 1864. Yet, the Artist inscribed “1870” under his signature. Something is wrong in the State of New York.*- Photographer unknown.

Believe it or not, I’ve reached this stage in my life and never once cracked open one of his Plays or collection of Poems. HOW is that possible?  I blame my teachers. I remember being assigned such things as Ivanhoe in school which my book report on received a failing grade for primarily because I just couldn’t even bring myself to even open it. At the same time, my parents confiscated my copies of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 because the “legion of decency” (small caps, mine-they were neither) blacklisted them. Suffice it to say that if I read Lit for the next 50 years, Ivanhoe is STILL going to remain unopened!

I quickly realized, however, that it may be impossible to reach adulthood without your life having been touched by William Shakespeare- even if, like me, you’ve never read him! How? Lines from his Plays and Poems have become cliches in many of our daily lives, often/usually without realizing their origins. FIFTY of them, including “For goodness sake,” “Too much of a good thing,” “Vanish into thin air,” or “All’s well that ends well,” can be found here! 

Edward Hopper, Study for Shakespeare at Dusk, 1935, Graphite pencil on paper. Comparing his Studies to the final Painting, shown earlier, t’s interesting how Hopper moved the trees around and changed the buildings. Seen at Edward Hopper’s New York, October, 17, 2022

In addition to that, the man contributed somewhere between 1,700 and 3,00 words to the English language (depending on whose numbers you choose to believe)! And these are not obscure words. They include-

Alligator

Bedroom

Critic (gulp)

Downstairs

Eyeball

Fashionable

Gossip

Huffy

Kissing

Lonely

Manager

Obscene

Puppy dog

Questioning

Rant

Skim milk

Traditional

Undress

Worthless

Zany

PHEW! (That’s not one- as far as I know!)

Between the quotes that have become catchphrases and the words he contributed to the language, I can’t think of any Visual Artist (i.e. Painter, Photographer, et al) who has had such a reach into our everyday lives as Shakespeare has. And that’s not even considering his Plays and Poems as Plays and Poems!

If these walls could talk! King Edward VI Grammar School – Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. It is “almost certain” that Shakespeare attended school here. *- Photo by Elliott Brown, Wikimedia Commons

As if that’s not astounding enough, remember Shakespeare only went to school until he was 14! He wasn’t permitted to go to college. What he didn’t learn in school, he taught himself!

PARTIAL view of the Shakespeare books at The Strand Bookstore, September 28, 2024. This bookcase has 10 shelves of books on The Bard. On the bookcases directly behind it, I counted 7 more shelves of Shakespeare books!

So, there I was in late September in a book store, but, for the first time in the 40+ years I’ve been going to this store, I found myself in a section I’d never been in before. Their Shakespeare section. I was shocked by what I saw. The books filled the entire bookcase! And, it filled most of the bookcase behind it! Though I’ve focused on these pages on Modern & Contemporary Art, I have written about Artists going back to the 15th century- Jan van Eyck, and the Renaissance- Michelangelo. In the 600 years that represents (1400-2025) NO Artist known to me has had anything close to the amount written about them as William Shakespeare has! Not Michelangelo, or Leonardo- even combined. Not Picasso. Not Vincent van Gogh (who I’ve written about twice). No one.

This is a bit ironic. Professor and Shakespeare biographer, Stephen Greenblatt, has this to say about Shakespeare and books-

“Even though as a poet Shakespeare dreamed of eternal fame, he does not seem to have associated that fame with the phenomenon of the printed book. And even when he was well established as a playwright, with his plays for sale in the bookstalls in St. Paul’s Churchyard, he showed little or no personal interest in seeing his plays on the printed page, let alone assuring the accuracy of the editions. He never, it seems, anticipated what turned out to be the case: that he would live as much on the page as on the stage… but the real excitement for him would have been access to books. Books were expensive, far too expensive for a young actor and untried playwright to buy out of his own pocket, and yet the ambitious Shakespeare needed them if he was to rise to the challenge posed by (Christoper) Marlowe’s stupendous work (i.e. specifically Tamburlaine).1“

That explains a question a number of writers have wondered about- according to his last will, Shakespeare left no books. As I stood in front of more books on a subject I’m interested in than I’ve ever faced, one question loomed large- Where do I start?

The Rizzoli 400th Anniversary Edition of The First Folio of Shakespeare. It’s nice, but if I were in the market for a copy of The First Folio (TFF hence), I’d get the Norton Facsimile Edition. Why? The Rizzoli is a repro of the copy of TFF in the British Library. The Norton selects the page in each of 82 of the existing copies that’s in the best condition.

Eschewing all the biographies and commentaries, I started looking at the books containing his work- what he Wrote. I quickly discovered that there are COUNTLESS editions of EVERYTHING Shakespeare Wrote going back to what is called The First Folio (TFF hence), the very first published collection of his Plays published in 1623, seven years after his death, by two of his fellow actors & friends. The world owes an incalculable debt to those friends, John Hemminge (aka John Heminges) and Henry Condell. Shakespeare remembered them in his will. Now considered the most important book of fiction ever published. In it, about half of Shakespeare’s plays make their first appearance. They most likely would have been lost to history if not for its publication, the story of which has been the subject of a good many books on its own. I’ve come across 3 reproductions of TFF– The luxurious 400th Anniversary Edition published in 2023 by Rizzoli, the equally luxurious compilation edition published by Norton (which I prefer, IF I were in the market for one, as I explain above), and a used paperback copy of a knockoff edition of it that Norton sued over and was subsequently withdrawn. 

The cover of Volume II of the Bantam paperback edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. David Bevington edited the plays and contributes superb introductions to each Play.

But, Early Modern English, which is what Shakespeare wrote and spoke is a tough nut for me to crack. So are the fonts they used in 1623. So, I put TFF back on the shelf and kept looking. My eyes then alighted on a set of the Complete Works published by Bantam. Five words on the covers caught my attentions- “WITH FOREWORDS BY JOSEPH PAPP.” Even I know that Joseph Papp (1921-1991) was, and remains, “Mr. New York Shakespeare.”

Shakespeare Garden, Central Park, mere steps from The Delacourt Theater, home of Shakespeare in the Park.

Legendary for founding both The Public Theater and the annual, beloved, Shakespeare in The Park performances (i.e. in Central Park, under his New York Shakespeare Festival), who better to turn to for guidance? And so, the very first Shakespeare book I opened was Volume 1 of the Bantam Complete Works of William Shakespeare. I immediately turned to Mr. Papp’s “Foreword” for the whole set (reproduced below. (He also contributed “Forewords” to each Play!), I read these words—

“It’s hard to imagine, but Shakespeare wrote all his plays with a quill pen, a goose feather whose hard end had to be sharpened frequently. How many times did he scrape the dull end to a point with his knife, dip it into the inkwell, and bring up, dripping wet, those wonderful words and ideas that are known all over the world?,” as you can see below-

Bingo. I was immediately hooked, and 4 months later, remain so. Shakespeare has taken over my life. I found out the set in the store was incomplete, so I went home and bought a complete used 6-volume set online for $25. However, before I left the store that night, so I could get started right away, I opted for Helen Vendler’s The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which includes all of them, in a reproduction of the original publication accompanied by a version in a modern font, her commentary on each, and a CD of her reading most of them. I was especially taken with how she depicts their form visually. Faced with upwards of 20 shelves of books, I must have been guided by providence in choosing both of these as my starting points. 

“For though the camomile, The more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, Yet youth, the more it is wasted, The sooner it wears.” A scene in Shakespeare Garden with a quote from 1 Henry IV (II, 4).

After reading the first half of  the Sonnets, the Bantams arrived and I chose to begin the Plays with King Lear for no particular reason. It proved to be a most interesting choice- especially after the opening body of Sonnets. As you know, the first section of Sonnets harp over and over on the duty of a young and beautiful man to father children, a subject particularly hard for my older, childless, self to read, over and over, in the words of the man I already consider the greatest writer the language has ever produced.

Pregnant pause.

Then, King Lear is the story of an older man who is turned out by two of his three adult children! Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t, eh Shakespeare? Needless to say, my head was spinning after my first two Shakespeare experiences. What’s “the answer?” What is Shakespeare “telling us?”

“Heigh-ho! Sing, heigh-ho! Unto the green holly, Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then heigh-ho the holly! This life is most jolly.” A quote from As You Like It (II, 7)  in Shakespeare Garden.

One thing that’s already apparent to me from that bookcase, above, is that any number of the greatest minds of the past 400 years have written about and commented on Shakespeare. Tolstoy, Freud, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Van Doren, Isaac Asimov, Harold Bloom, Bertolt Brecht, and the aforementioned James Joyce among them, the list is endless and formidable. I’m not daring to throw my hat in that ring speaking on what Shakespeare is saying- especially only 4 months into exploring The Bard! As a result, after finishing each Play (Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet have followed), I’m taking 2 to 3 weeks to read commentary by some of these illustrious figures on the play just finished (I go into each Play cold. So far I’m choosing which one to read randomly. That may change to roughly chronologically as I get more info on dates when they may have been Written- there doesn’t seem to be a consensus.). I’m also waiting to watch any of the Films made of these Plays (most of which are incomplete, edited versions of the Play) until my own ideas on them have solidified.

DISCLAIMER- The subjects I touch on below remain contested. Therefore, I want to make it clear that I’m stating my opinions. 

A NighthawkNYC Art Book of the (1st Quarter of the) 21st Century. (The full list to come.) Though I answered a good many Shakespeare questions through my research, Stephen Greenblatt’s classic Will in the World, 2004, answered the rest, and those I hadn’t thought of. A spectacular achievement, if you read one book ON Shakespeare, this would be my recommendation. A New York Times Bestseller for 9 weeks, Professor Greenblatt is the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare, a Pulitzer Prize Winner, a National Book Award Winner for Nonfiction, and a Harvard Professor who has written 4 other books on Shakespeare.

In September, I decided to begin this quest by answering two questions (for myself)- First, WHO wrote Shakespeare? Second, when you consider his collected works total 835,996 words! Of these, 12,493 words occur only once, HOW did a man who was not permitted to go to college manage to write such knowing and diverse work, including so many words? I’ll make this short and just say, my research proved (to my satisfaction) that Shakespeare indeed wrote Shakespeare, and if you want specifics, I subsequently found them all wonderfully delineated in Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award Winner Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World. Even the title is startling; calling him “Will,” humanizes him and makes me feel like he’s someone I “know” already. Why do I care who wrote Shakespeare? Because I care who Painted The Starry Night, The Sistine Chapel, and on and on. There is autobiography to a lesser or greater extent in a good deal of, perhaps most of, the Art I’ve seen, and that becomes integral to looking at the work. IF we didn’t know who Painted the Mona Lisa don’t you think the #1 question people would have is not about her smile, but about who Painted it? Professor Greenblatt gets this.

“But the whole impulse to explore Shakespeare’s life arises from the powerful conviction that his plays and poems spring not only from other plays and poems but from things he knew firsthand, in his body and soul2.”

Through 419 absolutely riveting pages he goes on to make it perfectly plain that NO ONE else could have written Shakespeare (in my reading). Suffice it to say that though I became convinced of the answers to my first two questions elsewhere, Professor Greenblatt does a much more complete job of answering both.

“HOW did the son of the failing glover make it into the theater? In the absence of any documentary traces, the principal evidence, pored over for clues by generations of ardent admirers, is the huge body of work that Shakespeare left behind, the plays and poems that spark the interest in the life in the first place and provide tantalizing hints of possible occupations he might have followed3.”

Along the way, I began to see that very intensive, focused, research may have been key for Shakespeare. I can relate to that in my own, tiny, way4. Having written 350 pieces here on about 300 Artists, many of which I was working on 3 or 4 at a time, I had to do my research, distill it, and move on to the next topic. Most of his Plays are based on the work of predecessors, and those sources are known, I wonder if Shakespeare did something somewhat similar. As an actor, he was already, no doubt, a quick study. 

“Shakespeare was a master of double consciousness. He was a man who spent his money on a coat of arms but who mocked the pretentiousness of such a claim; a man who invested in real estate but who ridiculed in Hamlet precisely such an entrepreneur as he himself was; a man who spent his life and his deepest energies on the theater but who laughed at the theater and regretted making himself a show.” 

Is this why there seem to be conflicting “messages” about having children between the Sonnets and King Lear? He continues…

“Though Shakespeare seems to have recycled every word he ever encountered, every person he ever met, every experience he ever had—it is difficult otherwise to explain the enormous richness of his work—he contrived at the same time to hide himself from view, to ward off vulnerability, to forswear intimacy5.”

Since The First Folio was compiled and edited by two Actors and friends of Shakespeare, John Heminges and Henry Condell, Martin Droeshout’s Portrait of William Shakespeare as it appears in it seven years after his death, is the most accepted representation of what Shakespeare looked like. On the facing page, Writer & Shakespeare associate, Ben Jonson writes that “the graver had a strife with nature to out do the life.” I’ve reproduced his full text, with his original spelling-

Ben Jonson
To the Reader

This Figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut:
Wherein the Grauer had a strife
with Nature, to out-doo the life:
O, could he but haue drawne his wit
As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was euer writ in brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
Not on his picture, but his Booke.

B.J.

Irony of ironies, something else then entered into my exploration of Shakespeare. Painting. “Just when I thought I was out…” Wait. That’s not from Shakespeare. (Is it?)

Having “settled” the above questions for myself, I was able to begin reading his work. Then, I got “stuck” on something I’d seen in the first few pages of TFF: Shakespeare’s Portrait, in an engraving done by one of  two Martin Droeshouts (There may have been two Martin Droeshouts in the same extended family, one, or both, of who may have been engravers). The consensus seems to be Martin Droeshout the Younger, 1601-c.1650, who was too young to have seen/known Shakespeare during his life.  Martin’s Portrait is, frankly, bizarre! The head too big for the body, and apparently disassociated from it, something’s wrong with his left eye (which might be his right eye since everything is usually reversed in an engraving), and on and on. Yet, on the facing page is the great Writer and Shakespeare associate, Ben Jonson’s, statement that “the graver had a strife with nature to out do the life,” meaning, I take it, that the Portrait looks better than Shakespeare did in real life, in his view. And that, along with the implied approval of two of his “fellows,” as Shakespeare refers to them in his will, John Hemminge (aka John Heminges) and Henry Condell who complied (“gather his works,” in their words), edited TFF and thereby approved the Portrait, are the most direct testimony there is on what Shakespeare looked like that we still have!

Attributed to John Taylor, William Shakespeare, aka the Chandos Portrait, Datę unknown. Seen in the National Portrait Gallery, London. *-Photo by City Guide London on Tumblr.

The second most accepted “Portrait” of Shakespeare is that on his funeral monument, since that, too, was overseen by those who knew him (though it has been altered over time). That attributed to John Taylor, above, is the 3rd and most accepted Painting. The very first work acquired by London’s National Portrait Gallery, they seem to have hedged their bet on it, saying their claim that it represents Shakespeare has “increased, but it’s not absolutely watertight. We may never find the clincher piece of evidence- though it may turn up6,” Dr. Tarnya Cooper of the NPG said.

The theory is that the Droeshout Portrait was based on a Painting. But, if it survives, which one? Over the centuries a number of candidates have been put forth. You know me. Unable to resist, I began looking at supposed Portraits of The Bard. I actually saw the Chandos Portrait on my last trip out of NYC overnight, when I went to London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2012. It hasn’t been cleaned since the NPG acquired in 1856, which makes it really hard to see, and some alteration has occured. The “white” of the collar has been worn down to just the undercoating for the whole Painting. It also features a possibly damaged, left eye. It has a beard, what appears to be curlier hair, and an earring- things that don’t appear in the Droeshout. It does, however, have the best provenance of the bunch of Paintings claiming to be “him.” But, as Dr. Cooper says, not enough to make it conclusively Shakespeare- or by John Taylor, for that matter. 

William Shakespeare lived from circa April 23, 1564 to April 23, 1616 and spent much of his adult life in London, a time when there were more than a few great Painters around. Having your portrait done was coming into fashion at this time, too. Being a man of enough success that he was both part owner of The Globe Theater and able to retire in his early 50s, it stands to reason that he would have had one done at some point, maybe more than one. Still, most of those we have are posthumous portrayals. Finding one rendered from life is the holy grail, and the reason why the search is so intense. It’s been postulated that these posthumous portrayals may have been done from Shakespeare’s death mask (which also apparently survives), or his skull (which was removed from his tomb, violating his curse, which itself may be the final thing he wrote, against “moving his bones,” and may also still be around).

The Wadlow Portrait, c.1590s, Oil on canvasas *-Photographer unknown.

A number of these Portraits, the Chandos, the Droeshout, share an interesting trait-  if we take their primary features, the eyes and mouth and superimpose them, which I did using photo editing software, they line up. That, itself is quite strange, but hard to ignore. I was taken by one of the newest entries to the “Shakespeare” Portrait field, a Painting that’s come to be known as “The Wadlow Portrait,” after its owner, Stephen Wadlow, a self-employed window washer who inherited the Painting from his father, Peter. It hung over the family TV until an OMG moment watching a Shakespeare doc made the family wonder IF it might be HIM. Stephen has spent the past decade researching it and the results have been increasingly encouraging. Though I can’t imagine the drain of time and resources involved in such a quest, it seems that he’s been getting positive feedback from the tests the piece has undergone and his research. Looking over the documentation on his website, it doesn’t seem the time to stop looking for an answer is now.

So as to not make a very long piece longer, I will let Simon Andrew Stirling neatly sum up the stories on ALL of the major purported Shakespeare Portraits in this fascinating piece he wrote for Goldsmiths University, which completes the path I have been going down in what is compelling fashion, in my view- thus far.

Answering the “What did Shakespeare look like?” question is not going to be as “easy” as answering the “Who wrote Shakespeare?” question. At least for me! Ben Jonson neatly summed up the real point of all this 400 years ago in his “To the Reader” piece, above-

“Reader, looke not on his picture, but his Booke.”

And so, onward to Macbeth.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “I Contain Multitudes,” (a Walt Whitman quote) by Bob Dylan from Rough and Rowdy Ways, 2020.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 1/2 years, during which over 340 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate securely by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World, P.193 ↩
  2. Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World, P. 119 ↩
  3. Stephen Greenblatt, ibid, P.71 ↩
  4. PLEASE don’t read that as my comparing myself to Shakespeare. (I laughed typing that.) ↩
  5. Stephen Greenblatt, ibid, P.185 ↩
  6. Here. ↩

HELP KEEP THIS SITE ALIVE!

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

“I never seen you lookin’ so bad, my funky one
You tell me that your super fine mind has come undone”*

I’m sorry to announce that I’ve reached the point where I can no longer continue to create pieces for NighthawkNYC.com. Frankly, I just can’t afford to continue. The costs of this site these past 9 1/2 years has been over $200,000.00 while income has totaled less than $1 thousand dollars. In 2021, I came close to bankruptcy, and began selling off my personal belongings to keep going. Now, I’m forced to focus on survival full-time. I announced this on Instagram in late September. I delayed announcing it formally here, taking a minute to let the dust settle after a very hard year of one ailment after another (though I managed to keep writing), thinking I might feel differently. Three months later, I don’t.

Jenny Holzer, In A Dream…, Print on wood.  My thanks to Jenny Holzer.

For some reason, readership doubled after the Instagram announcement. I have no idea why. I must apologize to all those who’ve written for not replying. I simply haven’t had time, and frankly, I don’t know what else to say. I’ll respond to the #1 question I’ve been asked now- It is my intention and my hope that NighthawkNYC.com survives me. After all, it represents almost a decade of continual hard work. I have no idea how that will be possible right now. I believe, I hope, and, judging by the mail, it seems that there are at least some others who feel it has lasting value. When I have time, I will be retiring some of the pieces here in an effort to keep bandwidth down. Still, SUPPORT IS NEEDED to keep the site up.

Word. My thanks to @7soulsdeep.

I’m proud that since July 15, 2015, through thick and thin, I have kept this site free AND ad- free! PLEASE DONATE IF THIS SITE HAS BEEN OF VALUE TO YOU-

Securely Donate by PayPal here-

Philanthropist / Foundation / Institutional support is welcome. I will consider a non-corporate sponsor. Contact me to discuss it. Link at the end.

Other Ways To Help-

-If you’re an Artist I’ve written about, please consider helping by sharing links to my pieces (that is, IF you approve of what I’ve done- If you don’t, let me know).
-Ditto galleries, and museums.
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-And, I’m still selling off my collections to keep going. The links are at the bottom of each piece. My Thanks in advance.

“O, had I but followed the arts!” Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, 1.3.93.

The bottom line is this- In spite of the fact that the Art world has never been bigger, with more and more Artists clamoring for attention, and more Art begging to be seen than ever before, there remains NO support for independent Art writing to help spread the word about it. That’s a bit self-defeating, no?

So, after 9 12 years, and 350 pieces, the time has come for me to move my efforts from supporting others to supporting myself.

“Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well, look at mine
The people on the street have all seen better times”*

As always, whether you’ve read one, or all of them, Thank You for reading my pieces.

Have a great night.
Peace,
Kenn. [Exit, pursued by a bear.]

“Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you, my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won’t be there no more
Any major dude will tell you
Any major dude will tell you”*

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Any Major Dude,” by Donald Fagen & Walter Becker of Steely Dan from their classic album Pretzel Logic, 1974.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 1/2 years, during which 350 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Es Devlin Rides the Wild Horses

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Show Seen: An Atlas of Es Devlin @ the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum of Design

The one and only Es Devlin in the one and only time she appears in her show, in her piece Memory Place. (her hands appear a few times elsewhere). Displayed in the show’s entrance lobby where visitors wait for the next showing of her 4-minute intro video which takes place in a fascinating recreation of her studio. The pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

Having first experienced Es Devlin’s brilliance in 2010, the release of her debut Art , An Atlas of Es Devlin, the NighthawkNYC.com NoteWorthy Art Book of the Year for 2024, fired my curiosity as to what the show of the same name would be like. How would Es Devlin and the curators at the Cooper Hewitt distill the innumerable projects Ms. Devlin has been involved in these past 29 years already, and the book’s 900 pages, into a comprehensive and concise show, a “mid-career” retrospective, no less?

The show is so innovative, the attention to detail so exceptional, that even the shipping crates that transported the Art have their place in it! One of many things in An Atlas I’ve never seen before. I explain further on. Seen here are the labels on a crate that contained 2 models.

Opening in November, 2023, I pondered this all through 2024 as various ailments kept me from getting to 2 East 91st Street, and finding out. Stage Design is one of the most ephemeral Art forms there is. The book is divided between Sketches and notes, followed by a large section of color Photos of the performances. Building my expectations around that, finally getting to see the show twice during it’s final week, I got the unexpected: a show that largely consisted of beautiful scale Models of the stage sets, most created for exhibition! (Two were contained in the shipping crate shown here.) Well, if anything has proven to be the trademark of Es Devlin’s work, it’s the unexpected, which continues to remind me of Robert Rauschenberg.

Hang on to your hats! Installation view of the introductory gallery in the recreation of her studio before the Film begins. I rushed in to get this shot before it was filled up by those in line behind me. Beware, those seemingly innocent items on the table are not what they seem. Neither is that back wall.

Filling  the entirety of the 3rd floor, arriving visitors are asked to wait for the next showing of a 4-minute Introductory Film, which takes place in a gallery designed as a recreation of her studio, with a large work table in the middle, filled with the tools of her craft.

As the Artist speaks and Draws in the Video projected on the rear wall, the objects on the table undergo all sorts of permutations.

As visitors surround it and begin to take it all in, the Film begins. Compellingly narrated by the Artist in powerfully evocative words in Ms. Devlin’s hypnotic voice, accompanied by stunning visuals that somehow bring items lying on the table to life, the Artist takes us on a tour of her ideas and her work.

One section of the recreation of Es Devlin’s studio with the lights low during the Introductory Film. Full of ideas, some realized, some partially realized, some not realized yet, I imagined this room to be something akin to walking around in her brain.

On three of the walls surrounding the table were a cornucopia of fascinating objects I could have spent a few hours studying on their own. A bit like Sarah Sze’s incredibly involved installations, a lot of work went into their installation.

The Film ends with a bang.

At the culmination of the presentation, the Artist’s hands split the screen in half, opening the back wall, revealing her piece, Iris, beckoning visitors to enter the beginning of the main body of the show. Talk about a dramatic opening. Stage craft meets Art show in a way I can’t say I’ve experienced before. But, I bet I will again. I have no doubt An Atlas was must-see viewing for innumerable curators and gallerists.

The second “introductory gallery” features Es’s Iris.

Working with “names’ virtually her entire career, the first stop is her Iris with a voice over of Es reciting the names of her collaborators. A nice “Thank You” for the opportunities and sharing the credit for the results of this most collaborative of mediums. Iris, with multiple aperture blades, contains the names of the Artist collaborators on the outer blades, and all those involved with creating and mounting her projects fill the inner blades, a list that fills the first 9 pages in her book! It introduces what is a running theme in the show: collaboration, as you might expect for an Artist whose craft is Stage Design, like a bass player, something that doesn’t exist on its own (unless you’re a genius, like my late acquaintance, Jaco Pastorius). Still, it’s definitely her show. Her voice and vision runs through each and every work. Still, as any creative person who’s been hired by someone knows, working with someone else “who has a say” is often extremely challenging; perhaps the hardest part of the job. More than likely the Artist got the job for being who he or she is. For someone else to come in and suddenly want to change/modify that vision can be both counterproductive and counterintuitive. Not every Artist can do it.  The “dynamics” of creative collaboration is why most bands have the shelf life of milk. Yet, though it must have been there, in An Atlas there is no sign of creative struggle or difficulty. Making this all the more impressive, the list of her projects takes 4 pages in the book (as I showed here)! Either her brilliance is just a matter of fact for all her bosses, or she has an extremely winning way, as belied by her hypnotic voice. My money’s on both.

Installation view of the first gallery of work, with the earliest pieces at the far end. If you look closely you’ll notice mirrors at each end of the wall. In what might have been an effort to make the show feel larger, all the galleries had wall-sized mirrors on each end.

After leaving Iris, next up is the gallery of her fascinating early works, largely Drawings and Mixed Media works on paper, i.e. pen, markers, paint on paper Portrait and figure studies, like countless other Art students. I had to look closer to find the roots of her Stage Design work. In between the large studies, I saw sketchbooks, notebooks and loose sheets that contained outlines and ideas for stage productions, none of which are listed in her book.

On the very bottom of the far end of the wall, just above the power outlets, and so difficult to see, I spotted these notebook pages, the one at the lower right reads “Madam Butterfly,” perhaps one of the earliest Stage Designs in the show (the book in the upper left is dated October, 1994). Note that Es has Drawn the entire thing, boldly and confidently, in ink with no white-out or corrections. That speaks to the clarity of her vision, even early on. Immediately above it is a costume design. Note the inclusion of the pencil. I just love that her work was so centered on Drawing and hand-written notes, and continues to be. I don’t see Madam Butterfly listed in her book.

From this gallery, what are we to make of her beginnings? Where did all of what has followed come from? Between visits, I researched her background. Her CV on esdevlin.com, lists her Education, chronologically, as-

-Cranbrook School, 1984-1989 (a “co-ed grammar school1)
-BA Hans English Literature 2.1, Bristol University, 1990-1993
-Fine Art Foundation, Central Saint Martins, UAL, 1994-1995
-Motley Stage Design Course, 1995-1996

That’s it! After taking Art-centric courses for scarcely two years, then she just takes off. In only the second gallery of work, at the beginning of her professional career, the ideas are fresh, innovative & previously unseen- qualities that characterize her work to this day. Still in school(!), she’s already on her way. In the first vitrine, I was struck by her work with Wire, a 4-piece rock band, in 2003. Zillions of 4-piece bands, including a few with yours truly involved, have appeared on stage since The Beatles set a standard for what such a lineup “should” look like. “I didn’t know much, but I was bored of seeing the typical silhouette of a band,” she said on the wall card (where all Es Devlin quotes herein derive).

And so, Wire appeared like this-

Studies: Flag: Burning, for the band Wire’s Farewell Performance, 2003, Barbican Hall, London. Es Devlin’s first stage design for a concert. She made “illustrated cue sheets from which they ran the lights and the videos.” She spoke about not having enough money to afford velcro to enclose the band, so she had to use staples.

11 years later, another 4-piece band looked like this-

No staples here! U2, “Innocence & Experience” World Tour, 2014. *= Photo from esdevlin.com.

Wire would lead to such extraordinarily innovative shows as “Innocence & Experience,” 2014, and the subsequent “Experience & Innocence,” 2018, both by U2, who also includes 4 members. I believe this performance of “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” is from the “Experience & Innocence” tour. I saw U2 on what I believe was their first U.S. tour at the Ritz in 1980. Bono still sounds as strong as ever. To my mind, Wire, 2003, to U2 a decade later provides a classic case study in Es Devlin’s evolution.

Model, Bangerz, 3-D printed resin, recreated for exhibition. Staged, 2014, Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz World Arena Tour. Models of Ms. Devlin’s designs were the highlight of the show for me. Here, her face is a video projection from above that continually changed. To the side, a huge model of her beloved dog was also on stage. “We decided the Miley Cyrus should perform the entire show on her tongue. The first iteration was impractical, so we reduced the length of the tongue to a slide, down which Miley made her entrance- a sculptural portrait of a young woman rewriting her own script.”

Moving through the show, it became apparent to me that though elements recur, as. you see, Es Devlin has no one “style.” Since her words appear on virtually every wall card. Who else to speak better about her work? I’ll largely let her take it from here.

Model, The Lehman Trilogy, Painted MDF, acrylic, yardstick, 3-D printed resin, brass, and LED, recreated for exhibition, Staged in 2018 at the Royal National Theater, London, and the Park Avenue Armory, NYC. Es Devlin’s Tony Award-winning, rotating, design for Stefano Massini’s play The Lehman Trilogy, based on the family of businessmen. All the Models shown here with a center pole rotated. “A revolving glass box propels the action of The Lehman Trilogy, a parable that follows three generations of the Lehman family to chart the rise and periodic crashes of capitalism. Cardboard bankers boxes formed the foundations of the visual vocabulary. The more we invested the boxes with meaning, the more poignant the revelation became that those containers of cotton and coffee would become containers of financial records and numbers, ultimately revealing themselves to contain nothing at all.”

Model, Parsifal, Laser-cut form, resin and paint, recreated for exhibition. Staged in 2012 at the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen. “Richard Wagner conceived his final work as a ritual mass for the consecration of a stage. Over four hours of largely static drama, the audience transcends time and space through a rite of compassion. The director Keith Warner and I conceived an enormous revolving rook chess piece whose conical interior formed a new theater within Copenhagen’s opera house. We presented Parsifal’s odyssey from naivety to wisdom as a resistance to the rules of an antiquated game.”

As her career has progressed, a good number of her works have an “otherworldly” feel to them. Figures are frequently enclosed, in a maze, or presented in surroundings that are hard to fathom, often with no apparent way out.

Model, Howie The Rookie, Graphite and paint on laser-cut MDF and LED, recreated for exhibition, Staged 1999, Bush Theater, London, UK. “My first stab designs were experiments in framing light. The Bush Theatre was a room above a West London pub with an audience of 75 people. Mark O’Rowe’s play Howie the Rookie is a pair of potent, visceral monologues set in the housing estates of Tallaght on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. I perforated a concrete plane with a line of light. This line conveyed both a burning horizon and a road making on a highway.”

Model, Macbeth, Graphite and paint on laser-cut MDF, acrylic mirror and LED, recreated for exhibition, Staged 2003, Theater an her Wien, Vienna. “The design for Ernest Block’s opera of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth was based on a revolving mirrored illusion box. It’s rotations evoked Macbeth’s churning conscience. We conjured scenes through smoke and mirrors. A half-bed wedged against a mirror appeared as a single whole, while Macbeth and his wife were duplicated. The illusion of a whole banquet full of guests overlaid their machinations as the box turned.”

Installation view of one of the corridors. It’s not as long as it looks. Note the overhead video projectors.

Model, Atlas, 3D-printed resin and LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged 2019, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA. Meredith Monk’s transcendent wordless opera, Atlas, charts the spiritual growth of the 19th-century explorer Alexandra David-Néel. The young girl encounters travel companions and spirit guides within a 12-meter-diameter sphere, scored with webs of international trade and travel routes. The form encompasses Monk’s radiant vision of a possible alternative to the current world order.”

Model, La Caja Mágica/The Seed, Graphite and paint on laser-cut MDF, nd LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards, La Caja Mágica Arena, Madrid, and 2020, Jubail Mangrove Park, Abu Dhabi. “For the MTV Europe Music Awards, I imagined a 10-meter high revolving box that could reveal a shapeshifting series of performances. (Among others) Rhianna sang within a sea of red carnations pouring out of an iris (see next pic).”

Model, Fundamental, MDF, acrylic, acetate, and LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged for the Pet Sop Boys World Tour, 2006-7. Es says, “Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s album Fundamental critiqued Tony Blair, George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and immigration policy. For the tour, an X-ray image of a divided brain expressed the cognitive dissonance we felt as our country remained entangled in a ware we didn’t want. The show was performed outside the Tower of London, complete with projected pink tanks for the anti-war extravaganza ‘The Sodom and Gomorrah Show’ and giant sequined cowboy hats for the Bush/Blair pantomime “I’m with Stupid.” 

Model, Your Voices, Acrylic, filament, nylon thread, and LED, recreated for exhibition. Installed in the fountain at Lincoln Center, NYC, in 2022, Es says of it, “New York is the most linguistically diverse city on the planet, with 637 languages spoken by its inhabitants. Your Voices celebrated this diversity. Like a giant harp, the sculpture’s glowing arcs enveloped visitors and local choirs with an illuminated web. The piece rotated through a soundscape of languages from all over the city: from Arabic to Ashanti to Zapotec and Zulu. The strands spliced and framed the viewer’s perspectives, just as our perspectives are shifted when we learn to speak through the voices of others.”

Installation view.

Model, Compton Super Bowl, Laser-cut MDF, acrylic, 3D-printed resin, and LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged for the 2022 NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Dr. Dre, Kenrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and 50 Cent, Los Angeles, CA. “Dr. Dre and I proposed etching a map of the city of Compton onto the global Super Bowl stage. We case the buildings as charcters that led from Snoop Dogg’s house to 50 Cent in the club to Eminem breaking out of jail.”

Model: Come Home Again, 2022, Acrylic and printed resin. “For Come Home Again, I constructed a one-third-scale replica of the dome of London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on the lawn outside Tate Modern, facing the cathedral across the river. I filled dome with observational drawings of 243 of the 15,000 non-human species that call London home; the Londoners most at risk of extinction. ”All of the 243 animals depicted were based on Es Devlin Drawings.

Es Devlin in front of  the real Come Home Again, Tate Modern, London, 2022 *- Photo by Matt Alexander

The shipping crates for the Art, teased earlier, filled a gallery where a video screen was mounted in a stage set, providing seats for the visitors, with more all around me as I took this, and, cutting down on the need for space to store them! Something I’ve never seen before, it’s a  touch that shows the depth of the imagination and attention to detail that went into An Atlas at the Cooper Hewitt.

As if all the thought, planning and work that went into mounting An Atlas wasn’t enough, there is the incredibly innovative 900-page(!) book that accompanies it! So far, it’s the only Art book I’ve named a NoteWorthy Art Book for 2024, and that was before I saw the show. Here, in the show’s final gallery, another recreation of her studio, visitors get a look at the making of it, including the original book dummy (off-camera, in a vitrine to my left). This time, visitors were free to handle the items on the table, which were reproductions of the original work materials…right?

An Atlas, the show, reveals, that as her fame and notoriety grows,  so too are the opportunities for the Artist to step out and present her own work, without an overriding “boss,” as she has in major works like Come Home Again, and Your Voices, both 2022, and, of course, in An Atlas of Es Devlin, the book & show. Her own work shows the Artist bringing “big questions” to the forefront- including species near extinction (in Come Home Again, and in her piece Nevada Ark for U2’s The Sphere shows in 2023),

That Es Devlin’s work, and practice, is deeply rooted in traditional Art-making techniques, like Drawing and Sculpture, is a continual touchstone in both the show and the book. She uses them to produce work that lives on, and continually pushes, the cutting-edge of Stage Design and Production. I find this both fascinating and inspiring. On one hand, her example shows what is still possible by just putting pen or pencil to paper; that a master’s or doctorate degree are not prerequisites for achieving a very successful career, or greatness, in one’s chosen field in the Arts. On the other, it also reaffirms over and over again the power of one person’s creative vision. In her chosen field, her work strikes me as being downright unprecedented. In the larger world of Art, Es Devlin’s vision is at once as personal and as expansive as almost anyone else’s working today.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” by U2 from Achtung Baby, 1991.

My look at the 900-page An Atlas of Es Devlin, the NighthawkNYC.com NoteWorthy Art Book of 2024, published to accompany the show, is here. 

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

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Thank you, SV.

  1. Their site describes the school as “a co-educational grammar school in the heart of the glorious Wealden countryside.” ↩

So, You Want To Work At An Art Gallery…

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Summer in the City is a time for Fresh Air Kids, scrambling to stay cool, making sure to put on that sunscreen and water, water, water. 

Notice that none of those are particularly Art-related. 

That’s because most of the galleries are on short schedules, closed on Saturdays, or maybe the entire month of August, and the museums are gearing up for their new fall seasons. As a result, it was easy to miss a sleeper show up at David Zwirner’s 19th Street location- After Hours, mounted just east of the construction going on in their western gallery, which they apparently figured summer was a good time to get done. I’m glad I didn’t sleep on it. It’s a show of Art by the staff of David Zwirner’s galleries around the world. Very handsomely installed, it’s easy on the eyes and a number of pieces linger in the mind. “Easy” and “linger”…two words that go nicely with summer. 

T. Dylan Moore, Self-Portrait, 2024, Casein on paper. Jasper Johns, has used this seemingly difficult medium to work with medium extensively, making me sit up and take notice of its possibilities- as T. Dylan Moore’s Self-Portrait does here (shot at an angle to minimize glare). Seen in After Hours, July 17, 2024. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

I can hear some readers saying, “Man, it must be slow in NYC if he’s writing about a show by gallery staff members.” In reply I would remind readers that I first met Caslon Bevington in 2017 while she was working at David Zwirner. I have subsequently written about two of her solo shows.

Chase Barnes, Stateless Revision 1, Machine Vision, 2023, Multi-channel video installation on dual NEC monitors. Seen in  After Hours, July 18, 2024.

The big takeaway from After Hours for me is that there are A LOT of talented folks working for David Zwirner. This is not the first rodeo for any number of them. Chase Barnes, for example, already has a PhotoBook published by Jason Koxvold’s renowned Gnomic Book. It shows me the track to working at a major gallery is F A S T. Being an Artist looks good on a resume for a gallery gig, and having shown or been published travels well by repute. It’s also got to be a real asset for said Art dealer to have such people on their staff in innumerable ways. 

Lauren Ferrara, Absence, 2020, Found wood, recycled fabric, recycled paper, and recycled plastic bags, seen at After Hours, July 17, 2024.

In my experience, most people don’t give a second thought to staff members they encounter at an Art gallery. To work in a New York Gallery is an achievement in itself. A lot of people are drawn by the beauty and glamour of working with Art & Artists. That means there’s a lot of competition for these jobs. It serves to reason that an Artist seeking such employment would have an edge all other things being equal. And maybe that’s why the quality in After Hours was so high.

I was impressed with After Hours to the point that I saw it 4 times.The last two visits were because of  Oji Haynes. 

Kris Graves, the mastermind behind LOST IV taking a group portrait of 7 of the 10 Artist/Authors included in the set. From left, Oji Haynes, Richard Renaldi, Melody Melamed, Peter Baker, Tracy Dong, Melissa Alcena and Yoav Horesh. Seen at the LOST IV Book Release, Printed Matter, July 11, 2024.

I met Mr. Haynes at the Kris Graves Project’s 10-volume  LOST IV book release at Printed Matter. So taken with his PhotoBook, Anthem, was I that I took the bold step (for me) of walking over and telling him. We proceeded to have a remarkable conversation during which we discovered a shared passion for Art book collecting, with any number of overlapping Artists, from Robert Rauschenberg to Gordon Parks and Jeff Wall. He also revealed it was his first PhotoBook, consisting of an overview of his Photography to date,  and he had been reluctant to do it. Luckily, Kris Graves managed to convince him that now was indeed the time and the results are one of the strongest books (in my view) in the set. No mean feat in fast company. 

A spread from Anthem. Mr. Haynes told me he had originally envisioned the right-hand Photo as the cover. *- Kris Graves Projects Photo.

Then, he told me he had moved on in his practice and was now creating Sculptural pieces, and one of them was included in After Hours! Ahhh…he, too, is a David Zwirner staffer. I went back to the show on a mission.

Oji Haynes, Scriptures, 2024, String lights, cement, inkjet photo, diamond dust, and mixed media on fabric couch. Seen in  After Hours, July 17, 2024.

Tucked nicely into a corner at the far end of a large gallery, his piece, Scriptures, 2024, couldn’t be more different, yet similar, to his Photography. His book consists of intimate moments, most, but not all, including people- singly, in paris or small groups. Scriptures is intimate, as well, in a different way. Though I continue to ponder it, I had a few initial reactions. 

Left side showing the text, “LISTEN TO WHAT”

Right side showing the text, “GOD HAS TO SAY.”

First, it struck me as a collection of things people might find buried if they took apart a couch they’d had for a long time. Things that might fall out if you lifted it up from one end. Second, it gave me a feeling somewhat reminiscent to looking at Kerry James Marshall’s Souvenir II, a work that memorializes memories.

Kerry James Marshall, Souvenir II, 1997, Acrylic, collage, and glitter on unstreteched canvas banner. *-Renaissance Society Photo.

Then, I thought I’d love to see it hung between Mr. Marshall’s piece and Robert Rauschenberg’s revolutionary Bed. Rauschenberg mounted a bed on a wall. Mr. Haynes has mounted a couch on the two walls of a corner.

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955, Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports. The first work to take a piece of everyday household furniture and reenvision it. Of this work, Sarah Sze said, “That kind of intimacy is very specific to Rauschenberg. A willingness to be tender, to be intimate, to share a kind of a very interior urgency. An urgency to share a kind of interior self publicly1.” Her words resonated with me while seeing Scriptures. Seen at MoMA during Robert Rauschenberg Among Friends, August 5, 2017.

Or, next to them in chronological sequence. While Mr. Marshall’s piece may be seen as primarily a memorial to MLK, JFK and RFK and slain Civil Rights workers, the intimacy is heightened by the fact that it, and Mr. Marshall’s similar Souvenirs Series, take place in living rooms, where (no doubt) carefully chosen items abound, including couches. It’s that feeling and those items I thought of when seeing Mr. Haynes’s Scriptures. All three works are filled with the touchstones of a life, or the lives of an immediate few. In Oji Haynes’s case, the “meaning” is up to the viewer. I see a number of dreams in a self-enclosed space, though your results may differ. 

Oji Haynes holding a copy of his first PhotoBook, Anthem, at the LOST IV Book Release, Printed Matter, July 11.2024.

The definitions of “scriptures’ in the American Heritage Dictionary are- “1. A sacred writing or book. 2- A passage from such a writing or book. 3- The writings collected as the Bible.” Taking those as a point of context, tilts things to the “sacred,” and what’s sacred for whosever items these are. In one sense, it’s a time capsule of hopes, dreams, achievements, memories, simultaneously revealing the passage of time. Auspicious, indeed. Mr. Haynes was not on hand when I went back to After Hours. He told me he had to go install work in a show in San Francisco.

With work like Scriptures hot on the heels of a just-released auspicious first PhotoBook Anthem, Oji Haynes has already reached another new plateau. I’ll be among those watching with interest where he, and his Art, goes next. 

So, Beware: That Art gallery staff member you see or speak to on your next visit may well be an Artist whose work you’ll be going to see one day soon. It’s happened to me. More than once.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Summer in the City” by John Sebastian and Lovin’ Spoonful from 1966. This vintage video could have been shot here this week-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

Stepping Into “Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks”

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

The numeric convergence begins. August 28, 2013, eleven years ago next month- – The last time I stood in front of the real thing- Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, at Hopper Drawings at the old Whitney Museum. A moment later, a friend snapped a picture of me standing next to it. Would I ever get closer to it? Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

The Edward Hopper/NighthawkNYC Convergence, 1-

July 15, 2015, nine years ago this month, in my very first piece, “Welcome to the Night,” I mentioned I’ve always related to that figure sitting by himself with his back to the viewer in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942. The one that no one ever talks about. Why is he even in the Painting?  Well, he’s really only half in it; his left side completely blends into the black background. So, what’s his deal? Did his date go bad? Is he worried about the recent outbreak of World War II? Is he waiting for the lady in red to lose her guy? (The couple are likely Edward & Jo Hopper stand-ins.1).  Well, he’s there and I’m glad he is. He’s also a witness to everything going on inside, close enough to the other subjects to hear their conversations. In Nighthawks, he has THE ideal seat to see and hear everything that’s really going on, that the rest of us can only imagine.

I’ve been that guy too many times to count, out on my own late at night in Hopper’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. I relate to that “witness” aspect of him, too. After all, isn’t that what I’m doing here; being a witness to the Art, Photography, Music  books I’ve experienced?. So, I named this site NighthawkNYC after him. Hopper’s Painting is titled “Nighthawks.”

But, what would it be like to be him?

Triple self-portrait, August 28, 2013. “That shape is my shade, there where I used to stand,” as I quoted Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues” in my very first piece, “Welcome to the Night,” on July 15, 2015.

Convergence 2-

On July 29, 2019, five years ago this week, I published “My Search For Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks Diner,” chronicling my decades-long quest to find the iconic eatery/drinkery. It’s turned out to be my most popular piece thus far.

This past Sunday, July 21st, I finally found it!

It happened to be on a triangular corner- Check.
It happened to be in the West Village, not all that far from 3 Washington Square, where Edward & Jo Hopper lived for half a century- both key criteria the real deal has to fit- Check.
But, it was not where I’d looked for it as I wrote in the piece. It was out in the open! Without a roof!?

I let that slide. After all, in the Painting we really can’t see the ceiling, just the light coming down, and it’s a one-story building shown at night. Maybe there was no roof? Imagine that. “Maybe. Maybe not,” I hear you saying.

The famous “Only 5c Phillies America’s No. 1 Cigar” sign was up top- Check.
The outside was painted in that familiar green- Check.

Everything looked like it was supposed to. Am I dreaming? Then, a nice gent named Nilo beckoned me inside!

As I approached the counter, about to take “my”place- the only seat I was interested in taking,  all the details long engrained in my memory were right in front of me.

It was empty. Wow. Perfect! I could look around and drink it all in without feeling self-conscious. Wait!…AM I conscious? A coffee will wake me up. I’m in the right place.

Living a dream…Kenn Sava, left, Lucas, right. July 21, 2024, Meatpacking District, NYC. Photo by Nilo for NighthawkNYC.com.

I could take the seat of my alter ego in peace, without that pesky couple, she in the flame-red dress, with her male companion, who for the past 82 years have gotten all the attention, in the room. I was free to finally chat with the counterman. His name was Lucas and I told him how long I’ve been looking for the place- and even wrote about just that, the nice weather, what else was going on this weekend. You know, small talk; the kind of stuff strangers talk about when they’re suddenly thrust together. But, we weren’t total strangers in the classic sense. We both knew why we were here. As he went back and forth to his duties, I just kept looking around, drinking it all in. Wow. I’m sitting inside of Nighthawks!

There’s the famous two large coffee urns.
There’s the yellow wall with that mysterious door.
The bar was the familiar brown.
The classic white ceramic coffee cups, glass salt & peppers, and napkin dispensers were all around giving me a feeling of familiarity and “home.” I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been looking at them for so long in Painted form.

So real, you could reach out and touch them. Of course, I did…

And, I got to experience it from THE seat, to see what “he” saw and ponder him anew. Maybe “he” was me in a prior life. If so, how many people have gotten to relive a moment from a prior life?

This MUST be the place! FINALLY! I can’t wait to rush home and tell readers I found it! What a scoop!

A close call with a bike running a Walk sign on the walk home snapped me out of it and back to reality. As I reviewed my pictures to make sure my phone was OK, it turns out I had come upon something called “Step Into Hopper.” 

Convergence 3-

After nine years of “riffing” on Nighthawks in my Banner, it finally came to life! The Whitney Museum & the Meatpacking District got together to mount “Step Into Hopper,” along with fabrication by Theresa Rivera Design and an exceptional, welcoming, staff, to “recreate” Nighthawks, 1942, Early Sunday Morning, 1930, and his eternally mysterious Soir Bleu, 1914– within one mile or so of the original sites of two of them2.

“Early Sunday Morning,” a take-off on Hopper’s 1930 timeless masterpiece of a street in my neighborhood, a few blocks away, on Seventh Avenue between West 15th & 16th Streets. Notice the shadow from the barber pole goes the “wrong way,” as it does in the Painting. People who live there know the sun never shines in that direction on 7th & 15/16th!

Convergence 4-

It truly was a moment frozen in time. Something out of a dream… I ended “My Search For Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks Diner”  with a quote from the song I chose as the Soundtrack for the piece, “I Saw You In A Dream” by Japanese House….

“I saw you in a dream
You had stayed the same
You were beckoning me
Said that I had changed”

How prescient.

Before I “changed.” Take away the side addition, and the former Rivera Cafe on 7th Avenue was my “Oh my gosh!” moment, as I wrote in “My Search…” Seen on July 23, 2018- convegently, six years ago this week.

In reading the mail that continues to come in on the piece, it seems that many people share my dream of unexpectedly coming across the Nighthawks Diner and having an “Oh my gosh!” moment of discovery.

Kenn Sava “inside” “Soir Bleu” (the Painting seen on the sandwich sign above) with the wonderful Tillie the Clown proving every bit as mysterious and stunning as the figure in the 1914 Painting done in Paris. Photo by Gregory for NighthawkNYC.com

A lot of folks seem to want to step inside, sit down at the counter for a bit, and just live in the Painting; experience it from the inside  even for a few moments. As if that might help solve its mystery…On Sunday, I came as close as I’m likely going to to having my “Nighthawks” moment.

A few moments after the Photo of me and Lucas inside “Nighthawks” was taken, I looked around for him and couldn’t find him. Lucas disappeared.

Of course he did.

Convergence 142-

Today, as I write this on July 22nd is Edward Hopper’s 142nd Birthday. Happy Birthday, big guy (Hopper was 6’5″). Thanks for saving me a seat in Art heaven. A short visit is probably the best I can hope for.

*- As it was for “Welcome to the Night” 9 years ago, the Soundtrack for this piece is  “Deacon Blues,” by Steely Dan (my “Forgotten Songs I Will Love Forever #2″, which remains the Anthem of NighthawkNYC.com, from their immortal album Aja, 1977. (I have no idea why the guy who made tihis video shows their album Gaucho. Ignore that- it’s Track 3 on Aja.)

“Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations, sensations
That stagger the mind.”

If the Nighthawks Diner had a jukebox, I like to think “Deacon Blues” would be on it.

Undying thanks to Kevin Callahan for the tip, the iconic Lucas for the coffee & the convo, Tillie the Clown for the Tillie Experience, Milo, Wendy, Alisa and Gregory for the Photos, their consideration and kindness in creating an experience I’ll never forget. A tip of the Fedora to the Meatpacking District, the Whitney Museum & Theresa Rivera Design for mounting Step Into Hopper. Push by Lana Hattan (9 years of NighthawkNYC.com– it’s ALL her fault!)

Be sure to see my 3-part series on the 2022-23 blockbuster Edward Hopper’s New York which begins here.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

  1. Cone to think of it, why are both guys wearing their Fedoras inside? Preparing for quick exits? ↩
  2. The original site of Nighthawks remains up for discussion, as I wrote about, but most likely was inspired by locations in the nearby West Village. ↩

NighthawkNYC.com is 9!

By Kenn Sava.

I know I’ve said this on previous anniversaries after rough years, but there were times this past year I never thought I’d get NighthawkNYC to its 9th Birthday, July 15th, 2024. The most recent in a year of ailments and illnesses was not being able to see in the intermediate distance, which includes my computer screen, for almost six weeks, while having a torn ligament in my foot which has had me using a cane, severely limiting what I could do, while frantically trying to avoid surgery. But? Seven pairs of glasses, and 4 Podiatrists later, here we are!

On the other hand, I somehow managed to publish THIRTY-TWO full-length pieces in Year 9. Better than one every two weeks. And, I was a Finalist for the 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Award.

It all reminds me of what a lot of Artists go through. It’s not easy doing anything creative, and I hear a lot of stories of the travails involved in trying to get your work shown or seen. I admire anyone who is in there trying. It’s not all that different from doing something like this. There are the big media outlets, the “established” Art writers, and everyone else has to work extra hard to be heard. I try to ignore the “realities” involved in writing about Art, and keep focusing on the Art, but they eventually catch up with me. They haven’t sunk me yet!

Still, I’m lucky to still be here. I’m lucky that more and more people continue to find NighthawkNYC.com each and every year. I’m lucky to have so many friends I’ve never met who drop me a line, or who have followed my pieces going all the way back to July, 2015. And I’m very lucky to have the support of Artists I admire. 

It seems to me that doing anything creative, or doing something like this, has to be done without the overriding expectation (or need) of making money doing it. Making money from it was not my intention going in to starting NHNYC, and it only became a factor when I came close to going broke. My solution is to sell off my personal collection of books, music and Art (as you see in the postscript to each piece) to keep going, to keep the site FREE for everyone as it’s always been, AND to keep it ad-free! I’m sure you know in your travels around the world wide web that there are VERY few sites these days that are either free or ad-free, and almost none are both. The reason is it’s almost impossible to afford to do one, let alone both. These past nine years I’ve learned that the hard way. 

Need I say that your support is critical- however you are able to support my work and NighthawkNYC.com – IF you feel it’s worthy of your support. Here are some options- Donations via PayPal are gratefully accepted. My collections are available for purchase. Posting links to pieces you feel others should know about on social, or telling others about NHNHC helps! Any and all of that is incredibly appreciated. 

Thank You, again, (and in advance) for reading my pieces, and for your support.
Universe willing, Onward to Year 10!
Kenn. 

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

Ed Ruscha & The Two-Sided Coin of Influence

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- Unless otherwise credited.).

This is the third and final part of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then. Part 1  is here. Part 2 is here.

1- Heads

One door closed, another opened. Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, Oil on canvas, seen at MoMA. Ed Ruscha/Now Then is now open there. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

Ed Ruscha/Now Then is a memory for those of us who saw it at MoMA from September 10, 2023 to January 15th of this year. It’s a memory in the making for those who are seeing it now at LACMA, seen above in Ed Ruscha’s 1965-8 nebulous “portrait” of it (which I discussed in Part 1), or will be seeing it until it closes there on October 6th. They’ll be pleased to know it’s a show with staying power, a show I continue to relive and think about on a daily basis, six months after it closed here. After following the trail of his devlopment in Part 1, “Ed Ruscha’s Head Scratchers,” seeing some echoes of the work of Artists past, I began to wonder… Every Artist I’ve come across has had influences. Who influenced Ed Ruscha? As the show was up, and now after it ended here, that question lingered.

Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, or later. One Artist Ed Ruscha has repeatedly expressed his admiration for is Duchamp, who he met in the early 1960s. There are numerous version of L.H.O.O.Q. since the 1919 original. I chose this one because t contains all the elements of the original, which I cannot find (if you have  let me know)- the mustache, the goatee, and the famous letters all of which Duchamp added to a Mona Lisa postcard. Duchamp once said that L.H.O.O.Q. means “there is fire down below,” though I’ve seen other definitions.  *- Photographer unknown.

“Duchamp had quite a sizable influence on me from a pictorial standpoint and from an emotional standpoint,” Ed Ruscha (Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information After the Signal, P.324).

Ed Ruscha has not written an autobiography, so his book, Leave Any Information After the Signal, a collection of “Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages” from 1960 to 2000 is the closest thing we have to a primary written source. In addition to just looking, I turned to it, along with the numerous other interviews he’s given over his six-decade plus career, for insights.

As seen in Part 1– Encountering Johns’s  Target with Four Faces in a black & white reproduction in a 1957 magazine was, he said, an ‘atomic bomb’ in his training, ‘a stranger fruit’ that he ‘saw as something that didn’t seem to follow the history of art. My teachers said it was not art. ‘I didn’t need to see the colors or the size…’ ‘I was especially taken with the fact that it was symmetrical, which was just absolutely taboo in art school- you didn’t make anything symmetrical…Art school was modernism, it was asymmetry, it was giant brush strokes…it was all these other things that were gestural rather than cerebral. So I began moving to things that had more of a premeditation1.’” Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955, Encaustic on newspaper and cloth over canvas surrounded by four tinted-plaster faces in wood box with hinged front. Seen in Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror at the Whitney in 2021.

Besides naming Duchamp, Jasper Johns and his counterpart Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha hasn’t addressed the subject of influences all that often.

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe), 1929, Oil on canvas. (Not in the show.) *-LACMA Photo

Pondering the visual evidence, the first name that came to mind was Rene Magritte, 1898-1967, a well-known Belgian Artist who also had a long career and touched on a number of subjects Ed Ruscha has, while sharing his fondness for taking the familiar out of context (which Mr. Ruscha does with words, objects and places). He also incorporated words. Though often labelled a “Surrealist,” his work touches on any number of other realms and styles of Painting, which made him ahead of his time. As a result, his influence is extraordinary and ongoing. Time and again, I’d look at an Ed Ruscha, or a section of one, and think “Magritte,” beginning with Actual Size, 1962, which I showed in Part 1, which echoes Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, 1929 better known by the famous words it includes, “This is Not a Pipe2.” The Magritte seems to echo his contemporary, Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q., from 1919.

Salvador Dalí, Open Field with Ball in Centre and Mountains in  Rear, Study for the Walt Disney film Destino, 1948, Oil on masonite, left. Ed Ruscha, Painkillers, Tranquilizers, Olive, 1969, right. (*- Dali from the Dalí & Film MoMA catalog. Ed Ruscha as I saw it in the show.)3.

Of him, Mr. Ruscha said, “Yes, Magritte did influence me, but it came the other way around—what I call 360-degree influence. That’s influence from a person’s thoughts and force and not from his pictures, which the person being influenced has not seen, until later on. The same with Dalí. I’ve been influenced by Dalí, but it’s been through other sources. Because I’ll go back, and I’ll be working on something and I’ll see a picture of Dalí’s I’ve never seen before, and there is my work. (P.56).” I wrote about seeing Dalí in Rauscha in Part 1– before I found that quote.

Surrealism Soaped and Scrubbed, Ed Ruscha’s cover design for Artforum 5, No. 1, Special Issue: Surrealism, September, 1966. 

What about “Surrealism’s” influence, that of the group of European Artists so labelled?

Ed Ruscha was Art Director for Artforum Magazine from 1966-19724. His cover for the September, 1966 “Surrealism” Special Edition I find fascinating, particularly in regards to Ed Ruscha’s Art, overall. While this image has almost nothing to do with “historical Surrealism,” I find it ripe with the “kind” of surrealism (small “s,” which he also uses here) I see in Ed Ruscha’s work, while also being another of his trademarked play on words. There is nothing in “historical Surrealism” that influenced this (as far as I know), and so it’s another work that makes me wonder what, if anything, inspired it. On page 349 of Leave Any Information After the Signal, Mr. Ruscha denies the influence of the Surrealists handling of light on his work. That’s all he has to say about it.

The Back of Hollywood, 1977, Oil on canvas. Was Ed Ruscha the first to Paint words backwards? Probably not.

What about influences on his Word Painting? In After the Signal, he said,  “Well, there’ve been so many artists who have used words throughout the centuries really, but the ones I enjoy are mostly from the twentieth century. Say, Kurt Schwitters. [. . .] 5” On page 115, Paul Karlstrom directly asks Mr. Ruscha,  “Who were your heroes then, your role models?” He replied, “Well, I guess de Kooning was, and Franz Kline. Franz Kline had a lot to say at that particular time, and so they were more or less the passwords. You just emulated them, almost automatically. Then if you couldn’t emulate them you weren’t really on the right track. I still think that. But the work of Johns and Rauschenberg marked a departure in the sense that their work was premeditated.” It sounds like he was referring to his early days as a student under the Abstract Expressionist influenced Chouinard faculty in the late 1950s, as once again, it’s hard for me to see the influence of de Kooning or Kline in Ed Ruscha’s work.

Joan Miró, Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams 1925, Oil on canvas. *- Met Museum Photo

The Surrealists began as a literary “movement,” that experimented with “automatic writing.” Later, their influence spread to Painting. In Miró’s Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams, it comes full circle. Part of the Artist’s “peinture-poésie” (painting-poetry) series, this strikes me as a forerunner or precursor to the Word Paintings of Ed Ruscha. Yet, I have no idea if he saw it, or other works in Mirós series,  or when.

America’s Future, 1977, Oil on canvas. The title is shown in the next picture.

The feeling I’m left with is that these Artists “effected” him in ways outside of a direct visual influence. They are, what I call, “echoes.” What Ed Ruscha called “360 degree” influences. As for the stated influences, in Part 2, I mentioned that Thomas Cole was the influence on Mr. Ruscha’s Course of Empire series, from who he borrowed the name of the series. It seems to me the rest of his influences, if any, remain up for conjecture. Still, taking him at his work on possible influences would leave Ed Ruscha remarkably original.

Detail. Though Painted 18 years before he began his Course of Empire series I showed in Part 2, seeing this made me wonder if this work should be appended to the end of the series, i.e. the final outcome of it.

2- Tails

Turning the influence coin over, however, 67 years, and counting, into one of the most remarkable careers in American Art history, at this moment in time it’s hard to think of another Modern & Contemporary Artist, let alone an American Artist, who is more influential than Ed Ruscha is. In fact, it’s impossible for me to list here all the realms in which his influence can be seen. Those that come to mind the quickest include-

-His role in furthering the breaking of the strangle hold of Abstract Expressionism in Painting in the early 1960s.

-His unique way of incorporating words and typography into his Art.

-His Paintings of L.A. and the American West6.

No place on the planet has more Artist’s books than NYC’s Printed Matter, home of 15 ,000 books they’ve created. How many are/were inspired in part or wholly by Ed Ruscha? I don’t know the total but I keep finding more every time I go in. May 6, 2024.

-His ground-breaking Artist’s books/PhotoBooks. (Is it a stretch to say he’s played a defining role in the Contemporary Artist’s Book & PhotoBook phenomenon? I don’t think so.)

-His style of nonjudgmental roadside and aerial Photography.

-Entire genres of Painting, Photography and books have sprung up around his work.

Jeff Brouws, Various Small Books Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha, 2013. 288 pages of books, and just books, by other Artists influenced by Ed Ruscha, and it’s now 11 years old!

To this point, at least two substantial books, including the book above, have been published focused solely on his influence! All of this is even more impressive (or mind-boggling) when you consider Ed Ruscha is still with us and going strong at 86. Usually, the influence of Artists is something referred to in the past tense.

-His unique way of incorporating words and typography into his Art.

Ed Ruscha’s presence is so pronounced at Printed Matter, they even have a well-worn box just for books he’s influenced. ‘Nuff said. No, that’s not a copy of Mr. Ruscha’s very rare Twentysix Gasoline Stations. It’s Michalis Pincher’s 2009 homage to it, which “borrows” Ruscha’s cover verbatim.

All of this, also, makes it harder to fathom that Ed Ruscha/Now Then was the first large Ed Ruscha show here in 41 years7, and his first show at MoMA! That makes the extent of his influence that much more impressive. Suffice it to say it’s a lot easier to see Ed Ruscha’s influence than it might be to see the influence of others on his work.is so pronounced.

The saddest moment of the entire 4 month run of Ed Ruscha/ Now Then: the show’s entrance, moments after it closed for the last time on January 15, 2024. I saw it on its first preview day, and I was there when it closed for good. Shows are fugacious events. The ending of a great show is always sad; like saying “goodbye” to a friend. One you’ll never see again.

-Takeaways

In addition to providing an opportunity to ponder the scope of his influence, Now Then provides the chance to assess his achievement and his place among the important Artists of both the 20th and 21st centuries. Ed Ruscha strikes me as an Artist who is continually moving forward to the point that he is a seemingly endless innovator. Ed Ruscha/Now Then provided a rare chance to see the craft behind the mystery his work evokes; to watch the Artist move on an almost step-by-step basis from his beginnings though each of his phases, with a focus on his recurring themes and his innovations.

Yet, he’s also an Artist who’s extremely aware of his, and our, pasts, and his Art stays in touch with it often in surprising ways. Ed Ruscha has never stood still long enough to have any box his work gets put in fit for very long. The Ed Ruscha box is the only one that fits an Artist as extraordinarily diverse as Mr. Ruscha has been and continues to be. Ed Ruscha/Now Then is a show that will live long in memory, and no doubt, influence.

Part 1 of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then is here. Part 2 is here.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is  “Goodnight My Love,” as performed by Paul Anna. In 2017, MOCA commissioned a short documentary on two themes in Ed Ruscha’s work (the text of which is here). In the resulting piece, Ed Ruscha says, “I’m gonna play this tune called ‘Goodnight My Love’ and this represents everrything I felt about California when I first came out here…” Because he doesn’t specify which recording he’s going to play, I chose the Paul Anka version from 1969.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

  1. Alexandra Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, P.15 ↩
  2. I cannot think of Rene Magritte without thinking of the singular Photographer, Duane Michals. When I met him, I quickly shifted the chat from Photography to Painting. He rightly gloated over the fact that he had met and Photographed his three favorite Painters- Balthus, Giorgio de Chirico, and Rene Magritte, with who he did a terrific PhotoBook, that he graciously signed for me. All three are under-appreciated in my book, and remain among my favorites, too. ↩
  3. In spite of being among the best known, in my view, Dalí may be the most under-appreciated Artist of the 20th century, as anyone who saw the incredible Salvador Dalí Centennial Exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum in 2005 knows. It’s partially his own fault, as the endless fantastic stunts he put on overshadows the appreciation of his Art in my opinion. History will eventually fix that, I believe. ↩
  4. Alexandra Schwartz, P.35 ↩
  5. Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information After the Signal, P. 324 ↩
  6. Along with those of, and quite different from,Georgia O’Keeffe. ↩
  7. As I mentioned in Part 1, the last big Ed Ruscha show here was the traveling retrospective, The Works of Ed Ruscha, which came to the Whitney Museum in 1982! ↩

NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2024: LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

The NighthawkNYC.com NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2024: LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity, Published by the Museum of Modern Art

When I met her at the Museum of Modern Art on May 10th, at the Preview of her stunning early mid-career retrospective, I told Ms. Frazier her book, LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity, was my NoteWorthy PhotoBook of the Year. Yes, the year. Even though we’re barely half way through 2024 as I write this and there are still six full months to go). With all due respect to all the books not yet released as well as those I have not yet seen, Ms. Frazier  gets my 2024 Trophy as most recommended PhotoBook for her powerful & urgently important book, published to accompany and expand on the show of the same name. Frankly, she deserves a medal for the work she has done.

LaToya Ruby Frazier proudly showing me her new book, Monuments of Soilidarity at MoMA, May 10, 2024

Having begun taking Photographs at 16, she seemed to find her voice almost immediately. “I had decided when I was a teenager that I had to make work that was socially and politically conscious1,” she said.

Auspicious beginnings. The Notion of Family, 2016.

Her early work focused on 3 generations of her family and life in her hometown of Braddock, PA in her debut PhotoBook, The Notion of Family, in 2016, which announced her arrival to the world in memorable fashion. She subsequently turned her attention to the coalminers in the Borinage, Belgium, in And From the Coaltips a Tree Will Rise, in 2017. Returning the U.S., she documented the closing of the G.M. plant in Lordstown, Ohio in The Last Cruze, 2019, and the man-made water crisis in Flint, Michigan in Flint Is Family In Three Acts, 2022 in book form. All four books are NoteWorthy in their own right.

MoMA, May 12, 2024

Monuments of Solidarity is an overview of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work to date in what is a Show of the Year candidate along with Käthe Kollwitz, which happens to be installed right next to Monuments of Solidarity at MoMA. Monuments takes the viewer right up to the work shown in her most recent NYC gallery show, More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland, 2021-22, which I wrote about here. The piece, which consists of 18 Inkjet panels on IV stands, was recently fittingly acquired by the forward-looking Baltimore Museum.

Partial installation view, More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland, 2021-22, as installed at MoMA May 12, 2024. Each piece is in 2 parts. On the right-hand panel is a text written by the subject of her Photo on the left panel. You can see it installed at Gladstone Gallery in my look at it here.

There are a lot of great Artists in this country. You have your list. I have mine. There are also a lot of important Artists working here today. One thing that sets LaToya Ruby Frazier apart, in my view, is that, in addition to her poignant Photography, she brings her subjects right into her work. Though hers is the overall vision, the results feel collaborative. This serves to make the results unlike most of what’s come before.

Installation view. Flint Is Family section. May 12, 2024 including more compelling texts from her subjects accompanying her Photos.

After posing for the picture with her book, she asked me what I thought of her show. I told her I was very moved by the Photos she took with and about her Grandmother, now well-known images from her instant classic The Notion of Family. In them we see the Artist’s vision and talent were stunningly present from an early age, as if she was born with a camera in her hand, while we also get insights into her and her family’s life in her hometown. Braddock, PA, which in turn fueled her passion to inspire change and to right wrongs.

UPMC Braddock Hospital and Holland Avenue Parking Lot, 2011. The community hospital in ruins, where her grandmother passed.

After we see the passing of her Grandmother, the show took an immediate turn and from then on was focused on depicting crises effecting “everyday” citizens, working class people, and issues of race. 

MoMA, May 10, 2024

Monuments of Solidarity is not only a “PhotoBook.” It delves deeply into its subjects in a way I find every bit as powerful as her Photographs are. This is evidence of LaToya’s extraordinary way with people. Watching her at MoMA, she took the time to have an actual moment with everyone she encountered. Even me (we’d never met).

LaToya Ruby Frazier Takes on Levis, 2011, Stills from the Video which premiered on Art21. LaToya took issue with Levi’s after they featured her hometown, Braddock, PA, in an “Everybody’s Work Is Equally Important” ad campaign. As part of the campaign, Levi’s  opened a public Photo Workshop in SoHo. In response, LaToya put on a pair of Levi’s and in a performance in front of the Levi’s Photo Workshop, preceded to destroy them while wearing them. The intense Video is looped in the show. From the book, Monuments of Solidarity.

LaToya Ruby Frazier, the person, makes every bit as good, and memorable, an impression as her work does, though the intensity we see in pieces like her incredible Levi’s Performance Video remained under the surface.

MoMA, May 10, 2024

I think her people skills, which isn’t the right term for someone who is as genuine as Mr. Frazier is…make that her humanity, is a central reason why her Art is so powerful and so direct, project after project. LaToya gets to the heart of the issue and speaks to why it is important- for those directly involved, and for all of us, like very few Artists working today can.

Partial installation view. The Last Cruze, 2019 (recently acquired by MoMA), looks at the last Chevy Cruze to be made in Lordstown, Ohio after G.M. halted production and closed the plant, throwing all the workers out of their jobs.

Ms. Frazier’s work is compared by some to that of the F.S.A. (Farm Services Administration) Photographers of the 1930s, including Dorothea Lange. As I ‘ve showed, one thing of many that sets her work apart is that she foregrounds the experiences of her subjects right alongside her Photographs in texts they authored; something the FSA Artists didn’t do. In fact, I can’t think of any Artist who has done it as consistently as LaTory Ruby Frazier has.

On this spread from The Last Cruze PhotoBook the subjects of Photos accompany them in pieces they wrote.

She gives many, maybe event most, of the actual people she depicts in her projects, their own voice. Quite often their words take up more space in her books and in this exhibition than her Photos do! I can’t say I’ve ever seen that before, either. In the literal sense, her work truly is a collection of  “moments of solidarity” between Artist and subject.

Entrance to at MoMA as seen on May 10, 2024. The show is up through July 20th.

Two asides- Two coincidences struck me while preparing this piece. First, LaToya Ruby Frazier – Monuments of Soilidarity is installed right across the hall from the equally terrific Käthe Kollwitz at MoMA. Walking through one, and then the other, it was impossible for me to ignore how much in common they share. I wish I had asked LaToya what she made of Ms. Kollwitz’s show. Both Artists have made the “Art of social purpose” the center of their work.

“I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate. It is my duty to voice the sufferings of men, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high.” Käthe Kollwitz, 1867-1945, 2.

Her first major retrospective at an NYC museum (How is that possible?) makes an open and shut case for Käthe Kollwitz as one of the major Artists of her time, something that has been well-known in Germany and elsewhere, making it past time for the rest of the world to catch up.

Preparing this piece also reminded me of another young woman Artist who I selected as my NoteWorthy Art Book of 2024: Es Devlin. Though they’re from different parts of the world, and work in different mediums, they’re both making extraordinary inroads into the world with their work. As I wrote in my look at Es’s book, An Atlas of Es Devlin, she’s garnered unheard of media acclaim. LaToya was just named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2024.” That’s pretty amazing, of course, but I bet it doesn’t come with a cool Owl statuette!  ; )

Woman of Steel Button Pin, 2017

“Woman of Steel” reads the button on the cover. Though she’s not a steelworker, she could easily wear one and it would completely suit her in the literal sense.

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Poverty” by Yemi Alade, from her album, Woman of Steel, fittingly, performed here live-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 1/2 years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. “Latoya Ruby Frazier Takes on Levi’s,” Art21 ↩
  2. As quoted, here. ↩

Ed Ruscha’s Wall Rockets

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

This is Part 2 of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then at MoMA. Part 1 is here, Part 3 is here.

From the late 1950s, through the early 1960s Ed Ruscha made regular trips back and forth between Oklahoma City, where he grew up, and L.A., his adopted home since the late 1950s. In 19621, he Photographed the gas stations that caught his eye on these journeys with his trusty Yashika Twin-reflex camera, taking 60 or 70 Photographs2. In an interview in 1973 he said, “What used to belong to the Navaho and Apache Indians now belongs to the white man and he’s got gas stations out there. So, I started seeing it as cultural curiosities.”

“I’d always wanted to make a book of some kind.”

He continues. “When I was in Oklahoma I got a brainstorm in the middle of the night to do this little book called Twentysix Gasoline Stations. I knew the title. I knew it would be photographs of twenty-six gasoline stations3.” “The first book came out of a play with words. The title came before I even thought about the pictures. I like the word ‘gasoline’ and I like the specific quality of ‘twenty-six4.'”  “Months went into the planning of that. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by loosening up. You know, not gotten so concerned with how I wanted the thing to look. I changed the form about fifty times at the printer’s5.” He self-published Twentysix Gasoline Stations in 1963 (although the title page states 1962).

You’re looking at a revolution. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963, revolutionized the Artist book, the PhotoBook, and street-side Phtography, with unique design, turning gas station Photography into a genre in the process. This copy was hanging for visitors to peruse, which was somewhat surprising as it’s now a rare book- even this second edition copy is worth hundreds of dollars. Knowing all of it from reproductions, this was the first time I was able to page through an actual copy of it. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click on any for full size.

It’s an Artist’s book/PhotoBook whose influence is now incalculable.

Published in an edition of 400 copies, a case can be made that it ‘s the most influential PhotoBook of the contemporary period after Robert Frank’s The Americans (which the Artist acknowledges as an influence). Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with its “industrial” look and feel stood at odds with the frequently hand-made Artist’s book norm to the time. Virtually every aspect of the Artist’s book was reimagined, from the typography and text layout on the cover to the sparseness of the interior contents, with a lack of text save for image titles.

Believe it or not, this is one of the most influential Photographs in Modern & Contemporary Photography. STANDARD, ARMADILLO, TX, perhaps the key image in Twentysix Gasoline Stations, went on to have multiple lives of its own, inspiring numerous Ed Ruscha Paintings, Drawings & Prints, as well as the work of other Artists.

Speaking of the end result, he said-

“I realized that for the first time this book had an inexplicable thing I was looking for, and that was a kind of a “Huh?” That‘s what I’ve always worked around. All it is is a device to disarm somebody with my particular message6.”

Having immersed myself in PhotoBooks for the past 7 years, and Art books most of my life, it’s impossible for me to overstate the influence Twentysix Gasoline Stations has had, and continues to have, on the Art world. It turned Art & PhotoBook creation and publishing on its head, rewriting what a book could be and who could make one. He’s said he meant the pictures to be “like a collection of readymades7,” a term and genre Marcel Duchamp put on the Art map. Still, it received a mixed reaction when it was released, including famously being rejected by the Library of Congress.

Standard Station, Amarillo, TX, 1963, Oil on canvas, 64 15/16 x 121 13/16 inches. The “locomotive” compositional device, seen in Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962, in Part 1, returns, splitting the composition in two, just the beginning of what’s fascinating about this.

“I would say I came to painting through photography,” Ed Ruscha8

The STANDARD, ARMADILLO, TX, Photograph begat the Standard Station, Amarillo, TX Painting in 1963. Obviously, the Photo just shown has been reworked, reimagined, or he based this on another Photo. Whatever the case may be, the resulting composition seen here would subsequently take many forms and become iconic. Standard Station, Ten Cent Western Being Torn in Half, below, followed a year later.The Paintings begat Standard Station, Amarillo, TX Prints, with Standard Station, Amarillo, TX Drawings being created along the way. So ubiquitous did they become that gas station Paintings and gas station Photography are now, basically, his genres. Sooner or later, everyone who shoots or Paints a gas station is going to be compared to Ed Ruscha. Many, like Vik Muniz, openly acknowledge the influence.

What strikes me are the abstract elements, like the selective detailing- you can read the prices on the gas pumps, but detail disappears on everything behind them, creating a surreal experience (the “realistic” gas pumps offset against the featureless building behind them), under that big red sign whose white lettering, offset against the engulfing darkness, feels bold.

Standard Station, Ten Cent Western Being Torn in Half, 1964, Oil on canvas, 65 x 121 1/2 inches. Mr. Ruscha has likened  the comic flying off the canvas to the upper right to a “coda” in Music. For me, it looks like debris, garbage, pollution. In this piece, the featureless building has light and shadows added to it. Once again, the numbers and text on the gas pumps are very legible.

At the time, Ed Ruscha shot them, gas stations were bastions of the new found freedom of the open road and the catalyst of the massive post-war westward exodus that the Artist, himself, became a part of. Over time, gas stations would be seen differently as the toll of pollution and environmental decay mounted.

Ed Ruscha’s second most famous Artist book/PhotoBook. A copy of the legendary Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, published in one long accordion fold. Ed Ruscha put a tripod on the back of a truck and went up and down Sunset Strip taking one Photo after another until he had shot every building on both sides of the street. Here, we get one direction on the top of the page, with what’s across the street synchronized and mirrored along the bottom.

Further books followed- 14 more to 1972, the most famous of which is Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, another ground-breaking work. Ed Ruscha has stated that part of the reason he went west after high school, instead of east, was because of the glamour of L.A. Here, he shows the “glamour” of the famous Sunset Strip in all its “glory.” Then, in 1973, he shot all 12 miles of Hollywood Blvd. In 2004, he reshot Hollywood Blvd in color, and paired with the 1972 images, they became the book THEN & NOW in 2005. It’s one example of Ed Ruscha combining his love of the effects of time with revisiting his past subjects.

In all the acclaim he receives I almost never hear credit given the Artist for his exceptional Painting technique- the equal of anyone else’s of his time. Right from the start, Painting after Painting reveals sublime subtlety and under-appreciated skill.  Then Now provided a glorious chance to study his, often large, Paintings up close and marvel at his skill and taste. It also provides the extremely rare chance to see works of the same subject side by side, particularly two of his famous Standard Gasoline Station Paintings.

Shows present once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to see great works united from distant parts of the globe for a brief time. That’s why I waited over an hour for the crowds to part to get this shot. More than likely, I’ll never see these two great Standard Stations together again. Both of these also feature the “speeding locomotive” compositional device seen in the Large Trademark Painting, which adds to the somewhat surreal overall effect, wonder and mystery.

Further to the Large Trademark Painting, Ed Ruscha also began Painting the sights of L.A., which again seems to be his domain to the point that I can’t think of anyone who Painted the city before he did. (I’m sure there were. Right?)

“Being in Los Angeles has had little or no effect on my work. I could have done it anywhere.” Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information at the Signal, Statement in “West Coast Style”

Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, 53 1/2 x 133. 1/2 inches. Fun fact- Guess where Ed Ruscha/Now Then reopened on April 7, 2024 after closing at MoMA? You’re looking at it.

Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, like most of Ed Ruscha’s work, has been the subject of endless conjecture. Over the years, the Artist has made a few statements about it, including this one, “… There’s no great message here. It’s just a picture to look at9.” That might be hard to believe. After graduating college, he took that trip to Europe I mentioned in Part 1, and came away disappointed at the lack of Contemporary Art on view in the museums. Back home, things weren’t much better. Contemporary Art was slow to gain admission to the hallowed halls of institutions here. Is it a stretch to think this was somewhere on his mind when he Painted this? I tend to think it was in there somewhere. The Watts riots had recently taken place. The Now Then Catalogue has this to say about it-

“Ruscha’s characteristic denial of content ignores the fact that not far from his studio in mid-August 1965, just a few months after the inauguration of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the city of Los Angeles was burning10.”

Ed Ruscha said, “The plain truth behind the Watts riots is that the riots themselves were good and beneficial and healthy regardless of loss of life. The Watts riots nationalized sympathy for a gigantic racial injustice11.”

He soon set a number of other sites on fire in his Paintings, including the an Amarillo Standard Station (which wasn’t in the show), and Norm’s, which was.

Norm’s, La Cienega, on Fire, 1964, Oil and pencil on canvas. The work features a complete lack of detail, save for the letters “ORMS” on the sign.  It’s interesting how the flames follow the “locomotive” line. Without those letters (which themselves are meaningless without the title), this Painting would be a completely abstract composition of shapes and lines.

For someone who’s so closely associated with L.A., and has been for over 60 years, it’s strange that some of his most well-known work shows L.A. landmarks being destroyed or in ruins. For example, he has continued to “destroy” the Hollywood sign, in different ways, over and over again throughout his career. Still, his fame continued to rise as did his association with the city. In spite of all this (and possibly because of it), in 1978, a six-story(!) tall mural (also referred to as the “Ed Ruscha Monument”) of the Artist was created by the Artist Kent Twitchell, for who Ed Ruscha was “the unorthodox hero of the art world.” Would anyone else be able to “destroy” a city’s landmarks and then become seen as the figurehead of that city’s Art community with a monument created for them? It didn’t happen for Nero. Unlike the emperor, Ed Ruscha didn’t actually destroy anything, except maybe in his mind and on some large canvases.

Rancho, 1968, Oil on canvas, which looks like it was made with a liquid, surrounded by Fire, Sin, Rustic Pines, each 1967, Gunpowder on paper, from left to right.

This calls to mind another thing Ed Ruscha doesn’t get enough credit for: innovation. In the 3rd, 4th and 5th galleries we see pieces made out of strange and unprecedented materials. Unhappy with the possibilities of paint or pencil, the Artist began exploring the possibilities of Drawing with gunpowder! The results, as seen above, are incredible. He found he had more control with it. In 1969, the Artist began going further, using unconventional materials in his Stains Portfolio of seventy-five substances ranging from L.A. tap water to egg yolk.

Installation view of Chocolate Room, 1971/2023, Chocolate on paper sheets.

His Chocolate Room for the United States Pavilion at the 1970 Venice Biennale, and recreated in a room of its own in Now Then, followed. After that, he began using a number of these “other” materials in his Word and Phrase Paintings.

Cotton Puffs, 1974. Egg yolk on moiré fabric, 36 × 40″

Along with this constant experimentation came the inevitable failure, like the egg yokes in Cotton Puffs, 1974, fading quickly. Ed has been remarkably cool with these. Accepting them for what they are12. (And probably learning in the process.) Each has its place in his oeuvre, with all the examples on view seeming to hold up remarkably well over the years given they are experiments. By the mid-70s, he had gone back to pastel on paper13. Though the materials experiments were short-lived, it led me to peruse the 7 volumes of the Ed Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, published by Steidl (which is a bit ironic- or fitting- because Steidl has published the work of any number of Photographers who include gas stations in their work, including the entirety of the 3-volume set, Gas Stop, by David Freund), which revealed that this insatiable exploration of materials was only the tip of his creativity iceberg. Paging through it (which only goes up to 2011 at this point), I was amazed to discover that though he has created a number of works with ostensibly the same subject, no two are identical. The differences are obvious or subtle. Still, this speaks to Ed Ruscha’s seemingly endless powers of invention and refusal to repeat himself verbatim. I was stunned when I discovered this, which was completely unexpected (though I should have been tipped off by what his STANDARD STATION, ALBUQUERQUE Photograph became). Seeing this range and variety gave me a glimpse of insight into just what may be keeping him going and creating since the late 1950s.

Wall Rockets, 2000, Acrylic on canvas

Perhaps THE highlight of Ed Ruscha/Now Then at MoMA for me was the chance to see 6 of the 10 Paintings from the Artist’s Course of Empire series. As I’ve looked at his work over the past 24 years of this century, these have fascinated me as much as any other work by Mr. Ruscha. Created for, and then debuted, at the 2005 Venice Biennalle, they subsequently travelled to NYC where they were on display at the Whitney in a show of the same name, the last important (though small) Ed Ruscha show in NYC until Now Then. Somehow, I missed them there, so seeing 6 might be as close as I get to seeing them all.

3 works from Ed Ruscha’s Blue Collar series, 1993, on the 3 facing walls.

Occupying the large, penultimate gallery of the show, the Course of Empire Paintings strike me as serving as a touchstone for a number of Ed Ruscha themes. They also eerily presage what has been going on in much of NYC (and perhaps elsewhere) this decade, with a number of stores and businesses closing due to Covid, then more closing due to the realities of our post-Covid (if we are post-Covid) economy, many have changed hands in a short time. Others remain for rent. The shape, perspectives and lack of detailing on the one-story  buildings I find reminiscent of Standard Station, Ten Cent Western Being Torn in Half, seen earlier. In each, our point of view is the same, and the same as in that Standard Station Painting- they are seen from below.

At the opposite end of the gallery, the same scenes reappear in his Course of Empire series, 2005, now in color, though right and left are flipped. (The scene on the right wall is that depicted on the left wall in Blue Collar Photo, above this one. The scene on the left wall is the scene shown on the right wall of the Blue Collar series above this one.)

The series evolved over a period of 13 years, with Ed Ruscha Painting the 5 black & white pieces, titled Blue Collar, in 1992-

Blue Collar Trade School, 1992, Acrylic on canvas. The only multi-story structure in the series.

Returning to the subject and the same sites  in 2005, this time in color and showing the effects of time passing.

The Old Trade School Building, 2005, Acrylic on canvas

Perhaps, his most subtly powerful series, their under-stated compositions lead to open-ended interpretations.

Installation view of the complete Course of Empire, by Thomas Cole, 1834-36, as seen at The Met’s Thomas Cole’s Journey in 2018. The rise and fall of civilization as seen from the same place, with the same distinctive mountain peak appearing in each Painting.

Based on, and in homage to, Thomas Cole’s legendary Course of Empire series, 1834-6, (which I wrote about here), they are another instance of Ruscha revisiting earlier work, his Blue Collar series from 1992. These also highlight that alongside the humor in any number of his pieces, running parallel, is a real depth of concern. Concern for the country, the world, the environment.

Psycho Spaghetti Western #7, 2010-11, Acrylic on canvas

“It’s all just rape of the land for profit these days. It’s fairly sick. Southern California is all just one big city now. But what do you say about progress? … So something’s got to give, and the landscape’s the first thing that gives….There is a certain flavor of decadence that inspires me. And when I drive into some sort of industrial wasteland in America, with the themeparks and warehouses, there’s something saying something to me. It’s a mixture of those things that gives me some sense of reality and moves me along as an artist,” Ed Ruscha 14.

Taking full advantage of having such a long career, the Artist has revisited past themes, and places, fairly often to the point that it’s a running theme in his work. Change over time…for the better, or worse, is left to the viewer to decide. Ostensibly set in L.A., the structures in Blue Collar/Course of Empire could be literally anywhere. As such they have a universality to them (as do a number of other 21st century Ruscha’s) that sets them apart from his purely L.A. work, like his Hollywood sign pieces.

Our Flag, 2017, Acrylic on canvas. The last work in the show.

Thomas Cole influencing Ed Ruscha’s Blue Collar & Course of Empire series started me thinking about other possible influences on his work. I touched on some in Part 1. In Part 3, I’ll take a closer look at them, and then flip that coin over.

Part 3 is here. 

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “L.A. Woman” by The Doors, one of the ultimate L.A. bands, from the 1971 album of the same name. (Narrowly beating out “California Girls” by the Beach Boys from Summer Days (And Summer Nights), 1965.) Ed Ruscha was into “car culture” before moving to L.A., and after, among other things he has in common with the #1 L.A. band of its time. Notice the gas station Jim Morrison, “another lost angel,” to quote his lyric, stops in to about half way through-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 3/4  years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. Ed Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, Vol 7, P.476 ↩
  2. E.R., Tate, P.30 ↩
  3. Willoughby Sharp, ‘“… a kind of a Huh?”, An Interview with Edward Ruscha’, Avalanche, no.7, Winter/ Spring 1973, p.30. ↩
  4. ER, Tate, P. 31 ↩
  5. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-ruscha-1882/ed-ruscha-and-art-everyday ↩
  6. Here. ↩
  7. Reading Ed Ruscha, P.50 ↩
  8. Ed Ruscha, Photographer, P.7 ↩
  9. Ed Ruscha quoted in Ed Ruscha/Now Then Exhibition Catalog, P.21 ↩
  10. Ed Ruscha/Now Then Exhibition Catalog, P.21 ↩
  11. Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information at the Signal, P.5 ↩
  12. E.R., Tate, P.65 ↩
  13. Ed Ruscha/Now Then, P.170 ↩
  14. Leave Any Information at the Signal, P.18 ↩

A Writing Lesson With Paul Auster

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

December 3rd, 2018. The evening brought, perhaps, the worst rain storm I’ve seen since Hurricane Sandy. Yet, I decided to go out. On tap was something very special. Something I am now so glad I didn’t pass up. It seemed the gods were in my favor, as when I got outside into the full force of the gale, though instantly soaked, something miraculous happened. Something every New Yorker knows is impossible.

I got a cab in the rain!

I guess conditions were so bad that no one was out. I don’t know. I wasn’t about to look a gift cab in the mouth.

I climbed into the back seat and we headed south, I couldn’t see a thing out any of the windows- including the front windshield. Somehow, the driver found his way to Broadway & East 12th Street, and pulled up in front of The Strand Bookstore. The occasion: Paul Auster was releasing his New York Trilogy Manuscript, a fittingly oversized, slipcased limited edition, and speaking about it. I was interested because I thought it might provide insights into how he worked, and how such a distinctive set came to be. 

I got out and dashed from the cab to the door, then started the long process of drying off and out as I made my way to the 3rd floor and the Rare Book Room. I stood in the back as the proceedings got underway with writer Luc Sante handling the interviewer’s role. 

Paul Auster takes questions from the audience, with Luc Sante, left, at The Strand Bookstore, December 3, 2018.

I was transfixed as Mr. Auster spoke in a very low key manner with seemingly total recall taking my mind off my soaked pants. His road to the creation of the Trilogy was fascinating for any creative person to listen to, a real lesson in believing in your Art and perseverance. I related to his story about being told to “change the end.” When I was shopping a Jazz album I produced featuring the late, great Thomas Chapin, one label head offered me a very sizable sum if I agreed to let him change the drummer. It was a record recorded live in the studio. The drums bled into every mic in the room! You can’t change the drummer after the fact, I recalled feeling Mr. Auster’s pain. He turned down that ending change request (as I walked away from big money refusing to make the drummer change), and the book remained unpublished for so long that he began to feel that he would remain an unpublished author…

As it turns out, luckily, what transpired that evening was recorded! You can see it here-

Reliving it this evening, 2 days after Mr. Auster’s passing on April 30th, hearing him say “…part of me feels that I’m already dead…” about the book’s release, was chilling. It was just a year ago, in March, 2023, Siri Hustvedt, Mr. Auster’s wife, announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.  

After the talk, questions from the audience and the video ends, there was a signing. Both signed a paperback copy of the then current, umpteenth printing of Mr. Auster’s New York Trilogy paperback for me, with a cover by the great Art Spiegleman, and I sprung for the $200.00 Manuscript, which he also signed for me. In the intervening years, his 4 3 2 1, in 2017, and his final book, Baumgartner, released late last year, also impressed me with their singularity. Paul Auster’s ability to create such unimaginable scenarios with each book, while retaining familiar themes thrilled me, as Sir Salman Rushdie’s books do. I come away feeling that though Paul Auster is respected and lauded around the world, he is still underrated. 

Paul Auster, just to the right of center, after the event. December 3, 2018. My last look before I headed back out into the storm. It would be my last look at him, too. .

Whether he is, or not, is now up to the future to decide. Luckily, his books are here and all in print for us to explore, enjoy and be inspired by right now. For my part, hearing him speak so insightfully about his work, and briefly meeting him are indelible. 

The signature page of a signed copy of his last book, Baumgartner, released in November, 2023.

Book signings are special events. They present the chance to bring you closer to the author and his or her work in more ways than one. Like this one, a number of them have lived long in my memory. Don’t pass one up the next time an author you’re interested in is having one. 

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Watching the Detectives” by Elvis Costello from his classic debut, My Aim Is True-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 1/2 years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.