Musicians

Charles White- Now

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

“Drawing is [a] particularly exciting medium for me. I just like the feel of it. My whole body is into it when I draw and I think black and white is as effective a medium [as any].” Charles White1

Charles White, Detail of Study for Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968, Charcoal and oil wash over pencil on board. Click any Photo for full size.

Ah…the majesty of excellent draftsmanship… Just when you thought it was dead as a doornail, with Photography destroying all previous Artforms in its world dominating wake, along comes a Retrospective of one of the Masters of the craft of Drawing in the 20th Century, the late Charles White (1918-1979), who’s centenary is celebrated in the first major museum survey devoted to his Art in over 30 years. Charles White: A Retrospective, made its second stop at MoMA after debuting at the Art Institute of Chicago and now heads to LACMA beginning February 16th, thus tracing the 3 cities Mr. White lived in- in order. Its magisterial, full of wonders, and long overdue. The only possible caveat could be- MORE!…even bigger, please.

The entrance, divided by a sliding glass door, of one of the great shows of recent years.

By no means a small show, clocking in at 114 items (many of them quite large), over 13 section, the takeaway is that, henceforth, it will be impossible to deny Charles White his place in the pantheon of great Artists of the century. Again.

Charles White was a very successful Artist during his lifetime. He had gallery representation in each city he lived in and his work was collected by museums, nationally and internationally. He was also sought out as a teacher, particularly at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, from 1965 until his passing in 1979 at only 61. After his death, he fell into something of an eclipse. But, his influence has lived on through the work of his students including Richard Wyatt, Jr, Kent Twitchell (both muralists), and most prominently, Kerry James Marshall (a “representational” Painter) and David Hammons (who has worked in a wide range of media). Mr. Marshall never seems to miss an opportunity to laud Charles White- as a teacher and as an Artist, frequently speaking of him in the highest terms, as he has, again, writing the preface for the excellent Exhibition Catalog. He led me to take a deeper look at Charles White a few years ago. Mr. Hammons paid tribute to Charles White in October, 2017 when he curated the remarkable Leonardo da Vinci-Charles White show at MoMA, that I wrote about here. Judging by the crowds that attended this show, as the MoMA stop of the Charles White Retrospective “tour” ends and Los Angeles prepares to welcome it, I think it’s already safe to say, the Charles White “eclipse” is over.  The other take away, for me, is that Charles White’s influence deserves to be even greater than it already is. With all due respect to his students, Charles White’s Art more than speaks for itself.

Study for Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968, Charcoal and oil wash over pencil on board.

When I was a kid, everyone drew. Some, eventually, took lessons and studied Drawing seriously, which is something you can devote your life to and learn something new each and every day. Even for those that didn’t study it, Drawing became a part of many of their lives, whether making doodles, notes, caricatures, or, what have you. That seems to be changing and I think it’s tragic. Drawing is another language, one that is every bit as effective at communicating as writing. I think it’s an essential life skill. Unfortunately, it’s one that I don’t see as many doing as they were 15 or 20 years ago. One look at the work of Charles White will show you what’s possible with Drawing. 

The final Drawing.Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968, Drybrush and ink on board, 51 x 78 inches.

As beautiful and technically masterful as it is, Charles White’s work is about expressing ideas. “An artist must bear a social responsibility. He must be accountable for the content of his work. And that work should reflect a deep, abiding concern for humanity. He has that responsibility whether he wants it or not because he’s dealing with ideas. And ideas are power. They must be used one way or the other,” Charles White2. He was speaking in 1978. He could have been speaking yesterday.

Back cover of the Exhibition Catalog.

Those ideas revolved, largely, around his efforts to set the record straight on black history in America in response to the way it was taught when he was growing up. He did this through depicting both the famous and those not so famous in powerful and unique ways that seen over the course of my 4 visits seemed to resonate with visitors in ways I don’t often see. Time and again, I encountered whole families moving slowly from work to work, with the parents patiently explaining fine details of a subject’s life, or very little known cultural details Mr. White had depicted, from what I could gather when they were next to me.

Charles White hit the ground running. He received a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at 13. He drew this at 17-

Self-Portrait, 1935, Black crayon on cardboard.

He then began exploring a wide range of styles over the next few decades, some showing the influence of abstraction, cubism and mannerism, but, remarkably, always remaining his. I found it interesting to trace them in his early murals, for which only studies remain. The first one, Five Great American Negroes was done 4 years after the Self-Portrait, when Charles White was 21.

Charles White, Five Great Americans Negroes, 1939, Oil on canvas. From left to right- Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, and Marian Anderson

Here we see Charles White depicting famous figures- living and dead (these were selected by the readers of the newspaper who sponsored the mural), something he would do for much of the rest of his career. The enlarged arms and hands that begin to be seen here remind me of passages in Michelangelo and the Mannerists, like Hendrick Goltzius.  The Mexican Muralists- Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who he met on a later trip to Mexico, were an obvious big influence. Artistically and philosophically.

Study for Struggle for Liberation (Chaotic Stage of the Negro, Past and Present), 1940, Tempera on illustration board.

One year later, his Struggle for Liberation (Chaotic Stage of the Negro, Past and Present), a 1940 project for a Chicago Library that was never completed, is known today only through this study and some Photographs taken by Gordon Parks. In this incredibly complex composition, the left side speaks to the past, the right to the present. Both scenes appear to be filled with everyday people, except for John Brown, apparently holding a gun,  in the lower left. According to curator Sarah Kelly Oehler in the Exhibition Catalog, this work can be seen as indication that his ideas were leaning left and towards putting more faith in everyday people to bring change. In the right side, “He depicted capitalism, politics, institutional power, and violence as responsible for the ongoing injustices faced by African Americans as they demanded their rights3.” The work was deemed “inappropriate” for a library, even one that served a black community. Charles White, apparently, finished the left side of it, then moved to New York.

Study for The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America, 1943. Tempera on board. Note the row of Civil War soldiers, near the center. Painted during World War II, these were possibly included in support of a campaign to gain equal rights at home and abroad for African American soldiers as a reminder of their contributions during the Civil War.

In the last of Charles White’s three early murals, The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America, 1943, the Artist includes at least 14 identified historical figures, in a circular composition. His style, again, is unique and fascinating. Note the hands of the guitar player, possibly Lead Belly (playing a guitar with no strings), in the lower right and the planar nature of the portraits. Again, there seems to be the influence of Diego Rivera, with the machinery in the center echoing his Detroit Industry Murals.

Five portraits, in five styles. Clockwise from top left- Worker, 1944, John Brown, 1949, Gideon, 1951, Untitled (Bearded Man), c. 1949, and Frederick Douglas, 1950.

This wall shows 5 portraits, each in a different style, that includes at least one study for a mural portrait.

 

Worker, 1944, Linocut on paper. From the Exhibition Catalog. .

When I look at these, and in particular the portraits of the Worker, John Brown, Untitled (Bearded Man) and Frederick Douglas, I’m reminded of the prints of the German Expressionist, Kathe Kollwitz (1967-1945), an Artist who was, also, passionately involved in social causes, increasingly after losing her son, Peter, in World War 1 in 1914. Kathe Kollwitz was influenced by Expressionist Ernst Barlach’s prints, but further stripped them down to their essentials, in stark works like this Frontal Self-Portrait, 1922-23.

Kathe Kollwitz, Frontal Self-Portrait, 1922-23, Woodcut. MoMA Photograph.

Charles White was both an avid Photographer and a collector of Photographs in books and in the media (like Francis Bacon). Charles White’s own Photography is only touched on in the show with this case of 17 Photographs. It’s a subject that warrants closer study.

A selection of Photographs taken by Charles White range from portraits to street scenes to shots of a protest in NYC.

Both his Photos and his collection of media provided him with reference material that he created many of his works from (also like Mr. Bacon). I find this interesting since Charles White was a master of life drawing which he also taught.

As his career went on, and his mature style appeared, particularly in his work after his move to California to help with the lingering side effects of the tuberculosis he got in the Army in 1944, his images are more and more open to interpretation.

Birmingham Totem, 1964, Ink and charcoal on paper, 71 x 40 inches.

Birmingham Totem, 1964, is an amazing work on many levels. First, it stands one inch shy of 6 feet tall, unheard of for a Drawing, except in this show. Second, it’s an “elegy” (per the wall card) to the four girls (one, aged 11, three age 14) that were killed in a KKK bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. In it, a young man sits atop of pile of rubble, rendered in incredible detail. Even more remarkable, the young man holds a plumb line in his right hand, the weight of which is seen about half way down. He would appear to symbolize rebuilding.

J’Accuse #1, 1965, Charcoal and Wolff crayon on illustration board. This series marks the debut of Charles White’s mature style, based in realism. The hands and arms are no longer exaggerated. While the style is more direct, the composition is more open to interpretation, and so, more abstract, which would continue for the rest of his career. According to Ilene Susan Fort in the Exhibition Catalog, the 12 powerful and stunning works in the J’Accuse series “constitute a thematic indictment of the systemic, ongoing disenfranchisement of African Americans4.”

Charles White, master of Drawing, master of depicting the black form (per Kerry James Marshall- “Nobody else has drawn the black body with more elegance and authority.” Exhibition Catalog P.15), is someone who had a strong agenda he manifested in his work. He championed the struggle of African Americans, women (witness his 1951 solo show, Negro Women, where all 15 works on view included a woman), and workers, in Artworks that included both historical figures and every day people. Along the way, he created a body of work that adds another powerful voice telling another side of African American history with unique compositions featuring exquisite execution. Charles White’s compositions were always complex. From the earliest work shown, Kitchenette Debutantes, 1939,

General Moses (Harriet Tubman), 1965, Ink on paper.

Among the women that reappear in Charles White’s work, none is his subject more often than the activist and abolitionist Harriet Tubman (1822-1913). This later work, General Moses (Harriet Tubman), is a striking portrait of her. Then, so is this-

Harriet, 1972, Oil on board.

In what is, perhaps, his finest series, in my eyes, the late Wanted Poster Series, Charles White reimagines “Wanted” posters issued for runaway slaves.

Wanted Poster Series #17, 1971, Oil and pencil on poster board.

A series of 14 works he began in 1969, the images are powerfully direct, yet still retain a fascinating mystery as one ponders the details. The background textures and the stenciled text remind me of Contemporary Art techniques found in the work of, say, Jasper Johns.

Banner for Willie J., 1976, Oil on canvas, memorializes Charles White’s cousin, Willie J., an innocent bystander who was killed in a bar robbery.

Black Pope is the already classic example of late Charles White. Featured in the 2 piece MoMA show in 2017 opposite a Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, it was also the subject of a fine MoMA book released at the time. It perfectly sums up the experience of looking at it, and late Charles White when it concludes on its final page, “If we today find the work difficult to define, the drawing demands that we try5.” It is this enigmatic approach to realism that may be of lasting influence to those who have come after Charles White, particularly Kerry James Marshall, though it seems to me it may be there in the work of Abstract Artists Jack Whitten and Mark Bradford as well.

Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man), 1973, Oil wash on board.

” I find, in tracing the course of the portrayal  of the Negro subject in art, a plague of distortions, stereotyped and superficial caricatures of ‘uncles’ ‘mammies,’ , and pickaninnies’,” he said6. Charles White is an important Artist because his work accomplished exactly what he set out to do. It does so most artfully, it seems to me. It’s full of life, depth and mystery. Yet, his work has an immediate directness that speaks to everyone as soon as they see it.

Now. And forever. Detail of just one part of the enigma of this endlessly fascinating work.

When I look at that “NOW” in Black Pope, I, too, wonder what the Artist was trying to tell us. Then, I quickly begin wondering what his reaction would be to living in this “NOW” and finding so little has changed. It’s terribly sad on one hand. On the other? It makes Charles White’s Art as relevant as its ever been.

UPDATE- My look at the two satellite Charles White shows concurrently at David Zwirner is here. One show is centered on the mural for Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles White’s last major work.

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Charles White, A Retrospective, 2018

Charles White: A Retrospective, by Sarah Kelly Oehler, Esther Adler and with a preface by Kerry James Marshall, published in 2018 by the Art Institute of Chicago, is the finest book yet published on Charles White and easily the best one in print. It’s a terrific introduction to the Artist that will also serve as a go-to reference for years to come thanks to the depth it goes into on such little-known areas like Charles White’s Photography as well as the inclusion of a full and detailed chronology and exhibition history. The reproductions are gorgeous. Easily recommended.

Fun fact- The inside of the dust jacket folds out to reveal this beautiful detail from Wanted Poster #12, 1970, suitable for hanging.

Charles White: Black Pope by Esther Adler and published by MoMA in 2017, is the other recommended, in print, Charles White book. MoMA curator Esther Adler does a very good job of analyzing Black Pope and relating it’s history, in the process looking at a number of other works from Mr. White’s career. While A Retrospective is the first choice for an introduction, for those looking to go deeper into one of Charles White’s greatest and most mysterious works, this book has the most information we are likely to get anytime soon.

Charles White, Black Pope, MoMA, 2018

* -Soundtrack for this Post is this video of Lead Belly, frequent subject of Charles White, performing. Purportedly the only film ever made of him-

My thanks to Stephanie Katsias of MoMA. 

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  1. Exhibition Catalog, P.39 ↩
  2. Black Pope Exhibition Catalog P.8 ↩
  3. Sarah Kelly Oehler, Exhibition Catalog, P. 32 ↩
  4. Exhibition Catalog, P. 131 ↩
  5. P.51 ↩
  6. Exhibition Catalog P.24 ↩

Forgotten Songs I Will Love Forever, #1- Rickie Lee Jones’s Last Chance Texaco

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Part One of a New & Occasional Series…the other parts are here.

In no particular order.

“Last Chance Texaco” Written & Performed by Ricki Lee Jones on her immortal debut album, Rickie Lee Jones, 1979.

40 years on, it sends a chill down my spine every damn time I hear it.

Performed in 1979-

Lyrics-

A long stretch of headlights
Bends into I-9
Tiptoe into truck stops
And sleepy diesel eyes
Volcanoes rumble in the taxi
And glow in the dark
Camels in the driver’s seat
A slow, easy mark

But you ran out of gas
Down the road a piece
Then the battery went dead
And now the cable won’t reach…

It’s your last chance
To check under the hood
Last chance
She ain’t soundin’ too good,
Your last chance
To trust the man with the star
You’ve found the last chance Texaco

Well, he tried to be Standard
He tried to be Mobil
He tried living in a world
And in a shell
There was this block-busted blonde
He loved her – free parts and labor
But she broke down and died
And threw all the rods he gave her

But this one ain’t fuel-injected
Her plug’s disconnected
She gets scared and she stalls
She just needs a man, that’s all

It’s her last chance
Her timing’s all wrong
Her last chance
She can’t idle this long
Her last chance
Turn her over and go
Pullin’ out of the last chance Texaco
The last chance

Performed in 1985-

  • For Zette.

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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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2018: The Year In Art Seen, And Met

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Will Art ever be more popular than it is now? On January 4th, 2019,  The Met announced another attendance record was set in 2018 when almost 7.4 million visited The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer or The Cloisters1.

On this late summer day, I’ll be lucky if I can figure out a way to get up the stairs to get in! Click any Photo for full size.

Simply put, when I think back on 2018, I’ll remember the extraordinary number of truly great shows I saw at The Met and The Met Breuer this past year, among those 7.4 million. While I certainly spent quality time at the other Museums and saw wonderful shows at each of them (not to mention countless galleries and a few Art & Book fairs), it’s almost impossible to top the list of shows The Met, collectively, mounted this year- especially when you consider that I didn’t even see the biggest show of them all- biggest by attendance that is, the show that drew 1,659,647 visitors- Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (I saw the parts of it that were installed outside of the show proper).

Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination– A view of part of the show installed to the south of the Great Staircase.

I chose to skip it. My friend, the fashion Blogger extraordinaire, Magda, saw it and did a terrific piece on it, here.  As for the Art I saw in 2018? I’ll remember most standing on this spot near the south west corner of the 2nd floor of The Met, and marveling at the sight in front of me in a 270 degree range.

I’ve never seen the likes of this before. A 270 degree panorama from “the spot.” 2nd Floor, Metropolitan Museum.

Before my eyes, there were no less that 4 major and/or historic shows going on within yards of each other AT THE SAME TIME!

A fortnight of heaven. From right to left- 1- Rodin At The Met, 2- Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer, 3- David Hockney 80th Birthday Retrospective, 4- Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell’s Homage to Juan Gris. This photo was taken on February 4th, 2018. The last day all four of these shows were open at the same time.

Behind me, to the far right in the panorama, above, was Rodin At The Met (1, above), which I had just walked through to get to this spot.

Rodin, The Tempest, before 1910, Marble, seen in Rodin In The Met.

Just to my right was the once in a lifetime Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer (2), containing 133 of the Master’s Drawings and 3 Sculptures. Just to the left of that was the David Hockney 80th Birthday Retrospective (3). Down the hall to the left, Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell’s Homage to Juan Gris (4) recently opened. The run of all four overlapped from January 23rd to February 4th, when I took the above, just 13 days.

Had enough? C’mon. This is NYC!

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire, Oil on canvas, 1833-36, on loan from the New York Historical Society. Installation view of Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings. 170 years later, they would inspire Ed Ruscha to create a contemporary version that was shown in conjunction with the National Gallery, London, incarnation of this show.

ALSO going on at that very moment down in the American Wing, Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings was a quite pleasant surprise, AND, over at The Met Breuer, the revelatory Edvard Munch: Between The Clock And The Bed was closing that very day! The Met, typically, has up to 25 shows up at any one given time. But, SIX MAJOR Shows up at the same time is extraordinary. WHERE else in the world does that happen?

Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait: Between the Clock and the Bed, 1940-43, Oil on canvas. His last significant “self-scrutiny” as he referred to his self-portraits, he stands before the faceless clock and bed, in front of his Paintings.

Thus far, I’ve written about 3 of them-

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer

Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings

Edvard Munch: Between The Clock And The Bed

Given all of this, even before January, 2018 was over, I knew nothing was going to top The Met in Art in NYC this year. But? Keep an open mind, right? Let em try! Well, now that the year is over, and I take stock at all that happened, nothing changed my mind. In fact, there were more great shows at The Met as the year unfolded. So much happened that in spite of all of my coverage, there are other shows and Artists I feel the need to show and talk about. I’ve decided to focus on 3 Artists here I encountered or discovered in Met shows in 2018- one, very famous, another, who recently passed without receiving as much acclaim as I feel he deserves, and a third who, I feel, is one of the most important Artists of our time.

First, a spot quiz- Before you read the caption, who is this by?

Tyger Painting No 2, by David Hockney, 1960, when the Artist was about 22, Oil and mixed media on board.

When I saw that David Hockney was installed right next door to all the treasures by no less than Michelangelo, the Artist called “Il Divno,” I couldn’t help but wonder what that initial phone call was like…a Met executive reaching out to Mr. Hockney by phone, saying something like, “David, this is _______ from The Met. We have some good news for you, and, maybe, some not as good news for you. The good news is The Metropolitan is giving you an 80th Birthday Retrospective! Congratulations! The not as good news is it’s being mounted right next to a once in a lifetime Michelangelo show containing 133 of the master’s Drawings and 3 of his Sculptures…” And you say you want to be a famous Artist? Stay humble. Fame is relative, possibly fleeting.

The Met reported 702,516 people visited the Michelangelo show, and 363,877 attended David Hockney.

I haven’t spent much time looking at the Art of David Hockney, but I have with his exceptional books, particularly the now classic, Secret Knowledge, and the fascinating History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen. Secret Knowledge, which has made a real contribution to Art History, was nothing less than a bombshell when it was released in 2001. His, and physicist Charles Falco’s, theory that the Old Masters (including Jan van Eyck, my first personal God of Painting) used optics, recently developed in Van Eyck’s time, to get the incredible realism they achieved was deemed heresy. Until you looked at the “evidence” they presented, including a huge wall Hockney created of postcards of Paintings created before 1400 and up to modern times that showed a sudden sharpening of their realism occurring about the beginning of the fifteenth century.

Upon closer look, their theory made perfect sense. I wished it had come years earlier when I was struggling to learn how to draw by “eyeballing” my subjects, which, of course, continues to have its place. Secret Knowledge became a superb BBC TV Documentary, and then a television series, and its impact is being felt to this day. The 2016 Film Tim’s Vermeer shows inventor Tim Jenison using these techniques to “re-create” how Vermeer might have done his Paintings. Of course, Secret Knowledge is a theory, not history, though as I said, it’s one that makes sense. Perusing it and A History of Pictures, released in late 2016, I was led to Cameraworks and his interviews on Photography, which I’ve found equally compelling. So, the David Hockney Retrospective gave me a long-delayed chance to consider his long, prolific and restless Art career. Afterall, since the passing of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, he is oft referred to as “England’s foremost living Painter.” 

Arizona, 1964, left, Portrait Surrounded by Artistic Devices, 1965, right.

Though his popularity would be a while coming, requiring a move half way around the world to California, David Hockney showed a remarkable tenacity early on, Painting in styles that were, well, “different” from that of any other Painter of the time. He moved from abstraction to works that were somewhere between abstract and figurative, generally including a figure, before landing on a style that retained his use of color while becoming even more representational.

A Bigger Splash, 1967, Acrylic on canvas. Without the unseen swimmer, the splash becomes a passage out of Abstract Expressionism, jarring the all too peaceful scene.

Moving to LA, his style exploded into color, a sudden taste for representationalism in a style that came to epitomize upper class California living to the point that its now sparked something of a “response,” from Ramiro Gomez, who focuses on the workers maintaining these places-

Ramiro Gomez, No Splash, 2013, 96 x 96 inches, after David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash, 1967, focuses on the pool workers instead of the residents. Photo: Osceola Refetoff for Charlie James Gallery

David Hockney could have continued to paint these ad infinitum and, no doubt, sell every single one he produced. But, he’s far too restless, and curious, to stand in any one spot for too long.

The Twenty-Sixth Very New Painting, 1992. Picasso and Cubism have never been very far from David Hockney’s mind- to this day.

He then revealed his own take on portraiture in single subjects and couples before exploring, and breaking the boundaries of, Photographic perception with his “joiners,” which explored his belief that we don’t see the way the camera sees- with a fixed, single, viewpoint.

In Pearblossom Highway, 11-18th April, 1986, #1, 47 x 64 inches, a “joiner” composed of hundreds of Photographs, David Hockney explores his belief that a camera has a fixed viewpoint and a single vanishing point. So, putting hundreds of Photos together creates many. He’s said he considers this work “a panoramic assault on Renaissance one-point perspective2.”

All along he drew, and he drew and he drew. There were times when I admit looking at his work and wondering how well he could draw but being well acquainted with the difficulties involved in mastering the line, as the show moved through his Drawings, its seminal and central place in his practice becomes clear as he relentlessly forged ahead. As the Drawing section ended, he seemed to me to have finally made peace with Drawing, having taken it from graphite on paper to the use of the Camera Lucida and more recently, to the iPhone and the iPad.

Three iPad Drawings, shown in-progress side by side in the final room.

His painting, too, continually evolved over the years and decades.

A Closer Winter Tunnel, February-March, 2006.

He left LA to return to the home his late mother had lived in and turned his attention to a little known area called the Yorkshire Wolds and created a remarkable series of landscapes, including some multi-panel monumental works, along with multi-channel videos that show this area that no Artist had previously “discovered” to be full of picturesque wonders.

Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, 1971. The “coolness” here can be partially explained by the fact that this was a rare commission the Artist accepted and so, he didn’t have a personal relationship with them.

Mr and Mrs Ossie Clark, 1970, Photograph. Not mentioned anywhere in the show, and not very well known, is that David Hockney used Photographs, usually his own, as source material for years. Later, he finally created Photographs as stand-alone works. It’s fascinating to see what’s changed in the finished Painting. (From David Hockney on Art, Conversations with Paul Joyce, P.14, hence the curve.)

Personally, I find a cool distance in most of David Hockney’s work (felt most clearly in his double portraits, but present in everything from his landscapes to his single portraits) that the bright colors and the often undeniable beauty do not hide. This works to his advantage during the period he spent immortalizing the Yorkshire Wolds, beginning in 2005, until about 2013, near where he grew up, seen before. It’s hard for me to look at these beautiful works without being a little bit reminded of the work of another of his long time influences, Vincent van Gogh. Particularly because Mr. Hockney chose to largely create these works on the spot, en plein air, during all four seasons, late winter seen above. The passage of time looms large in this series of works, as it has in the intervening years since Mr. Hockney worked in these fields as a  young man. Yet, in them we see everything change- the seasons, the weather, individual trees, everything except the Artist. That we can only see through surveying his work through the years.

Ordinary versus Reverse Perspective.

David Hockney revealed an Artist who doesn’t get enough credit for his progressiveness, the resistance of his work to current fads, and its individuality. From the beginning he turned a deaf ear to trends and norms, rejecting both Abstract Expressionism and Pop while somewhat brazenly, and frankly, featuring homosexuality (which was illegal in England until 1967). After the tragic death of an assistant, Mr. Hockney sold the Yorkshire house in 2015 and returned to L.A. “Reverse perspective,” as he refers to it, has taken full hold in his most recent work, as seen in the final gallery at The Met, and at Pace on West 25th Street in David Hockney: Something New in Painting (and Photography) (and even Printing), in April and May.

Here, in David Hockney: Something New in Painting (and Photography) (and even Printing) at Pace, spring, 2018, Mr. Hockney cleverly manages to include all the works on the surrounding walls in the Pace show in this Photographic Drawing, as he calls it, which forces the eye to move around the work, each stop becoming a new perspective.

Taken to another level, I think, he’s also comparing Photography to Painting. In addition to his fascinating thoughts on perspective and how cameras see versus how humans see, I found he had already put down in print quite a few things I was feeling about Painting versus Photography a year and a half into my deep dive into “post-The Americans” Photography. I’ll save those for another piece.

Mr. Hockney has been first a number of times, so far, in a rage of realms, including Photography. Being first is not something history often rewards. David Hockney’s popularity seems to know no bounds, and his influence is there to be seen in the work of any number of Artists. Yet, as with every other Artist, posterity will decide where David Hockney’s Art belongs, and time will tell if it will be as popular in hundreds of years as it is now, or not. In the meantime? I’m interested to see what this Artist who lives to create does next.

Coincidentally, and fortuitously, 10 days after I took that panorama from “the spot,” The Met’s William Eggleston: Los Alamos opened, giving me a chance to revisit the work of the Artist who’s show at David Zwirner in December, 2016 led to my deep dive into the world of Contemporary Photography. I wrote about Los Alamos here.

Exit/Entrance installation view of History Refused to Die, showing the recto of the titular work, the recto  is seen below, center.

After the six major shows ended, I returned to The Met to see History Refused to Die, a sleeper of a show publicity-wise, that honored the recent gift to The Museum by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation by featuring a selection of 30 Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings and Quilts from it by self-taught contemporary African American Artists, highlighted by a number of truly amazing works by the late Thornton Dial (1928-2016).

Thonton Dial, History Refused to Die, 2004, Okra stalks and roots, clothing, collaged drawings, tin, wire, steel, Masonite, steel chain, enamel and spray paint, front, center. Verso of the work seen above.

Mr. Dial created a body of work after having watched the events of 9/11 on television. It, and the subsequent war were the subjects of a few works seen here, among others.

Thornton Dial, 9/11: Interrupting the Morning News, 2002, Graphite, charcoal, and watercolor on paper.

Thornton Dial, Victory in Iraq, 2004, Mannequin head, barbed wire, steel, clothing, tin, electrical wire, wheels, stuffed animals, toy cars and figurines, plastic spoons, wood, basket, oil, enamel, spray paint and two-part epoxy putty on canvas and wood.

Thonton Dial, The End of November: The Birds That Didn’t Learn How to Fly, 2007, Quilt, wire, fabric, and enamel on canvas on wood.

While I returned a few times to see Mr. Dial’s work again, I was also impressed with that of Ronald Lockett (1965-1995), a cousin of Thornton Dial.

Ronald Lockett, The Enemy Amongst Us, 1995, Commercial paint, pine needles, metal and nails on plywood.

One of the great things about this show was the complete freedom the Artists worked with. It’s hard for me not to believe that that was one of the benefits of being self-taught in their case. Yes, even today, you can be a self-taught Artist and still get in to The Met’s Permanent Collection.

Over my 1,500+ visits to The Met, I’ve spent countless hours sitting there in front of Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950, Enamel on canvas, 105 x 207 inches, dating back to before I started counting my visits. Seen here on August 31st, at the entrance to what was then the Abstract Expressionist galleries.

Just to the left of one of the two entrances/exits to History Refused to Die, I paused to revisit an old friend.  Almost 30 years ago, I sat on those benches for hours on end staring at and contemplating one of the most remarkable and revolutionary Paintings in Western Art, Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950, at the time my favorite Painting in The Met (“favorite” does not mean “the best.” I don’t believe in that), and, perhaps, the crown jewel of The Met’s Abstract Expressionism collection. In my opinion, this is a key wall in The Met. Its the entrance to the Abstract Expressionist galleries behind it, and it looks out to visitors passing the “corridor” I’m standing in going to the stairs. Over all these intervening decades, its never been moved from this spot. Little did I know when I took this Photograph on August 31st, it would be the last time I would see it here.

Fall brought the revelation that was Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963-2017, which opened at The Met Breuer just before History Refused to Die closed. Finally, and currently, back at 1000 Fifth Avenue, while the very good Delacroix show was going on down the hall, Epic Abstraction, opened on December 17th, a show I also find somewhat remarkable. It’s an “ongoing” show, meaning it has no end date at this point, largely because it and Reimagining Modernism, downstairs on the first floor, are reinstallations of works from The Met’s Permanent Collection, along with a few loans (in the case of Epic Abstraction).

Immediately adjacent to the sign, mere steps into the show, lookie here! It’s my old friend Autumn Rhythm! 

When I walked in the first time, I was startled to see that the show begins with Autumn Rhythm! Wow. They moved it! While I admired it at the beginning of this “epic” show, questions immediately flooded into my mind. An Abstraction show that BEGINS with Autumn Rhythm? That’s incredibly bold. Talk about throwing down a gauntlet for all that’s come after. Well, the subtitle of the show is Pollock to Herrera, so, chronologically, this is the beginning. That Sheena Wagstaff, Randall Griffey (credited with organizing Epic Abstraction & Reimagining Modernism- kudos) and the Modern & Contemporary Staff chose to move Autumn Rhythm and give it pride of place in this show I take as a “sign” they may agree with me about its importance. While I wondered what is going to maintain this level in the rest of the show to come, my mind then turned to the inevitable question- WHAT did they choose to hang in that prime spot where Autumn Rhythm hung for the past few decades?

Epic. Jackson Pollock, 3 Drawings, each, Untitled, 1938-41, Colored pencils and graphite on paper.

The first room is entirely devoted to the work of Jackson Pollock, except for one work- Kazuo Shiraga’s Untitled, 1958! Highlights, besides the reinstalled Autumn Rhythm include 3 spectacular colored pencil Drawings that should permanently quiet anyone who thinks that Jackson Pollock couldn’t draw. As remarkable as this start was, the second gallery is entirely devoted to Mark Rothko, save for a central sculpture by Isamu Noguchi! This is sure to stagger any long time Met goer. For decades, only 2 or 3 Rothkos have been on view at any given time. What museum on earth, besides the National Gallery in Washington, has enough Mark Rothkos sitting in storage to fill an entire gallery? Talk about an embarrassment of riches. I couldn’t believe it. Instantly, my fears about how they were going to keep the pace of this show going disappeared. Of course. They topped themselves.

Finally, making it through the first two galleries, still in shock, I turned the corner to finally see what was now in the spot Autumn Rhythm occupied. A sharp right turn, and my eyes alighted on this-

Mark Bradford, Duck Walk, 2016, Mixed media on canvas. Taking its title from Chuck Berry’s strut across the stage strumming his guitar, now hangs where Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) hung for decades.

If you don’t think a lot of thought went into this, Untitled, 1950, by Clyfford Still, one of Mark Bradford’s influences, hangs directly adjacent to it on the wall to the right, with the Sculpture, Raw Attraction, 2001, by Chakaia Booker, Rubber tire, steel, and wood, between them, behind the lady in red, and Tanktotem II by David Smith, barely seen at the far left.

Mark Bradford’s Duck Walk, 2016, a Mixed media on canvas diptych floored me the minute I saw it. It’s every bit as daring as Autumn Rhythm, in my opinion, done in a completely unique way, as Pollock’s was 66 years earlier in 1950. Mark Bradford uses layers of colored paper that he cuts through using a very wide range of techniques. Of course, Mr. Bradford didn’t do it in a vacuum. He’s had influences, including David Joseph Martinez and Clyfford Still, who’s been somewhat overlooked it seems to me among Abstract Expressionists. But not by Mark Bradford.

Detail of the center where the two canvases meet. Interestingly, the two pieces are shown in the opposite configuration on The Met’s website.

“Abstraction for me, I get it-you go internal, you turn off the world, you’re hermetic, you channel something. No. I’m not interested in that type of abstraction. I’m interested in the type of abstraction where you look out at the world, see the horror-sometimes it is horror-and you drag that horror kicking and screaming into your studio and you wrestle with it and you find something beautiful in it. That’s what I was always determined to do. I have never turned away.” Mark Bradford3.

Mrs. N’s Palace, 1964-77, by Louise Nevelson. Notice the black line on the floor going off to the left. That was left by a wall The Met took down to install this monumental work, the back of which is to the left. I’ve never seen this space, the room behind the Mark Bradfordls Duck Walk open like this before.

Now? Four visits in to Epic Abstraction, I can think of no other work in the show that deserves to be hung in this spot more. It not only holds its own with anything else in the show, which is a who’s who of Modern & Contemporary Abstractionists that includes de Kooning, Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, Franz Kline, Carmen Herrera, Cy Twombly, Dan Flavin, Alexander Calder, Joan Mitchell (including some pieces I’ve never seen on view), along with Pollock, Rothko and Noguchi. I was also very pleased to see that The Met managed to get a great work by a great contemporary Artist before the Artist’s prices made it possible only by donation. (Recently, tennis star John McEnroe sold a Painting by Mr. Bradford for over 12 million dollars at auction-to the Eli Broad Museum, in LA). It now joins single Paintings by Kerry James Marshall4 and Jack Whitten in The Met’s Modern & Contemporary Art collection, a collection that, unfortunately, can’t compare with the collections of museums in Chicago, L.A. or San Francisco in works by these Artists, at this point, due to…? I don’t know why. The Met owns 2 Paintings and a set of 6 prints, which are currently on display in the Drawings & Print Gallery, by Mark Bradford, seen below, with the accompanying card-

On the heels of Tomorrow is Another Day (named for the last spoken lines in Gone With The Wind), the show he mounted at the 2017 Venice Biennale after being chosen to represent the USA5, and his current installation, Pickett’s Charge, his largest work to date, currently on view at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington (well, if and when the government re-opens, through 2021), I believe Mark Bradford is one of the world’s most important living Artists. He is an Artist who has been speaking truth about the reality of the world and the issues it faces from early on in his career and doing so in his own ways, developing unique techniques in a variety of medium. “The world is on fire,” he said in a 2017 interview in the catalog accompanying Pickett’s Charge, “whether we like it or not.” “I do feel there are moments in history when the intensity of the world in which you live comes to your door. We are at that moment now. There’s no way around it. Politically and socially we are at the edge of another precipice. I’m standing in the middle of a question about where we are as a nation6.”

Anselm Kiefer, Bohemia Lies By The Sea, 1996, 75 1/4 inches x 18 feet 5 inches, left, Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Studio), 2014, Acrylic on PVC panels, 85 5/16 x 119 1/4 inches, right.

It’s also hard for me to not look at the choice of installing Duck Walk in this spot as a statement. Has the baton been passed to the next generation? Mark Bradford was born in 1961, 5 years after Jackson Pollock’s tragic early death. This baton passing might have also be happening downstairs in the Modern & Contemporary Mezzanine, Gallery 915, The Met’s large Anselm Kiefer, Bohemia Lies by the Sea, which for many, many years has occupied an end wall, has been moved to a side wall, and its former spot is now occupied by Kerry James Marshall’s Untitled (Studio). (Note- Anselm Kiefer was the subject of Provocations: Anselm Kiefer at The Met Breuer in early 2018).

If you continue further down the stairs to the first floor, you’ll discover the early Modern Art galleries have, also, been completely reinstalled, as Reimagining Modernism 1900-1950. It’s endlessly fascinating to me to see which pieces have come on display and which have gone into storage, (or loan?)

The signs they are a-changin’

Times are changing at The Met, in the Modern & Contemporary Galleries, and in the rest of the Museum, as new Director Max Hollein now takes charge (though I imagine Epic Abstraction & Reimagining Modernism were being planned prior). Along with The Met as a whole, the Modern & Contempoaray Department had another remarkable year. The list of memorable and/or important shows that have already appeared at The Met Breuer continues to grow. This is the second time in three years I’ve singled out Sheena Wagstaff and her Modern & Contemporary Department for having great years in NYC Art. Yes, the New Museum, who I singled out last year, continue to impress and grow, and yes MoMA had a number of memorable shows this year, including Stephen Shore  and two featuring the work of Charles White, the Guggenheim impressed with Danh Vo and Hilma af Klint, but none of them had the year The Met had, in my view, particularly in Modern & Contemporary Art.

They started from so far behind compared to the other Museums. I wonder how many others are now noticing.

BookMarks- I only list items in BookMarks that I strongly believe in and personally recommend. If you like what you see here, you can make a donation to help keep NHNYC.com ad-free through PayPal by clicking on the box to the right of the banner at the top of the page that will take you to the Donation button. Your support is VERY much appreciated. Thank you!

David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge (New and Expanded Edition): Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters is one of the most revelatory Art History books of the century thus far and is recommended to the Art History buff and the Art student. The Expanded Edition is only available in paperback, but it is the version I recommend. Keep an eye out for the excellent 2 part BBC Documentary, too.

His A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen, is a wider look at Art History, seen from an Artist’s perspective, which makes it somewhat unique, and is recommended for the general Art History student and buff. There is also a version for children.

Hockney’s Cameraworks is a remarkable book, unlike any other Photography monograph I know of. It includes a look at his Photography through 1984, along side a fascinating interview. Currently out of print, it’s highly recommended to Photographers, Hockney fans, and those interested in this sticky debate about perspective in Art, and definitely worth looking for. Copies in very good condition (minimal wear to the book or dust jacket, without marks of any kind or writing) may still be found for less than 100.00.

The best overview of Thornton Dial’s work, currently, is Thornton Dial in the 21st Century published by Tinwood Books in 2006. The time has come for a complete, comprehensive monograph on his life and work, and this, the best we currently have, is recommended until it arrives.

Mark Bradford (Phaidon Contemporary Artist Series) is the best and most current introduction to Mr. Bradford career. After that, it’s a toss up between 2010’s Mark Bradford published by Yale U. Press or Tomorrow Is Another Day, one of Michelle Obama’s “personal favorites.”  The Yale book is the most comprehensive book on his work to 2010, with the best images of his work to that date, while Tomorrow is an in-depth look at the work Mr. Bradford created for the US Pavillion at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Coming Up” by Paul McCartney fromMcCartney II, 1980, seen here performing it with Wings, and Linda McCartney, Live in Kampuchea, 1979-

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1. Met attendance numbers quoted in this piece are from this press release. ↩
  2. //www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/106006/david-hockney-pearblossom-hwy-11-18th-april-1986-1-british-1986/ ↩
  3. Mark Bradford: Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, Interview with Anita Hill, P.18 ↩
  4. The Met also owns a woodcut (a print) by Mr. Marshall ↩
  5. Containing work that is now on view at the Baltimore Museum, under its Director, Christopher Bedford, long one of the leading Mark Bradford champions ↩
  6.  //hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/mark-bradford-picketts-charge/ ↩

Shahrzad Darafsheh: Transcending Cancer With Photography

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographs by Shahrzad Darafsheh, and others as credited.

Shahrzad Darafsheh, From her new, first PhotoBook, Half-Light. Courtesy of the Artist and Gnomic Book. Click any Photo for full size.

Meet Shahrzad Darafsheh-

Shahrzad was 32 when she was diagnosed with endometriosis, which progressed to cancer and resulted in her having a radical hysterectomy followed by chemotherapy. An extremely hard course of treatment for anyone- of any age. For this young woman, who’s thoughts were on looking forward to having a family, to have to do an about face and channel all her energies into a fight for her life, is unimaginable for the rest of us. Having been through cancer, myself, one thing I learned was that every patient’s journey is unique. There are, however, some commonalities to cancer that everyone who goes through it experiences, unfortunately.

Among them, there is not one aspect of yourself, or your life, that it does not turn upside down, and forever change.

June 26, 2018, from @shindal_, Shahrzad’s Instagram page. She appropriately added the only hashtag that fits- #fuckcancer.

Yet, through this very rigorous course of treatment that lasted until just recently, she remained true to herself, a tribute to her remarkable inner fortitude and character. Shahrzad used her Photography to help ground her and express what she was feeling, experiencing and seeing. The quiet dignity and strength she exudes in the video (courtesy of the Artist and Gnomic Book) forms a peaceful core at the heart of her extraordinary new PhotoBook, Half-Light, her first PhotoBook, published this fall by Jason Koxvold’s Gnomic Book.

With thousands of new PhotoBooks being released this year, it’s hard for any one of them to stand out. Half-Light impressed me to the point that it was one of my NoteWorthy First PhotoBooks for 2018, in a ridiculously hard year to choose a few out of all the terrific first PhotoBooks I saw this year. Yes, as a testament to cancer survivorship, it’s a remarkable achievement. Then, I found its images didn’t go out of my mind once I put it down. Yes, some resonated with my own cancer experience, particularly how you see the entire world differently all of a sudden with “new eyes.” Some are abstract and some realistic, but what struck me most is they all have a poetry that’s purely her own. It’s, also, a book that doesn’t lend itself to any one reading. In fact, its that way by design. Half-Light is laid out so it can be read from left to right, as is traditional in the English speaking world, and/or from right to left as is traditional in the Farsi of her native Iran. And so, it’s a journey with multiple endings, fitting for a newly diagnosed cancer patient, but also characteristic of life in general. It’s a journey with only one page of text containing Quatrain XIV from The Rubaiyat, the quatrain about the impermanence of all things, except death, on a first page in English, and from the right, a first page in Farsi, and from there it takes place through the eyes and, as she says above, in the mind.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

After I saw that video and experienced how eloquent she is, I hoped to be able to give her a chance to express herself a bit more, and to learn more about her and how she was doing. I reached out to Shahrzad via email in Tehran, Iran, and found her to be extraordinarily warm, open and grounded. Barely through her treatment herself, she was already speaking passionately about helping other cancer patients- especially women, in Iran, and around the world. I was thrilled when she generously agreed to answer some questions even though English is not her first language, and I have the honor of sharing her words here-

Kenn Sava (KS)- How are you?

Shahrzad Darafsheh (SD)- Hi Kenn, thanks for doing this interview.

KS- If we can start by going back to your start, how did you first get interested in Photography, and how did you become a Photographer?

“Her” from @shindal_, Shahrzad Darafsheh’s Instagram page, September 25, 2017.

SD- I was born in a family with great interest in art. My father was a carpet designer and a photography enthusiast. His was engaged with colors in his work, in different shapes and forms which was my early understanding of color. As a teenager I spent my time looking at his old prints, and also spent time with my brother watching great movies of that time. My mother put me in summer art classes like drawing, pottery and sculpture. These were my major acquaintances with art, and I liked photography the most. Very soon the camera became my closest friend and looking through the viewfinder the best way to see the world. It got more serious when I started to study photography at the university and since then I never stopped taking photographs.

From The Saffron Tales, by Yasmin Khan, with Photographs by Shahrzad Darafsheh.

KS- I think most people are new to your work, and so am I. I did see a book that might have had your work in it- The Saffron Tales by Yasmin Khan? So, I’m wondering what else have you done prior to Half-Light?

From The Saffron Tales, by Yasmin Khan, with Photographs by Shahrzad Darafsheh.

SD- Yes. The Saffron Tales aims to show Iranian people and culture through their cuisine and I was commissioned to take photographs of people we met, the atmosphere, landscapes, etc., from north west to south of Iran. It was a two-year project and I learned a lot. Beside that, I had never published my photographs in a book before.

From The Saffron Tales, by Yasmin Khan, with Photography by Shahrzad Darafsheh.

KS- In the video, you speak of the home you and your have built a house in a suburb of Tehran that you love. Were you born and raised in Tehran?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Yes. We both were born and raised in Tehran. We always knew that we didn’t want to be living in the city because of all the pollution and craziness that the city offers and now we’re planning to go farther, out into nature. Since the economy is the main issue for better living and ours is so corrupted, our desire in moving lays under the layers of ambiguity.

KS- What’s it been like for you being a woman Photographer in Iran?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- I think being a female artist in itself is not so easy, as we can see the art history books are full of male artists. Everywhere in the world people are trying to bring more attention to female artists. I was aware that this year Tate Britain will exhibit six decades of women artists and according to them “female artists should be a central part of recent art history. Galleries have made progress in better representing female artists. But, it has been slow for too long. We are happy that it is speeding up.” You know this kind of thinking, and movement, is very rare in my country, so I think it’s bit harder here. I didn’t want to bring up women’s rights, censorship, everyday pressures and so much anxiety of everyday life but living in Iran is tied to these. Even though you can see more female artists, there is a long path for us to do what we love and make our living independent from our parents. I hope we can talk about it more another time.

KS- As we both know, hearing a doctor tell you, “You have cancer” is devastating. One of the worst things anyone can hear. How did you deal with it?

SD- It was few weeks after my laproscropic surgery and I was with my mom. The family worried a lot and all I wished was to lessen that pressure so I smiled! In just one second I decided that is how it’s going to be for me. I did several tests afterwards till I found out I had to take my uterus and both ovaries out. It was devastating.

April 6, 2018. During chemotherapy, away from home, staying with her mom. A Photo that appears in Half-Light.

My husband and I were trying to have a child before my first operation, doctors were saying that giving birth may reduce the symptoms of endometriosis, a reproductive organ disorder. But it caused infertility itself and I was going to lose every possibility of giving birth to a child.
I experienced a version of loneliness different from what I’ve experienced before and it had something to do with that smile. I never shared my fears, worries and tears with anyone till the end of chemotherapy.

The symptoms of “Chemo Brain,” August 3rd, 2018, during her chemotherapy treatments.

KS- It sounds to me that the choice of treatment must have been excruciatingly hard for you. As I wrote, after all my efforts and research, I made a mistake in my choice of treatment the first time I chose. What was your road like that led to your decision to go the treatment route you did- radical surgery followed by chemo?

SD- I knew there were no other choices rather than radical hysterectomy. I had tried alternative medicine for the endometriosis and it didn’t work for me. Maybe and just maybe it was my mistake. Some friends asked me what if I had taken the cysts out sooner? Nobody, even my doctors, know the answer. So I decided to let go of this thought. Also, there was a two month delay between radical surgery and chemo which frightened us a lot. But it all went well. Now the cancer is gone.

KS- Were there other doctors you could get opinions from? Did you get a second opinion?

Chemo Brian [Veins], August 11, 2018.

SD- I had my pathology samples rechecked followed with so many blood tests and they all showed stage one both ovarian and uterus cancer. I was in good hands. All three doctors that treated me are proficient. Unfortunately this is because they have too many patients. One of my surgeons operated on 5 more people after me that one day! I think despite lacking in other areas, the medical profession is at a high level in the capital and other big cities of Iran. Although they are very expensive and health insurances don’t cover most of it.

KS- What was it like being a newly diagnosed cancer patient in Tehran? Were there support groups? Did you have a choice of doctors or hospitals to be treated at?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Cancer patients are trying to talk more about their experiences to bring awareness. But, there are no support groups.

The first thing that every patient does is to google their situation in order to find out the experiences or others and if the treatment recommended to them has been successful. I did the same. I found some other patients on social media and it was a huge relief, especially during chemotherapy. I have never talked to them, I just watched their daily lives and their routines helped me stop thinking that I’m sick. And yes. There are several well equipped hospitals and great doctors but as I said before they are also expensive. I did a post in order to collect money for my first operation on Instagram selling some of my prints. And it was unbelievable. Half of my hospital bills were provided by my friends and complete strangers.

You can see the need of having support groups. It must also be simple to find them.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

KS- Is there health insurance in Iran?

SD- Yes there are several kind of health insurance in Iran. But the plans that offer the best coverage are government run and only full-time employees can have them. People who call themselves independent workers can make a full payment for a month in order to use benefit of the insurance. But in a private hospital no insurance is accepted, and they are more equipped than the other hospitals. So, I had no choice but to pay a lot of money and use the insurance for chemo.

KS- You told me you want to help start a NGO (Non-Government Organization). Can you talk about why this is needed, and your vision for it? How can others help?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- It’s a big thing starting and running a NGO. I don’t know even if they will let me!
But it’s a thing that kept my mind busy since chemo. I saw lots of men and women every three weeks, with needles in their veins, weak with a vague gaze trying to find someone to talk to. We Iranians are very supportive for each other most of the time. I rarely saw a patient alone. But there are some things that you can’t share with your loved ones. Even the cancer patient’s family can’t share their fears with the patient. We should have an actual place for patients and their families to find each other and talk. Not just some virtual spaces to type the feelings out. For that reason I need to have a bigger voice and that’s what I hope Half-Light will help me to reach. You are helping with this interview, Kenn, even before I start doing it.

KS- She didn’t say it, so I will- You can support Shahrzad by buying Half-Light, which was 200% funded on Kickstarter, while some of the 300 copies of this beautiful book remain. See BookMarks at the bottom for more information.

What would you tell other women diagnosed with endometriosis?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Some cliches matter a lot-
Listen to your body. Don’t be shy to be examined, do check ups. Eat healthy food. Exercise regularly. Avoid anxiety and stress. (I sound like Google!)
And if you want to have a child, be quick.

KS- What would you tell other women diagnosed with cancer?

SD- Don’t be afraid. It’s not just you. It doesn’t matter how you lived before but how you manage to live from now on. Cancer is not an enemy to fight, it’s a condition that needs to be understood. Because it brings you a whole new life even after you pass through it.
You will see the darkness and it’s important not to be the black-hole, let the light in.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

Breathe and live to the fullest.

KS- How long after you were diagnosed did you decide to start this body of work that became Half-Light? Besides cancer and your treatment, was there a triggering moment or event where this project began?

SD- It was a year after I was diagnosed with Endometriosis.
Funny that I had a strong fear of ovarian cancer at first but doctors told me it’s a benign cyst and rarely it turns to cancer, so dealing with its constant pain became my routine. I started to feel something growing in my body which was not a baby. It was my own tissues behaving offbeat. I wasn’t able to do most of my daily tasks half of every month for four years.

I think the pain was the triggering event. The weakness it caused and all my anxieties…

KS- But then, creating became therapeutic for you?

SD- Yes, it was. Looking for scenes to describe how I was engaging deeply with my body for the first time, gave me the ability to keep my distance with it so I could understand the situation better. It also kept my mind busy. Every progress in the state of my health came with the progress of my work.
I did scans with pleasure, it gave me very nice material to work with. I owe my sanity to photography.

KS- Where have you gotten all of your amazing strength from?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Thank you for saying that. Honestly, I consider myself a strong person when I confront my body and mind. I’ve always loved challenging situations. Although I never thought it would be fear of death someday.
The body is in constant change as are our thoughts. In my opinion, both are controllable, especially at hard moments.
And I have a deep connection with nature. It always teaches me that nothing stays the same, be ready for change and accept what comes and how things happen.

KS- How long did you spend shooting this body of work?

SD- Since 2015. I choose to close it now after the test results came. So I’ve worked on this project for about three years.

KS- How did you find Jason (Koxvold of Gnomic Book)?

SD- While surfing on the internet. I felt a deep connection with his photographs. We were following each other’s work for a year. He wanted to see some of my work once but it was the begining of my journey through surgeries and so it didn’t happen. Jason reached to me, again, six months after that, when the chemo started. It was magical. For me, for my family and friends.

Working on my first book, this was how I spend my time during chemo. I say Half-Light is my child with cancer and it needs good care to grow.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

KS- Jason Koxvold is a Photographer & Artist in his own right. In two short years, the publishing company he started, Gnomic Book, has already made a name for itself as a producer of important, beautifully made PhotoBooks. Shane Rocheleau’s 2018 Gnomic Book, YAMOTFABAATA was one of my Noteworthy PhotoBooks of 2018. Jason’s own PhotoBook, KNIVES, is a powerful look at our changing world through focusing on one small area of upstate New York as it struggles to deal with the loss of its 150 year old knife factory- its largest employer, to China. At this point in the conversation, I reached out to Jason to learn more about how Half-Light came to light.

KS- Jason, how did you come to discover Shahrzad and this body of her work?

Jason Koxvold (JK)- About a year ago I saw Shahrzad’s work on instagram. I forget how I came across it, but it immediately resonated with me. We live in a time where so much work looks the same; it begins with one artist developing a specific visual language, then other artists mimic it, and then it becomes available as a VSCO preset and suddenly everyone’s doing it it. This was entirely not the case with Shahrzad’s work. I could see that she was telling a story, but I didn’t know what it was.

Each page of Half-Light is interleaved with a sheet that acts as a screen, as seen here, which presents an image that’s seen through a haze, or a veil- in “half-light.”

When you turn the “screen” page, you see the image, fully.

She didn’t appear to have a web site, so I reached out to her to ask if it would be possible to see a more coherent body of work – it was then that she told me that she was battling cancer, and that it was hard to find the energy to put something together for me in the short term.

KS- What were the difficulties in trying to publish this book, given that the Artist is in Iran?

JK- The biggest questions for me were the unknowns. I didn’t know if the work would get her into any kind of trouble; we hear stories of women attracting the attention of the authorities by showing their hair on Instagram, for example. I didn’t know if we would be able to send her any of her own books, from a US legal perspective and from an Iranian censorship perspective (we’re still waiting to see if the books are censored on arrival).

But in terms of the practicalities of making the work, it was surprisingly easy. We were able to have lengthy video conversations on Skype, exchange high-resolution files over Dropbox and Wetransfer, and even footage for the short film we made together about the work.

KS- What was your role?

The Farsi front cover of Half-Light, once removed from its bag, which is the back cover for English readers.

JK- Shahrzad was very open to my ideas around the form and sequencing of the book. My idea was around translucency and opacity, both from the perspective of the human body and the body politic of Iran. The sequence would create a journey from lightness to dark, as a Western reader – and the opposite, when read in Farsi. Shane Rocheleau helped with the sequencing as well; I always appreciate his ability to see not only the overarching story of a piece, but also connect individual images in more ephemeral moments.

KS- Shahrzad, have you seen the physical book yet? Jason told me you had not as of the NYABF in late September. If you have seen it, what do you think of it?

Shahrzad Darafsheh (SD)- Yes, I received my copy two months after it was published.
It looks and feels great. Jason did a great job with choosing the paper and everything. Such understanding in spite of such a long distance between us is unforgettable.

KS- Is there a community of Photographers in Tehran?

SD- Yes, there is National Iranian Photographer’s Society.

KS- I read that another Iranian Photographer, Shirin Aliabad, recently passed away from cancer. Did you know her?

Shirin Aliabadi, Miss Hybrid, 2008. The bandage on the nose indicates a nose job, which are popular in Iran, as the western “upturned nose” is highly sought after. *Photo courtesy The Third Line, Dubai

SD- Unfortunately this is the fourth female artist I’ve heard pass away from cancer this year. I’m familiar with her “ Miss Hybrid” series.

KS- Shirin Aliabad’s series, “Miss Hybrid,” was about “showing a Tehran that the Western media doesn’t show,” her husband and collaborator said in the New York Times. The Photographs in Half-Light have a universal feel to them, something that also might surprise Western readers- Most of them could be taken almost anywhere, something that will allow them to speak to a very wide range of viewers, though it’s an extraordinarily personal, and beautiful, book. Was this part of your intention?

SD- I’m very glad that it can speak universally. I never intended to do that. I think that’s how I see my world, Not really different from yours.

KS- What have you learned from cancer?

SD- To be me. To be here and now. To stop worrying and never stop loving.

KS- So…What’s next?

SD- I’m planning to have an exhibition and show Half-Light to a wider audience in Tehran.
Also I’m working on my proposal for gathering cancer patients together with the hope of bringing more quality to our lives.

-Though that ends our interview, the best thing Shahrzad shared with me was still to come. On December 23rd, she told me that her follow up tests after the completion of her treatments came back clean, with no sign of cancer! She said she was “super excited” about it.

Now, she can get back to sharing her beautiful, “full-light,” with the world.

BookMarks-

Half-Light by Shahrzad Darafsheh, which I selected as one of my NoteWorthy First PhotoBooks of 2018, is published in a first edition/first printing of only 300 copies, and is available from the increasingly impressive Gnomic Book, here. Jason Koxvold’s KNIVES and Shane Rocheleau’s YAMOTFABAATA, both published by Gnomic, are also recommended, and both are still available there as well. (All three are on sale as I write this.)

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Heaven Is In Your Mind” by Traffic, the first track on their first album, 1967’s classic Mr. Fantasy.

My thanks to Shahrzad Darafsheh and Jason Koxvold. 

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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R.I.P. Sister Wendy

Written by Kenn Sava

Terribly sad news reached me that Sister Wendy Beckett passed away earlier today at 88. As one of the countless millions who watched her religiously on TV and video, I loved the new style of Art criticism she brought based on her surprisingly open-minded insights and decades of study. As one got to know a little about her, her life as a cloistered nun made it seem incongruent that she would be able to discuss earthly Art so openly. But, she did, and in the process enthralled countless viewers, and readers, with her insights and passion. She was so dedicated to living a life of denial she didn’t go to museums! She learned about Art through books.

Sister Wendy outside the trailer she lived in on the grounds of the Carmelite Monastery in East Haring, England. Photographer unknown.

To know the works only through books where even in the best ones you’ll see a given work from one, maybe two Photos, and then to finally SEE all of them in person?

Sister Wendy in New York harbor circa the late 1990’s with the World Trade Center in the background. The opening shot of PBS’ Sister Wendy’s American Collection- The Metropolitan Museum.

Think how incredible it must have been for her to finally go to The Met, for example, having suddenly become a most unexpected television star, first for the BBC and then for PBS, when she made the terrific documentary about it for Sister Wendy’s American Collection. It makes me feel a bit guilty for having been to The Met a thousand and a half or so times since 2002.

Sister Wendy seeing Rembrandt’s Aristotle with a  Bust of Homer, 1653,  in one of the European Paintings galleries on the 2nd floor from Sister Wendy’s American Collection- The Metropolitan Museum. Before it was moved, I stood there many times looking at it and thinking about what it was like for her to stand here and see it in person.

Isn’t it ironic, and strangely fitting, that for someone who discovered and learned so much about Art through books, so many others have discovered her and learned so much about Art through her books and videos?

It was a huge learning experience for her, too. I first discovered Sister Wendy through her articles in Modern Painters magazine. The name “Sister Wendy Beckett” at the top stopped me. Who? Her articles there are different than her books and magazine. They are text with few illustrations, but her “magic” shines through. Yet, as good as they are, these pieces were a drop in the bucket of Sister Wendy’s vast knowledge of Art and Art history, as we were to soon find out. Whoever chose her to be on television was brilliant. Becoming the host of video series on the BBC and PBS here in the US, she found herself having to explore Art in realms outside of her favorites. She said of this, “…one also has to remember that if I’m to do encyclopedic museums and give a fair idea of what’s in them, I have to move outside medieval art, Oriental art, ceramics, and the Old Masters. If I had stuck just to what I myself love best, every program would have been exactly the same, because each of these museums has superb holdings in my four favorite areas. But nobly, self-sacrificingly, thinking only of the good of others, I forced myself to investigate areas of art into which perhaps I had up to now taken little interest. As always happens with self-sacrifice, I was blissfully rewarded.” This is something I always keep in mind when I come across something new that doesn’t speak to me right away. I’ve learned to keep looking.

Sister Wendy, seen in the Egyptian Galleries at The Met around 1999, with Fragmentary Head of a Queen, 18th Dynasty, c1352 BC, a personal favorite of hers in all of The Met’s collection. I was astounded when I found that out- It’s such a small work, usually displayed in a small room, off the court leading to the famous Temple of Dundur that I’m sure most visitors to The Met miss it. Yet, Sister Wendy, somehow, found it, and spoke about the beauty and tragedy of this work and what it means in our time, 3300 years later, brilliantly. Just remarkable.

To this day, I can’t look at it without thinking about her. These two Photos are stills from Sister Wendy’s American Collection- The Metropolitan Museum.

As you watch, it’s hard to tell which areas are new to her and which aren’t, she speaks so passionately about all of them.

On the grounds of the Monastery. Photographer unknown.

After she completed the televisions series and wrote a number of books she retired from Art History and went back to the seclusion she lived in ever since. To her trailer, seeing or speaking with no one, save the nun who brings her meals and collects her laundry.

Though I’m not religious, Sister Wendy has been a huge influence on me, and I’m sure many, many others. She, and Lana Hattan, are the two reasons NighthawkNYC exists. While I begged her in these pages almost three years ago to come back to us, it was not to be. Now, I’m eternally grateful to her for creating the large body of videos and books she did, which is extraordinary given her beliefs and dedication to living a cloistered life.  It’s endlessly interesting to me that she chose to venture into the world this publicly for these few short years, but she gave the world a blessing that I hope will live on and inspire others for as long as Art does.

When you take it all into consideration? It’s remarkable we had her at all. Today, I give thanks that we did.

Her legacy will live on in the sheer joy of discovering Art that she inspired in others, and as a result, through all of those who’s lives she touched. Including countless people she never even met.

Sister Wendy gave a huge gift to all of us. 

BookMarks-

This is not a posed photo.

Without doubt, my favorite Sister Wendy book is Sister Wendy’s The Story of Painting. In my opinion it is the place to begin a Western Art History library. Book #1. The first one to get. Though out of print, copies are still to be found at reasonable prices. If you are getting it to be a cornerstone of your Art History library, get the hardcover version, since it will hold up much better than the paperback, which is too big for its binding in my experience. She covers the entire canon, through all it’s periods, in all its many styles. Right up to the fairly recent past. It’s surprisingly thorough for an overview. And? Her choices can be, well, eccentric, but almost no one can make a case for ANY work of Art like Sister Wendy. If a work spoke to her? She shows it. It doesn’t matter if the Artist is a household name, or not. That’s something that has been at the forefront of my mind ever since- Let the Art speak to you and pay attention to what does. All these years later? There’s no greater lesson to be learned in studying, or enjoying, Art than that. 

Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces  is every bit as good though it doesn’t follow the trail of time that Story of Painting does chronologically. Masterpieces is arranged alphabetically by Artist, so it moves all over time and periods as you turn the page. I recommend it for those who want to read her thoughts about works not included in Story of, which anyone taken by her will want to, and to those who can’t find Story of.  It’s done in almost exactly the same style as Story of Painting, but? If it ain’t broke…

Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting is also my favorite Sister Wendy video series. Luckily, it’s still available as part of Sister Wendy – The Complete Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass). For me as an Art lover? Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting is among the best things I’ve ever seen on television. It deserves to be as popular as Seinfeld. For a while there when it was originally on, it got to be about as close to it as might be possible for an Art History show. It’s still the best series of its kind there is. 

After that,Sister Wendy’s American Collection is an extraordinary chance to visit six of the greatest American museums with Sister Wendy. Virtually every moment of them is a wonder, the revelations are constant, thought-provoking and timeless. As I wrote three years ago, I was flabbergasted that she was able to visit “my Museum” and point out things that almost no one would know. She made it seem “new” to me and that’s something I found shocking from someone who had never been there, and I still do. 

I long felt that I would have given anything to have gone to a museum with her. This was as close as I got. Here’s your chance- to go to six of them with her. As with any Art she spoke or wrote about? You’ll learn something new- every single time. 

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Grace,” written and performed by Jeff Buckley on Grace. About it, Jeff said, “It’s about not feeling so bad about your own mortality when you have true love.” I chose this because though she was a cloistered nun who lived as a hermit, Sister Wendy well knew of and felt deeply about the trouble, the “fire” in the world, which she said is “not what it should be. It’s an aggressive, unloving world,” in her comments about the Fragmentary Head of a Queen, 18th Dynasty, c1352 BC, seen earlier, which had been broken by forces or people unknown to us. And? Because she had true love…

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
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Take a Tour of The Legendary People’s Art School, Vitebsk

Written by Kenn Sava. Video by Lana Hattan.

2018 marks the 100th Anniversary of the founding of one of the most important Art Schools in Modern Art, in one of the most remarkable small buildings in modern Art History- the People’s Art School, 10 Bukharin Street in Vitebsk, Belarus. In September, 1918, Marc Chagall was appointed Commissar of Arts for the Vitebsk Region by the new Communist government of the USSR. He then brought Kazamir Malevich, El Lissitzky, Yehuda Pen and others, in to be teachers in the school. Malevich, who had developed Suprematism around 1915, founded UNOVIS, or Followers of the New Art, in the building on February 14, 1920, to spread Suprematism throughout society and the world, which it proceeded to do well into the 1920s. Today, Suprematism’s influence is global and can be seen in the work of William Kentridge, Nasreen Mohamedi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.

Somehow, the School building survived the biggest battle in history when the Nazis invaded Belarus in World War II, though virtually the entire city of Vitebsk around it was destroyed. Now, it has been beautifully restored and rededicated as the Museum Dedicated to the People’s Art School. 

To honor this, International Art Researcher Lana Hattan spent the summer in Vitebsk producing an introductory video tour of the beautiful building and some of the special exhibitions going on under its director Andrey Duhovnikov. Nastya Kunashko worked with Ms. Hattan on the video, and I was brought in to create the English captions. 

100 years later, Suprematism remains a highly influential movement, and the 100th Anniversary of the School has been marked by exhibitions all around the world including one at MoMA I wrote about earlier this year (which included a number of historic and contemporary Photos), a show at the Royal Academy of Art, London, another at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Currently, there is an exhibition honoring all that went on 100 years ago in Vitebsk by Chagall, Malevich and the others is at the Jewish Museum, NYC. 

A most remarkable story from one remarkable small building.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is Vitebsk by Aaron Copland.

My thanks to Lana Hattan.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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Burt Glinn: Meet The Beats

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

It’s impossible to walk around NYC and not be walking on history. More often than not? You’re walking on a spot where something historic happened. Usually, time and “progress” have left no reminder. You have to be an historian to know, or a long time resident to remember. Unless someone pulls your coat. Just this happened to me this past May 5th as I was walking down Cooper Square between East 4th and 5th Streets in the Lower East Side. When someone did…

Once upon a time…On THIS spot stood The Five Spot Cafe, Cooper Square at East 5th Street, Lower East Side, (LES), NYC, May 5, 2018. Well? It’s gone now. But, is it? Chalk Editor’s Note- Add “This” in front of “was once…” Click any Photo for full size.

This story begins with chalk on the pavement, and a box.

From everything I’ve heard about it, as a lifelong Jazz fan, and in preparing this piece, considering the Musicians who performed there, the Artists, Writers and Poets who frequented it? In the late 1950’s, the Five Spot was THE hippest place on earth. A temporary sign seen on the fence where it stood, above the sidewalk shot, May, 2018, shows Billie Holiday (who made some of her final performances here), Ornette Coleman, who changed the course of Jazz History, and a very rare Photo of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane performing here, top, by unknown Photographers.

Shortly after the very moment I felt that tug on my coat, a discovery long hidden in the estate of a Magnum Photographer who passed away in 2008 would bring history back to life in the form of a PhotoBook and 2 shows. Before I get too far ahead of myself…

Magnum Photos has been around as the world’s leading Photo Agency, documenting what is history now for 71 years, since being founded by legends Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson along with David “Chim” Seymour, George Rodger, William & Rita Vendivert and Maria Eisner in 1947. Along the way many of the greatest Photographers of our time have been members at one point or another. Today, it’s going as strong as ever, with as well-rounded a roster as its possibly ever had, including Harry Gruyaert, who I recently interviewed, and other living legends, including Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt and Susan Meiselas, as well as a veritable “all-star team” of younger Artists counting Alec Soth, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Cristina de Middel and, in 2018, Gregory Halpern among them.

Those who come now are standing on the shoulders of giants of Photography.

With so many luminaries in its already storied history, it’s easy for one to slip into a bit of a lack of attention from time to time. Take Burt Glinn for example. Born in Pittsburgh in 1925, he joined Magnum in 1951, one of the first group of Americans in the member owned organization. He became president of it in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. He achieved fame for his international work, including beautiful Portraits of Russia and Japan in color, as well as for his coverage of the Cuban Revolution, which saw him somehow gain access to Fidel Castro and his inner circle. Back at home, he profiled Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Katherine Hepburn, while also shooting Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to NYC. Burt Glinn is one of those Photographers who might illicit a “who?” from some today, but as soon as you start looking at his work, that’s quickly replaced by, “Oh, that’s his. So is that. So is that…” Like this one, perhaps the most famous image of Andy Warhol with Edie Sedgewick-

Andy Warhol with Edie Sedgwick and Chuck Wein, 1965, New York City. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos.

Or, this unbelievable moment-

Nikita Khrushchev in front of the Lincoln Memorial, 1959, Washington, D.C. “Without a doubt,” the image of his that he most closely identifies with1. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos.

But, there are many sides to the work of Burt Glinn. In fact, so many sides, some are still coming to light 10 years after his passing in 2008. While working on an upcoming Burt Glinn Retrospective, Michael Shulman of Magnum Photos, Elena Glinn, the Artist’s widow, and Tony Nourmand of Reel Art Press discovered a box labelled “nonconformists.” Inside were never before seen Photos of those legendary “nonconformists,” the Beats, along with his notes and an original Jack Kerouac manuscript! The Retrospective was immediately put on hold while Reel Art Press published the beautiful PhotoBook, Burt Glinn: the beat scene, in July, that includes the first color Photographs of the Beats ever published. Some of these images were then shown at the Beat Museum, San Francisco, in July, and now others, including many not published in the book, were exhibited at Burt Glinn: Photographs of the New York Beat Scene at New York’s renowned Jason McCoy Gallery, a 40 year fixture in the famous NYC Art Mecca, the Fuller Building, on West 57th Street, from September 12th through October 12th.

Installation view of the entrance to, Burt Glinn: Photographs of the New York Beat Scene, at Jason McCoy Gallery.

The NYC Art world is a mysterious place to most people on the outside, so having the rare chance to walk through a show in a famous gallery with its curator, particularly this show’s curator, Samantha McCoy, who works regularly with the Photographs of this Artist and his estate, at Magnum Photos, was a special privilege. It turned out that Samantha was also curating a show by Artist Carla Gimbatti at ChaShaMa– at the same time! “He’s a chameleon,” she warned me before we began. As we turned the corner into the first gallery, I saw what she meant.

Jack Kerouac holds forth to an enraptured audience, Seven Arts Coffee Gallery, 1959. This is how it started- with a poet or writer reading his work aloud in coffee shops, bars, or wherever they could.  I’d love to know if that woman laughing in the back was laughing at something Jack said, or not. Everyone else looks very serious. The beret became a Beat trademark. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

As we looked, it immediately became apparent that these aren’t just any Photos of the Beats (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, who was later change his name to Amiri Baraka, and Gregory Corso). They’re a fascinating window into their daily lives, an invitation to hang out with them in moments public and private, and, in a revelation, they also offer an unprecedented chance to see the Beats in the company of a number of Painters and Sculptors, including Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, David Smith, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Larry Rivers, and Musicians, including David Amram and Lee Bostic. These images fire the imagination as they draw you in to ponder just what was being discussed. In addition to being beautiful Photographs that add another dimension to Burt Glinn’s achievement, like so many of his other works, these are vitally important historical and cultural documents. To top it all off, the book and the shows mark the first time color Photographs of the Beats in their early days have been seen!

Young Helen Frankenthal her in her studio working on an abstract expressionist painting. I always look at her work and wonder how she Painted it. Now, I have an idea. Helen Frankenthaler at about age 28, rarely seen at work in this period, shown in the act of creation in her NYC studio in 1957, in color! Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

Given her experience working with Burt Glinn’s Photographs at Magnum, I asked Samantha what surprised her about this newly discovered body of work. “Before learning about the release of the beat scene by Reel Art Press, I was actually not at all familiar with this particular body of work,” she said. “It was a surprising and exciting discovery. I found it particularly impressive to learn that Burt had followed the Beats on his own accord2. As Elena Glinn informed me, ‘It was Burt’s roommate, Clay Felker, who had said to Burt, ‘We have to do something with these nonconformists who are all over the place. Go after those guys. Go to openings.’ Burt just did it, and he went to everything. He went to the poetry readings, to the gallery openings, to artist’s studios.'”

3 years younger than Jack Kerouac, a year older than Allen Ginsberg and 3 years older than Helen Frankenthaler, Burt fit right in with the Beats and the Artists.

” I love how Burt is able to transport you to this pivotal time in New York; he had this uncanny ability to really capture the atmosphere in such a way that you feel you are there,” Ms. McCoy added. “He was a true chameleon in that sense. And then, of course, to put this series into the context of everything else he was shooting at that time is all the more riveting. He was an immensely gifted storyteller.”

Speaking of telling stories, Samantha McCoy was, also, doing just that in the way she installed the show. As we see in this particularly interesting grouping she chose. Upper left, Dancer Anita Huffington and Willem de Kooning, 1957 NYC, Painter Barnett Newman at a gallery opening, 1957, NYC, right. Lower left and lower right- 2 Photos from the series Jack Kerouac holds forth to an enraptured audience, Seven Arts Coffee Gallery, 1959. As she says, Burt Glinn seemed to be everywhere.

I asked Samantha about the her groupings that seem to tell “short stories” within the larger body, and about her approach to installing this show. She said, “This is a very keen observation, and was definitely on my mind while curating, though I must say Burt’s work lends itself to this type of curation.”

Four from the series, Things get rough. John Rapinic restraints Corso who hurls insults at reporter: “But you don’t understand Kangaroonian weep! For sake thy trade! Flee to Enchenedian Islands”
And foreground, wizened Kerouac plays it cooler, 1959, NYC. That is Burt Glinn’s title for this series!

She continued, “There were so many anecdotes that spoke to me when I was making the edit, so I suppose I was hoping to give each of them life. The Beat life in New York was full of small stories, in different landscapes and pockets of New York. I wanted the viewer to have a feeling of all of them, as well as the scope of this movement.”

This wall, in particular, is full of unexpected intimacies. It starts with LeRoi Jones at home, Newark, New Jersey, USA, 1959, seen, apparently unawares, sitting in the window of his Jersey City home, right, and includes Photos of Helen Frankenthaler hugging David Smith, far left and below, as well as the group of four seen just earlier.

Particularly interesting to me is that these Photos were taken at the exact moment when the first generation Abstract Expressionists were seeing their hold on the cult of culture in NYC begin to gravitate to the Beats3, which would continue well into the Rock ‘n Roll era of the 1960s and beyond. NYC, and indeed, the world, would never be the same.

HOW was Burt Glinn able to get this shot? Painter Helen Frankenthaler and Sculptor David Smith in Frankenthaler’s studio, New York City, 1957. My favorite image in the show. David Smith is a very under-appreciated Artist, today, in my view, but not, apparently, by Ms. Frankenthaler.

Installation view of the excellent David Smith: Origins & Inventions, Hauser & Wirth, NYC, December 21, 2017.

No less than half of the Photos included in the show (22) were taken in 1957, the year On The Road was published, the very moment the Beats rose to cultural and literary prominence. That same summer, on stage at the Five Spot, the great Thelonious Monk was joined by the equally great John Coltrane, recordings of which were discovered and released in 1993. A further 14 of these Photos were taken in 1959, the year that Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, and David Amram, featured here, also appeared in Robert Frank’s legendary film, Pull My Daisy. And, 1959 was also the year that Burt Glinn received the Matthew Brady Award for Magazine Photographer of the Year from the University of Missouri. Heady times, indeed.

Burt Glinn’s startling color Photos of the Beats are the first ever published. Here- A Chess interlude during a break in the revelry at the Blackhawk, a night spot on the corner of Turk and Hyde Street where eminent jazz performers are often to be found in action. The player making the move here is Earl Bostic virtuoso of the loud  tone alto, 1960, San Francisco.

Although he later went to San Francisco to Photograph the Beat scene there, only one of those shots is on view here. “I really wanted to stay focused on the New York work,” Samantha said.

The crowd outside the Five Spot. I love that the sign scream THIS is the place! Unknown date. Unknown Photographer.

In New York, along with the famous Cedar Tavern, perhaps no where was more the place to be in the day than the Five Spot. There aren’t many Photos of the club, or what was going on inside of it, so Burt Glinn’s are an invaluable addition to those we have, taking us right into the midst of it.

Live from the Five Spot. This looks like Burt Glinn was actually right onstage! David Amran entertains at the Five Spot Cafe, 1957. Then, as now, a French Horn is still unusual to see in a Jazz club. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

Then, there are the recollections of those who were there4. I asked gallery owner Jason McCoy what he thought of the show, he said, “The photographs and the New York light brought back a nostalgia and sense of smell I associate with tenement hallways in Chinatown and in the Bowery, all places frequented by artists in those days!”

A back table at the Five Spot. left to right are sculptor David Smith, Art guru frank O’Hara, 
a poet; Larry rivers and grace Harriman, both artists; an economist, Sydney Rolfe, dancer Anita Huffington, and Bill Hunter a neurosurgeon. The lady with her back to the camera is painter Helen Frankenthaler. Peak crowd is about midnight. In quieter moments a poet will sometimes read his verse to the music. Bar jumps till 4 AM, NYC, 1957. A wonderful composition. My guess is that this is the corner seen in the top, right of center in the preceding Photo. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

During this time, Burt Glinn was not only busy documenting the activities of the famous and the rising stars, he was also, everywhere else. He showed up at parties where none of the “big names” were. He haunted side streets as well as the bars, all of this enabled him to capture the full flavor of the scene, catching its atmosphere as he strove to find its essence. He’s even in Washington Square as the sun rises on a new day catching a lone minstrel with an acoustic guitar putting the night to bed with a song.

It’s a new day rising. A streak of loneliness runs through these Gordy evenings on the town. Today, a lone guitarist plays the last music of the night, NYC, 1959. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

No matter where he is, in his photos you’re right there- sitting at a crowded table, having drinks, and discussing literature, poetry, Art, life. You’re hunched in a corner of the Five Spot listening to the band, though you can’t even see all the musicians. Or, you’re listening to the Beat poets recite or test drive their latest creation at 2 a.m. You’re in the studio with Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, and others. You’re going over to visit LeRoi Jones…

For the Beats, it was the best of times. Soon, millions of young people (including four lads from Liverpool, England, who would borrow the name) would aspire to be part of what was happening right in front of Burt Glinn’s lens. Back when very few knew.

Walking into history. Samantha McCoy told me chose this work to close the show as a “fitting farewell.” From left to right: Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and an unidentified woman. New York City, USA, 1957.

Jack Kerouac knew. He wrote a piece to accompany Burt’s Photographs called “and this is the beat nightlife of new york,” which reminded me why I went through a “Kerouac period.” Fittingly, the original was found with them. Where it belongs. Like in a time capsule. A parchment testament of the times.

But not the New York Times, these are the On The Road times. The Dharma Bums times. The Howl times. The Subterraneans times. The ‘Round Midnight times. The Pull My Daisy times.

The times they were a-changin.

5 Cooper Square, NYC, October, 2018.

BookMarks–

As seen at The Strand Bookstore.

the beat scene: Photographs by Burt Glinn– Includes that terrific essay by Jack Kerouac, “and this is the beat nightlife of new york,” 170 Photographs, including the first 70 color Photos of the Beats in their early days ever published, and many Photos that show more of the public, and private, life of the Beats, the Artists, Musicians and others. It’s a unique PhotoBook because it shows seminal figures in 20th century Art, Music and Literature in close proximity as they live their lives at what was a key moment in each of their lives, and the culture of the world, along with other folks the world either never knew or has already forgotten, who, as Samantha McCoy said, “were more friends and drinking buddies.” Recommended.

Allen Ginsberg Photographs, 1990- is the other classic book of Photographs of the Beats. Ginsberg is a Poet whose work seems every bit as relevant today as it was when he wrote it, and his Photographs came to public attention, and acclaim, late in his life. They deserve the acclaim, in my opinion. Andrew Roth agreed and he included Allen Ginsberg: Photographs in his The Book of 101 Books: Seminal PhotoBooks of the Twentieth Century, one of the standard references on the subject for many. To date, I have only seen 1991 second edition copies and I found the reproductions lacking, though they are printed in a nice size. Perhaps the paper hasn’t aged well, I’m not sure. Perhaps they’re better in the out of print first edition, or perhaps this important part of Mr. Ginsberg’s oeuvre needs a new edition. In that case, unlike Allen Ginsberg: Photographs, he will no longer be able to oversee it, unfortunately. Recommended, if you can find a copy who’s reproductions do justice to the work.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is The Thelonious Monk Quartet: Live at the Five Spot: Discovery!, a very rare meeting of two Musical giants of the 20th century, Monk & John Coltrane, (let alone whoever may  have been in the audience that night), part of which you can hear, here-

My thanks to Samantha McCoy of Magnum Photos, and to Jason McCoy and Amanda Konishi of Jason McCoy Gallery.

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  1.  https://web.archive.org/web/20091229204516/http://www.nppa.org:80/news_and_events/news/2008/04/glinn.html ↩
  2. Later, he was given an assignment to Photograph the San Francisco Beats for Holiday Magazine. Some of these images were last, and only, seen there, and in a few other magazines of the time. The rest have not been seen previously. ↩
  3. Partially due to the tragic death of Jackson Pollock, Jason McCoy’s uncle, on August 11, 1956 at 44 ↩
  4. You can read the recollections of some of the Musicians who played there, here. ↩

Brimstone And Blood: Q&A With Shane Rocheleau

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographed by Kenn Sava & Shane Rocheleau.

Five Photographs, in the recent Aint-Bad Curator’s Choice, Issue No. 12, and the accompanying interview with Stephen Frailey who chose him to be included, were enough for me to put Shane Rocheleau on my “watch list.” It turned out I didn’t have to wait long to see more.

This Photo is called Broken Stake in the book. I’ve also seen it referred to as Bleeding Stake. As he reminded me when we spoke, a stake has a number of purposes…and meanings. This one also serves to create a riveting image. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals. Click any Photo for full size.

Coming upon the Gnomic Book publisher’s table at the recent LES Fotobookfair, Mr. Rocheleau was on hand to sign his new Gnomic release, and first PhotoBook, You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals (or YAMOTFABAATA, as it reads on its spine and so, is referred to). There he was discussing what he considers to be a good job of gluing the endpapers as I approached. When he paused, I asked him if I could see the copy he was holding.

You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals, by Shane Rocheleau, his first book, just published by Gnomic Book

The YAMOTFABAATA experience begins with the cover, which I swear has hypnotic qualities. The book is so beautiful to hold you don’t want to put it down. Opening it and looking inside, my initial conception of his work was quickly obliterated as I moved through the beautiful volume he handed me. I immediately realized that this was no mere collection of fine Photographs. Each Photo is exquisitely considered- both in its execution and in its placement. Here is a powerful book of visual poetry that casts a far ranging net capturing slices of the essence of the American condition in 2018, in macro and micro terms, with an epic impact that borders on the biblical.

Or, YAMOTFABAATA the first book by Shane Rocheleau, just published by Gnomic Book. It’s a beautiful publication, clad in a stunning iradescent grape fabric called Bamberger Kaliko Duo. Its gleaming gold edging, carrying over the gold of the font. The whole thing has the feel of a Bible, echoing to the quote from Genesis in the title.

I had gone to the LES FBF to see two new books- Kris Graves’ A Bleak Reality, and Jason Koxvold’s Knives, that rarest of PhotoBooks that has its own tote bag (sold separately). While I came away very impressed with both, YAMOTFABAATA turned out to be my biggest discovery at the fair. As I looked through it, and Knives, I was struck by the similarity and the differences of the two books, both published by Jason’s publishing company, Gnomic Book.

Shane Rocheleau, left, with his good friend, multi-talented Artist/Photographer and Gnomic Book publisher, Jason Koxvold, at the MoMA/PS1 Book Fair, September 22, 2018. The spiffy Knives tote bag is seen over Jason’s shoulder.

Some background- Shane Rocheleau received his MFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 2007. He has taught photography as an Assistant Professor of Art at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, as an Adjunct Professor at numberous institutions, and presently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at VCU. IMDb lists him as the Writer, Director & Producer of the a 2008 short, Tide. YAMOTFABAATA is indeed a book that has a cinematic feel to it. As I wrote in my Third Anniversary Post in July, of my intention to ramp up the coverage of Artists who are not “big names” yet, but who are doing great and/or important work that I feel deserves to be better known. Shane Rocheleau is one such Photographer.

Researching Mr. Rocheleau, I was struck by his down to earth eloquence in the interviews I came across. Given the abstract nature of the images in his book, and the lack of any words from him in it, beyond some titles, I decided his voice should be the one featured in this piece, feeling that this would be the best way to compliment his exceptional book. For additional background on YAMOTFABAATA and Gnomic Book, which in two short years has gotten off to an auspicious start, I also reached out to Jason Koxvold with some questions, and his answers I weave into the following discussion with Mr. Rocheleau.

The first image in the book reminded me of the planets aligning in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, until I discovered its title. Musket Balls. A fitting opening salvo, given the subject matter. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

Kenn Sava (KS)- Let’s start near the beginning, Shane…When did you first become interested in Photography?

Shane Rocheleau (SR)- First day of classes a couple weeks ago, I asked my students a similar question: “I didn’t discover photography until my freshman year of High School”; “In fifth grade”; “When I was three”. That artists are discovering photography so young is wonderful news for the medium. Photography found me when I was 22.  Two friends of mine and I went cross-country in a 1990-something blue Ford Escort Hatchback. I had no illusions that I’d write the great American road-trip novel, but I figured I’d try anyhow. First night, we camped on the shore of Lake Eerie.  We awoke next morning seeing sparks and feeling the gasoline running through us, intent on getting elsewhere. My buddy handed me his little Kodak Andvantix camera: “Take a pic of me at the water’s edge.” “Yup, got it.” When I released the shutter (and I’m very sorry for the pun, but) something clicked. I really never gave him that camera back. Every town we hit I went straight to the drugstore to find film. Photographically, I’m still on that trip. (Suffice to say, the novel didn’t get written.) 

KS- What, or who, were your influences?

SR- It was somewhere in Wyoming in July, 1999 that I said to myself, “I think I want to be a photographer.” At that moment, I knew of exactly one photographer: Ansel Adams.  Through him, I discovered Edward Weston, Minor White, and Wynn Bullock. The latter two became my heroes. And for several years, I knew very few others, maybe only Richard Avedon. I’ve always tended toward the hermitage, and my hermitage kept me fairly naïve in those pre-Google days.  

In the last decade, though, I’ve been endlessly influenced!  To name a few:  Ron Jude, Heikki Kaski, Dana LIxenberg, Alec Soth, Katrin Koenning, Bill Henson, Brian Ulrich, Cig Harvey, Greg Halpern, Robert Bergman, and on and on.

Narcissus. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA. To read Mr. Rocheleau’s comment on Ovid’s Narcissus, click this footnote1.

KS- I’ve seen some of the images in YAMOTFABAATA previously in A Glorious Victory online- What’s the genesis of YAMOTFABAATA?

SR- My collaborative project (with Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa and Brian Ulrich, primarily), A Glorious Victory, is about Petersburg, Virginia, and one I worked on immediately following Oyster Park, (a series of pictures I made 2011-2013, when I spent days and night hanging out with a local group of homeless men). While it’s impossible to pinpoint the moment YAMOTFABAATA began, it may have been when one morning a prospective portrait subject walked me around to the front of the motel where I’d been spending time. The police, medics, and press had gone, but the murder scene remained, seemingly untouched (“Site of the Death of Edward Jones”).  The rich red vestiges of a man’s life left me drained and scared and liminal.  I didn’t make a picture for another month. My guess is that when I picked the camera up again, it began turning away from Petersburg and toward myself. Slowly out of this inflection point rose YAMOTFABAATA.

George’s Camp in Snow, from Oyster Park. About as clear of a definition of “homeless” as I’ve seen, and one of the most poignant. Photo by Shane Rocheleau.

KS- You’ve taken numerous Photos of homeless people, including those in Oyster Park, which is about them, as you say, and again in YAMOTFABAATA, where they are one element of the larger picture. When did you begin to take Photos of the homeless? Was it hard to gain the confidence of these folks?

SR- I moved to the Southside of Richmond in 2012. After work each day, I would take my exit home and pass a group of men who shared the corner at the bottom of the ramp. I lived just three blocks from where these men spent their days. On closer inspection, I realized there were tents everywhere, hidden if one doesn’t think to look. These men were my neighbors. Over a few months, I just couldn’t shake that “homeless” men may be the most objectified demographic in our country. One day I stopped my car and walked up to Deano, Lee, Juan, Bob, and George. 

Deano and Kitty Kate. One of the Photos that appears in both Oyster Park and YAMOTFABAATA. Photo by Shane Rocheleau.

I told them who I am, that I’m a photographer, and asked could I sit down and talk? And they welcomed me. Some were more wary than others, but each of them, over many months, opened up to me; as did others who later arrived into this little community. I can’t remember the catalyst, but several weeks later, I made my first pictures. I hung out day and night, learned about their lives and they about mine; and, I made pictures. After 18 months, the shape of the area drastically changed, their tents and belongings were discarded by developers, and though I was able to keep in touch with some of the men initially, I haven’t seen any of the men in many years. The men of Oyster Park taught me more about life and humanity than anyone or anything before or since. I’m so grateful for my time with them.

KS- YAMOTFABAATA‘s Photographs seem to be taken in various places. How long did the project take to shoot, and then to put into its final form?

SR- The pictures in YAMOT were made mostly in Virginia. There are several from Tennessee, as well, and one each from California and Alabama.

Behind the scenes. Even a torn achilles injury, devastating for us mere mortals, didn’t keep Mr. Rocheleau from creating Photos for YAMOT. Here he (at least his booted foot) is seen using his Toyo 45cf 4×5 field camera at the scene of what is now the Photo ——– (redacted. My read is Fallen Tree) in the book. Photo from Shane Rocheleau’s Instagram feed, June 24, 2016.

I made pictures exclusively for this project for about two years, but its first pictures were made several years earlier. The final form of the book took shape over a year and a half, and then, near the end of that process, I made several new pictures in a flurry of excitement and desperation. Though the book had been essentially finished, I now can’t imagine it without at least two of those new pictures: God and War (Inheritance), and, Untitled, which is a picture of my daughter. They feel necessary.  

KS- Among those places, you’ve Photographed Virginia for a number of years, where you live and teach (I believe), what is it that particularly appeals to you about it as a subject?

SR- I live and teach in Richmond, VA. The narrative of American History criss-crosses Virginia through parts of five or six centuries. It feels like it’s all here: our earliest settlers and their struggles, John Smith, early treaties with and betrayals of Native Americans, the birth of our governing philosophies, Slavery, the Civil War and Confederacy’s Capital, John Wilkes Booth, Jim Crow, Free Black settlements, World War II and the military, the rise and fall of manufacturing, Civil Rights, 9/11, and so on.  

But, truly, I photograph here because I live here. I’m just lucky that Virginia is so narratively and historically rich.

Photographer & Publisher Jason Koxvold, facing with his arm on the table, and Photographer Shane Rocheleau, right, discuss the finer points of their terrific new books at the Gnomic Book table at the LES Fotobookfair, July 21st, 2018, the day I discovered YAMOTFABAATA.

KS- How did you come to meet and work with Jason Koxvold and Gnomic Book?

SR- Our mutual friend, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, used to host photographer gatherings at Jason’s Brooklyn studio. On occasion, I’d drive up from Richmond to partake. Stanley and I would arrive early, and Jason and I invariably hung-out before the raucous arrived. We became easy friends. The very last one of these gatherings, Stanley snuck my book dummy. Jason was the first to look at it that night. Soon after, he started Gnomic. I received an email one morning about a year later; he asked if I might consider that YAMOT be its second project.

Spend any time around these two Artists and it’s immediately apparent what good friends they are. There’s an important lesson here that obviously translates directly to the quality of their end product.

I was close to publishing elsewhere, so I felt immediately reticent. Jason is driven and smart and talented. And he’s my friend. I wanted to work with a friend, with someone I knew I could trust. In the end, it felt obvious and simple.  

KS- The book is an exceptionally beautiful object. You’ve spoken about the trip to Germany to print it, could you talk a bit about the planning that went into it? What role did Jason & Gnomic play in its realization?

SR- Jason and I Skyped or met almost weekly between December, 2017 and early March, 2018, when we departed for Germany. Each time we had a general agenda and discussed those items: design, sequence, materials such as paper type and fabrics, distribution, the Kickstarter campaign, where to print, whether to take a boat or a plane to Europe, font, the sources of my anxieties as best as we could identify, size of letters or pictures or drawings or run, whether this thing or that thing should be centered or just look centered, and so on. We beat to pulp any detail bigger than a quark. 

Though we each gave the other lots of feedback: ultimately, our roles were fairly distinct. I sequenced the pictures, chose the text, and prepared the files for printing.  Jason designed everything. He chose the font and the fabric, designed the layout, created and kicked-off the Kickstarter, and planned our European caper. I’m so thankful to have found such an energetic, talented, and supportive partner in the realization of YAMOTFABAATA.

At this point, I’m bringing Gnomic Book founder/publisher Jason Koxvold in.

The multi-talented Jason Koxvold, who’s Gnomic Book is quickly becoming one of the most important newer PhotoBook publishers in the world. Here, he gives me a peak at a secret- Shane has made a few signed prints from YAMOTFABAATA in two sizes that are indeed for sale! Two portraits, in the smaller size, may be seen behind him on the right in this Photo are 100.00 each. The beautiful, larger size, that Jason is showing me are 200.00 per. You heard it here, first.

KS- Jason, how did YAMOTFABAATA come about from your end?

Jason Koxvold (JK)- In 2016 I was fortunate enough to see a maquette that Shane had made of his book, and it immediately resonated with me. As we became closer friends, we started to talk about publishing the book. Shane is one of the most intelligent people I know, deeply intuitive and yet rigorously thoughtful, so the process of editing the book and rationalizing design decisions was a pleasure.

KS- At the LES Fotobookfair, I was enthralled listening to stories told by publishers and artists about the finer points of bookmaking. Given this is your first book, and since so many Photographers are interested in making PhotoBooks, how did you learn so much about what to look for that you used in making YAMOTFABAATA such an exceptionally beautifully produced book your first time out?

Shane Rocheleau- Firstly, I have many wonderful, giving, and engaged friends; many looked very closely at the many manifestations of this project. Their feedback was invaluable and inspiring. Without those whom I thank at the end of the book, there is no book.

I look at Photobooks weekly. Even if unconsciously, I’ve learned a rich Photobook language through this practice. I’ve thought enough about my new lexicon that some of my decisions felt rather natural and intuitive, like speaking. But honestly, that production value is on Gnomic. Jason is uncompromising on quality. I think it’s beautifully done, too; I didn’t imagine it would be this beautiful.    

KS- What was the most difficult part?

SR- Printing day front flanked me; I marched with the work toward it. I’d never needed to commit so fully to artistic action. Nothing was more difficult than finally yelling charge and letting the work go, committed and flawed and unfinished, off to the printer, off my desktop, dispossessed. I felt beleaguered, like a lonely, impotent General slumped in a three-legged chair. (Except no violence or gore or threats to life and such.  How privileged am I that that’s one of the more difficult things I’ve done in years?)

Excerpt of the Title List

KS- The Title List is sure to fascinate readers. 20 out of the 50 images have their titles fully crossed out, another 10 are partially crossed out. If a reader is really determined, they could most likely still make out many of the crossed out titles. Without giving away the mystery, could you speak about why you decided to do it this way, and why you decided to use the black marker instead of naming them “Untitled?”

SR- I don’t mind “Untitled” as a title. I do mind 40% of pictures titled this way. I don’t like that sort of redundancy. But I also don’t like when titles give too much away. With that said, some titles – and the information carried therein – were absolutely necessary for the book’s narrative (think Patrick Henry’s words, or that the building near the end is a Federal Reserve Building). My quandary then:  how do I balance that I want to withhold information and avoid repetitively titling pictures “Untitled” and provide the information I deem integral to understanding this book?

I’ve used redaction in past projects, so I already had the language at my disposal. Given that redaction is an indispensable element of propaganda and indoctrination, the solution seemed almost obvious once it suggested itself to me. Plus, it’s interesting to look at. The unintended benefit of this solution is that the title page is part of the art rather than a perfunctory addendum.

KS- Another element is the fairly frequent use of blank pages. I counted over 50 including 5 sets of double blank (facing) pages. In many cases, they serve to set off an image on the opposite side, which is common in PhotoBooks, though their appearance, particularly in the use of facing blank pages, feels unpredictable. Are they purely there as a means of pacing the images, or…?

SR- In music, there are breaks.  Those breaks signal a shift and are necessary for establishing rhythm. I love thinking of Photobooks as musical. I tried to sequence and break YAMOT musically, if you will. But with that said, I know no more about music than what I’ve gleaned while listening. My best instrument is my voice, and it’s not good.

Also, while a book requires that individual pictures be sounds in a larger symphony, I also wish for each picture to be a self-contained piece. As you note, much of the book has one picture per spread, alone in space; of course, each still generally follows and is followed by another. This solves my need to eat my cake and have it, too.

KS- There’s so much that YAMOTFABAATA has in common with Knives, your publisher, Jason’s, terrific new book. Both deal with the failure of promises and institutions, the realities brought on by a changing world bringing shrinking opportunity in the USA for many, and the state of the country the white majority has created  Your’s is more abstract, while Jason’s is more documentary. Jason’s looks at life in the Hudson Valley, after the loss of its 150 year old cutlery industry, and your’s looks at a wider realm. Still, they’re two sides of the same coin in so many ways. Is that coincidental?

SR- On the one hand, it’s absolutely coincidental. Jason and I each began our respective projects independent of the other. On the other hand, Jason and I are friends.  We have conversations, many of the same concerns, and, as fairly well-off white dudes, similar experiences in the world. He thinks deeply about his position, and I try to, as well. It is not a coincidence that as persons participating in the same on-going conversation – on whiteness and race, poverty and opportunity, privilege and responsibility – we would independently make work addressing those very things. Indeed, many of my photographer friends are making work that at least obliquely confronts these same cultural difficulties, ills, and realities. 

Knives by Jason Koxvold.

KS- I then asked Jason if he hesitated to publish YAMOTFABAATA because of its similarities to Knives, or if he saw it as “complimentary.”

Jason Koxvold- Shane and I were both coming at the same themes from very different angles; in that regard the two can be seen as complementary to some extent. I like that in viewing both, readers might build some kind of mental Venn diagram in terms of where our ideas overlap and where they don’t.

KS- On the Gnomic site, it says that the focus is on exploring the notion of the book as object, which is easy to see with Knives, its sister book, You were right all along, (or YWRAA) and YAMOTFABAATA. As far as YAMOTFABAATA goes, what were the particular challenges in making such a beautiful book?

JK- Each book we produce is an attempt to make something greater than the sum of its parts. With YAMOTFABAATA we wanted to echo the quality of religious texts in the form of our book, using an iridescent purple cloth, gilded edges on the book block. Each of these decisions incurs some level of cost and technical challenge; our printer had to outsource the gilding to a company that specializes in bibles. Fortunately, working with experienced craftsmen in ‘Old Europe’ gave me a great deal of confidence in the process.

KS- Given your diverse and successful background, why did you decide to start Gnomic Book?

JK- I wanted to leverage and combine skills which I had acquired over the course of my career to make objects that have some kind of permanence, collaborating with different artists to do so. It’s truly a mutually beneficial process.

Harrison, or White Whales. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

KS- Before I actually saw it, I heard the book is ostensibly about white masculinity. That turns out to be true, as it shows what those in power and their institutions have made of the world. However, none of the white men depicted seem to be enjoying themselves or their “status” in the world. Then, there are other themes that run through the book- religion, decay, death, national institutions, and hovering over all of it, the power of nature to superimpose its supreme will on man at any given point. That’s a lot to take on in one book. Did it feel that way when you were making it?

Shane Rocheleau- There is a contradiction driving white male rage in this country: at the top, white men still reign. Women and minorities represent less than 20% of congress, for instance. But uniformity at the top is belied by a slow progression toward equality in the body politic.  White men in this country are raised by parents and the American Dream alike to believe power and supremacy are their personal destinies. Except it’s not, not for most white men. Many white men, like so many other demographics, are struggling.  (And for those who aren’t struggling so much? Loss is loss, even to one who still has more than everyone else.) Increasingly, white men must settle for less than supremacy. While you and I know this to be right and necessary, I imagine many white men have not resigned to relinquishing any of the historical spoils of being born white and male, especially when in both cultural messaging and the demographics of power, the opposite is suggested. It’s important to me that I seek to empathize. The men in my book, largely, represent this contradiction. I wish I knew how to demonstrate that equality is not a zero-sum game. The lesser the inequality, the happier and more decent everyone becomes, bottom to top.  

To your question about taking on so much in this book: I’m always some version of overwhelmed and confused, so inasmuch as I always feel a bit like I’m taking on too much, it absolutely felt that way when I was making this work. With that said, I wanted to address each of those themes you highlight. It was a fun problem to solve: how do I weave so much into so little? My answer is my book. 

Jaime. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

KS- The 4 women in YAMOTFABAATA each seem lost in thought. In Jason’s “Knives,” one of the final Photos is of a mother who stares out at the camera while holding a young child. In your book, your daughter is seen in the final image. In it, we see her through what appears to be a rain streaked window, where we can barely make out that it’s a young woman, but, as in many of the other portraits in the book- of male and females, we can’t see her eyes. I see dread and melancholy in this image. How is the young woman going to deal with all of this metaphorical “rain” in the world? The window is made of glass, and so provides limited protection from the world while allowing a chance to see it outside. Perhaps, she’s sleeping through the storm. Perhaps she’s lost in a dream, or lost in thought, or worry about it.

SR- I appreciate that reading. And to continue it, maybe, after the storm’s climax: the rain should let up, as rain does. The young woman steps outside. The gentle day drips and refracts little miracles, smelling of nectar and the dusty after-rain. And then the flowers grow, the bugs buzz songs under a symphony of chirping, and the world in her eyes can be new and open. For my daughter, and everyone else, I hope this is the case and that after the storm it’s better than before:  kinder, calmer, with less disparity and more community. As I write this, though, I’m scared I hope for too much, and I don’t know if I’ll be there for it anyway, if it does ever manifest. Maybe it will, and maybe that’ll be my daughter’s book.

My Dad, Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

KS- Elsewhere, your father is included, and there’s a “Self-portrait,” interestingly showing only your right arm and hand, which you probably use to take your Photos with. These, and the Photo of your daughter add to the autobiographical nature of the book. How did they feel about being included?

SR- My daughter refuses to be photographed. I got lucky with this picture: I was making a picture of my girlfriend’s mother, Holly, seated right there where my daughter is seated.  My daughter wanted to help. Because I needed to direct Holly and she is seated inside a closed car, I called her cell phone. She placed it on speaker then on the passenger seat. I gave my daughter instructions for Holly, and she relayed those instructions through my cell phone. After we were finished, I think my daughter was taken enough by the whole experience (and hopefully by all the wonderful seeing!) that, for the first time ever, she asked if I could photograph her. Absolutely!  

But while myriad subsequent gestures suggest she’s really happy to be a part of the book, she hasn’t explicitly said so (she’s not just in a picture and the subject of the dedication:  she also hand-wrote the title for the title page and drew a little drawing that’s hiding toward the end). As for my dad: same. I think he’s happy to be part of it, but he’s thus far kept it to himself. Everyone has those things they haven’t the tools to express.

Site of the Death of Edward Jones. Unforgettable. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA. It also appears in his series, A Glorious Victory.

KS- I will preface it by saying I’ve learned the hard way not to ask about specific works less the answer takes away some of its mystery. I’m hoping that won’t be the case if I ask you about Edward Jones, as in “”Site of the Death of.” I haven’t been able to find out who this might be.

SR- Edward Jones is the man who bled out above that spot. He was shot in the head in a drug deal or burglary gone wrong. I arrived at the motel where he was staying to make pictures of another resident, unaware what had transpired just hours earlier. Though the police had left, the blood that had dripped from the second floor onto the parking lot below remained. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen and felt. And that’s the short story. As for where? Petersburg, VA. I felt like I needed to name him. It felt like the right thing to do, rather than entitle the picture “Site of Anonymous Man’s Death” or something of the sort.

KS- In the midst of so much darkness we move through in YAMOTFABAATA, and the white-male led world today …so many failed promises, including “the American dream,” so many broken institutions, including religious ones, there’s also the ever-present possibly of disaster…man-made or natural, all of which is poetically rendered in your book. The images speak to a world that’s cracking, not seemingly working for anyone depicted, particularly the deceased Edward Jones. YAMOTFABAATA leaves me feeling that it’s hard to have hope in 2018. You appear in the book as an older version of your father’s child, with your own child appearing at the end. And so, you’re in the middle. As much as the book looks forward to your daughter’s generation, it’s also a looking back on your father’s and our generations. It’s obvious that things didn’t get this way in one day, and the weight of history is, at this point, daunting. Given all of this, why did you decide to dedicate it to your daughter?

SR- In the ways I know how, I am working to make my world a better place than it was before me. I think both my parents really did try to do the same thing. They raised me well, lovingly, to be a kinder, more open human being than was recommended to them.  I’m empowered by this demonstration in my life of how to actively make things better than they were. I want my daughter to be empowered by the same demonstration. I hope I raise her to be a decent and active participant in whatever community she finds herself. Like her picture, the dedication is an act of faith in the face today’s discord; I can’t tell the future, so I won’t suggest to her that discord is inevitable. She has power.  I hope she uses it for good, and better than I’ve used mine.

——- Cellar Door The first three words are redacted, hidden under a black marker strike through. My reading is From Under The Cellar Door. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA.

KS- Since NHNYC was originally primarily a Painting site, until it was hijacked in the dead of night by Photography in late 2016, I have to ask you what, if any, role Painting has played in your Artistic life and development.? (If any, which Artists or works?)

SR- I grew up loving Picasso. I think he taught me that strange can be good and about balance inside a frame.  When I studied a bit of art in college, I found myself compelled by the Hudson River painters, Caravaggio, J.M.W. Turner, and Rembrandt Peale, amongst others. More recently, I’ve loved Lucien Freud and John Currin. I’m guessing you can tell by this list, though, that I’m not exactly keeping up with the trajectory of painting. I can say this, though: I work my photographic files very much like I imagine a painter might. I add and subtract color and tone in strokes, attempting to create a canvas that can instruct and contain the viewer’s eye. I fear, though, that even in saying that, I sound a bit naïve!

KS- You thank Gregory Halpern. Being very taken with his work, myself, as I’ve written many times, what was his involvement in this…if he was?

SR- I don’t know Greg that well, but I respect him immensely. He’s as good a person as he is an artist. Greg was not involved, per se. But at that same photographer gathering I spoke about earlier, he was the last person that night who looked at my book dummy.  The next day, he, Stanley, and I were walking in Manhattan and Greg pulled me aside. He apologized for not commenting on the dummy the night before. Still reeling that anyone saw it – nevermind one of my heroes – I froze. He told me he loved it and asked if he could recommend it for a fairly major prize. That moment drew me as close to vertigo as I’ve probably ever found myself. He told me that my “pictures are meant to be seen”. Because of Greg’s gesture to me that day, I have a blessing to allow for just that.

KS- You’ve spoken about thinking of music while you were editing and sequencing YAMOTFABAATA. Do you listen to music while you Photograph?

SR- I don’t. I photograph with only the sounds of my environment, and when I’m under the dark cloth, I don’t even hear them. But when I’m editing? I blast music! You’re likely to hear Radiohead, Tom Waits, Mazzy Star, Pearl Jam, Tragically Hip, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Pink Floyd, and 80s hits, amongst others!

KS- The book has gotten quite a bit of critical notice already. Does that surprise you?

SR- Yes, I’m totally surprised. I believe the work I’m making is relevant and worth seeing, but I also understand that there are significant challenges getting work in front of an audience beyond my small community of friends and artists. I’m so happy YAMOTFABAATA is getting noticed.  I never expect exposure. This is a wonderful surprise.  

KS- Finally, with your busy life, have you had any time to think about your next project?

SR- I’m deep into my next project. Though it’s still shape-shifting too fast to capture, I’m really excited about it.  It’s about the smallness of a human being, paranoia and his ascetic’s loneliness, oblivion and artifacts, spiders and webs and life-cycles…if any of that makes any sense at all. I guess we already covered that I’m generally overwhelmed and confused; I’m also generally excited by my work, in spite of all the persistent liminal turmoil!

BookMarks–

Good friends make very good books…and a bag.

YAMOTFABAATA, which contains 56 color plates, is currently available in a first edition/first printing of 500 gorgeous copies, which are not going to last long. It may be purchased here, or here.

Jason Koxvold’s Knives (and its tote bag), may be ordered here, or here, 

Aint-Bad Curator’s Choice, Issue No. 12, may still be available here. If it says “sold out,” email them directly and ask. They told me recently there are a few copies left. It contains 15 curators each getting a section, who choose 31 Photographers between them, representing what they feel are “the best of contemporary Photography.”

*-Soundtrack for this Post is Karma Police, by Radiohead from 1997’s O.K. Computer. Lyrics are here, video, right here-

My thanks to Shane Rocheleau, Jason Koxvold and Kris Graves.

My previous Posts on Photography are here. 

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  1. Shane Rocheleau- “I’ve been meditating on empathy for over a decade, now, on its receipt and provision and on its absence. But when I read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, empathy became immediately central to my practice. Upon a closer reading of the Narcissus myth, I realized it isn’t about Narcissism at all; rather, it’s about the power and necessity of empathy. Narcissus is not a Donald Trump; he is a beautiful boy living in a Greek culture wherein beautiful boys are lusted after and objectified (this culture does the same to young, magazine-thin women, for instance). When Narcissus kneels to the pond, he sees his reflection and remarks:
    I reach, your arms almost embrace me, and as
    I smile, you smile again at me; weeping
    I’ve seen great tears flow down your face (…)
    Narcissus had only ever seen lust and admiration in the eyes of others; never had he seen his complex, human emotions returned to him. That new experience felt so necessary that he stays with its giver, forsakes sustenance, and ultimately dies.The combination of my giving this ancient character overdue empathy and coming to understand that empathy is this powerful and necessary was a profound and important personal experience. I am a better artist and person because of it.” ↩

A Conversation With Photographer Harry Gruyaert

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographs by Harry Gruyaert.

Harry Gruyaert is a mystery to me.

I wonder…HOW does he get such miraculous, beautifully atmospheric Photographs, over and over, again? It doesn’t matter what time of day,

Los Angeles, California, USA, 1981. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos. I came across a print of this work in June and realized that I hadn’t done a deep dive into Harry Gruyaert’s work. Well? It’s summer. Into the pool!  Three months later, I’m still immersed in the sheer joy of looking. Click any Photo for full size.

or night it is.

Launderette. Town of Antwerp, Flanders Region, Belgium 1988. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

What the weather is,

Ostende, Belgium, 1988. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

or even what’s going on.

Commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo, 1981, Village in the Province of Brabant, Belgium. Photo By Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

And, he’s been doing it for going on 50 years now.

His Photographs will make you stop and wonder- What’s going on here?

Rue Royale, 1981. Brussels, Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Or, marvel at the almost magical combination of elements coming together in a split second of time,

Parade, 1988.Flanders region, Province of Brabant, Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

any time,

Galway, Ireland, 1988. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

any where.

National Communist party congress, Trivandrum, India, 1989. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

But, the biggest mystery of all, for me, is WHY is he still so relatively little known in the USA?

His name is heard nowhere nearly as often as his fellow contemporary Masters of color Photography- William Eggleston, Saul Leiter, Stephen Shore, and the rest. As I write this, there are only TWO books of his work in print here (see BookMarks at the end). Yet, I find, his work has a richness and subtlety, those gorgeous colors he’s legendary for, all in the service of a mystery, like an untitled still from a movie (sorry, Cindy), that brings me back to have another look, again and again. His work can stand right alongside that of his peers, and it will hold its own alongside any of them. Even beyond contemporary Photography, Harry Gruyaert’s work, also, speaks to the lover of Painting in me. His is that rarest of work that touches some of the same nerves that Edward Hopper is, perhaps, most renowned for- the insular loneliness that defines modern life.

Covered market, Bairritz, France, 2000. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1941, he joined Magnum Photos in 1981, as admittedly, and somewhat controversially, the first and only, non-PhotoJournalist in the legendary group. 37 years later, he’s still a member, and is it only a coincidence that the current roster may be the most diverse in its 71 year history? Still going strong, 2018 is turning out to be a big year for Harry. First, the Harry Gruyaert – Retrospective at FOMU Foto Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, from March 9th to June 9th, 2018, while the feature length documentary, Harry Gruyaert Photographer, premiered this summer. Meanwhile, this past Saturday, September 8th, saw the opening of his new show at Antwerp’s renowned Gallery Fifty One. The show is titled Roots, and features work Mr. Gruyaert created in his native Belgium, where his “roots” are.

I’m thrilled to say I had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Gruyaert in France after he just returned home from attending the opening of Roots, and in a far ranging interview, I was fortunate to ask him every question I could think of that I have yet to see asked of him thus far. What follows is not a blow by blow biography. It’s meant to fill in the gaps in what’s been written about Harry Gruyaert thus far. And so, it’s meant to intrigue, to inspire you to delve further into his long and rich career. I quickly discovered that he is not one to mince words. Hold on to your seats, and prepare to meet a living legend, who’s bursting with passion in his mid-70s. Ladies and gentlemen, my conversation with Harry Gruyaert on September 11th, 2018…

Before I could get a word out, he said…

Harry Gruyaert- I liked what you did on Saul Leiter, so…

Kenn Sava- Oh, you did? Thank you very much. It’s interesting…I notice there’s a couple of things you seem to have in common with Saul. Early on, his father, also, was adamantly against his becoming a Photographer, and eventually disinherited him. He was also really loved Pierre Bonnard, as I mentioned. I note that you are as well. Saul who was known for his color work, did most of his intimate work in black & white, as you have.

Pierre Bonnard, View of the Old Port, Saint-Tropez, 1911, oil on canvas, seen at The Met.

Pierre Bonnard is not somebody who comes up all that often, I’ve had him come up twice with such great Photographers recently. What is it about Bonnard that particularly speaks to you?

Pierre Bonnard, The House of Misia Sert, 1906, Oil on canvas.

HG- It’s extremely sensual, you know. It’s amazing. His cropping is really amazing. I really like so much the feeling he has towards his life, and his wife. It’s quite amazing.

Town of Jaisalmer, State of Rajasthan, India, 1976. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos. I couldn’t resist pairing this with Bonnard’s House above, without any input from Mr. Gruyaert. The more I look at them, the more I find coincidentally in common. Down to the animals just inside each door.

A funny thing about Saul Leiter. When I arrived in Paris in April, 1962, I went to Elle Magazine, which is a fashion magazine, and I showed my work to the art director, Peter Knapp, and he said, “Oh, you are the little Saul Leiter. “ I had no idea who Saul Leiter was. It took me 40 years to realize who was Saul Leiter, and strangely enough in the last Paris Photo, my work was hanging next to his in the booth of Gallery Fifty One, run by Roger Szmulewicz, and  believe it or not, who walks by as I was standing in the booth ? Peter Knapp ! It’s amazing. So I asked him, “Why did you tell me that all those years ago?” He said, “It’s because of the way you work with color, obviously.” I really find it exciting  when things like that happen. 

KS- So, his work had no influence on you. You weren’t aware of it.

HG- No. No. I found out much later when his first Steidl book came out and when I saw his show at the Foundation Cartier-Bresson in Paris, which was only a couple of years ago.

KS- This has been a big year for you with the FOMU Retrospective, the Documentary Harry Gruyaert Photographer, and now the Gallery Fifty One show, Roots, I wanted to congratulate you on all of that.

Harry Gruyaert, in the red slacks facing the camera, at the opening for his new show, Harry Gruyaert: Roots, September 8th. Photo by Gallery Fifty One..

HG- Thank you. 

KS- I came across your work in the Magnum Square Print sale and realized I hadn’t done a deep dive into your career. Part of the reason is there aren’t a lot of books of your work in print here. The Retrospective, with the red cover, and East/West being two. It seems that you’re slowly reissuing your books, right?

HG- Sure. You know I accumulated so much work. And the good thing about making books now, is that you have much more control than before. The quality of printing is much better and my new books look better than the ones I published before.

Moscow, Russia, USSR, 1989. From East in the 2 volume set, East/West. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- East/West is a fascinating book in that regard. I’m interested in why you chose to group the two books together. I know you’ve said many times you’re not a journalist, but looking at this work now from so many years later, it almost has a journalistic feel to it- A commentary about the materialism in America and the fall of the USSR at the time you were taking the pictures. Was that any part of the intention in issuing them together now in a slipcase? 

Freemont Street. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 1982. From West in East/West. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

HG- Yes, that was part of the idea of publishing these two series of pictures together. Don’t forget, I’m a documentary Photographer, and in that sense I feel quite close to somebody like Cartier Bresson whose work is always about a particular place at a particular time. We have both travelled a lot and taken pictures in many different countries and share that same openness to different world and different cultures. Though I am a great admirer of american photographers, I sometimes feel that the work they have done in the states is more interesting than their work in other countries. I don’t know why that is. 

KS- You were involved with Henri Cartier-Bresson and I read the story of him asking you to color his prints. For everyone who wasn’t able to know him, what would you like them to know about him? Is there any one thing that particularly stands out?

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Hyeres, France, 1932

HG- (Laughs)…Oh boy. I was very lucky to have known him. He was very provocative. He was full of energy. Very provocative, and at the same time, he wanted to be a zen buddhist. (Laughs) Very interesting person. Complex. It’s such a lesson that he gave up Photography and went back to his old passion, Painting and Drawing, when he felt he had nothing more to say through photography. It was not on the level of what he did before, but it’s such a lesson. Then, he’d come and ask you, “What do you think of my Painting or Drawing?” He started all over again, questionning himself instead of relying on his reputation.

Shaded streets of the medina (old district), Near “Jemma el Fna” square, Marrakech, Morocco, 1986. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- That’s quite a compliment to you that he’d ask you to Paint his prints. 

HG- It all started when he came to see my first show about Morocco at the Delpire Galerie in Paris. My C. prints were far from perfect and he started making comments. He took bits of paper or little objects and put them on my prints to explain to me what he meant.Amazing. Then he sent me his book about Andre Lhote, who was his teacher in Painting and  called me up two weeks later, and said «  I have a suggestion to make.I will send a couple of my prints and I will send you a big box of pastels and you can try and color them.” I said, “Henri, it’s nice to think about it, but I’m not a Painter. I can’t even make a drawing.”

He had a problem with color photography. He felt it was only used for commercial reasons and was not really interested. And I think he really didn’t like the fact that many Magnum Photographers moved to color because that’s what magazines were asking for when they were better doing black & white. But some became very good magazine photographers and were very successful. 

In 2017, 174 Harry Gruyaert Photographs were on view in 11 stations of the Paris Metro at the invitation of RATP, the Paris public transport operator. Seen here are two images from his beach series, “Rivages,” (shores, or “Edges” as it’s called here), images that speak of the insignificance of man in the scope of nature, the Artist has said, while at the same time, showing a sense of humor, particularly on the left. Seen here in a still from the Harry Gruyaert Photographer Documentary.

KS- Was there a single moment or an event that got you first interested in Photography?

HG-Different things…I wanted to travel. I went to an exhibition in ’58 at the World’s Fair in Brussels. I saw the different pavilions : America, Russia, Japan, India… I was looking at the globe which I had at home. And I thought, I want to go to all these places. And I was also interested in fashion. I loved  Fashion magazines which were much better at the time, like Harper’s Bazar and Vogue, and photographers like Avedon and Irving Penn. And there were all these beautiful girls…

KS- So, it came out of your desire to travel.

Still from Harry Gruyaert Photographer.

HG- To travel, to discover things…I was always interested in Paintings. I always went to Museums. 

I never even thought about doing anything else. I was Director of Photography for a couple of television Film. I had a big admiration for the directors of photography who worked with  Italians film directors like Antonioni, I through they were really fantastic. I could have made a profession out of that, but I wanted to do my own stuff, my own Films and it meant working with a large crew of people and you needed a lot of money. The good thing about photography is that you can work on your own. If the digital small cameras of the quality we have now had existed at the time, things might have been different.

KS- When I look at your work I see elements of both- they seem like stills from a movie but then when it comes to printing, it’s some of the same techniques that come to bear that Painters would use, so you’ve almost married the two. Do you see it that way at all?

HG- Yeah, sure. The funny thing is that the directors I know in Paris, I’m friendly with some of them, have told me they’ve been inspired by some of my photographs…So it’s wonderful that it works both ways. 

Edward Hopper, New York Movie, 1939, Oil on canvas.

KS- I’ve read a couple of your interviews over time talking about Edward Hopper. I think in one interview you said you didn’t really look at his work early on, but you can kind of see what people say when they talk about the similarities in the loneliness and isolation in your work. Since it didn’t come from Hopper, that sense that is in some of your work, where do you think that came from? Those isolated figures, that sense of loneliness and isolation that occurs in your work? 

Trans-Europe-Express, 1981. Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

HG- I don’t really know. It’s not the person that interests me most. It’s the person in its environment. To me, all the elements are important. I don’t have any particular intention. It’s just what I see.

Bay of the Somme River in the town of Fort Mahon, Picardie, France, 1991. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

I think humans have such a great idea about ourselves but nature is so much more powerful.

The Flemish House, by George Simenon. Cover Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Talking about loneliness in the city…A funny thing that came up. Do you know (Georges) Simenon, the Belgian Writer of detective stories ? Inspector Maigret is the name of the detective. They translated them into english and they had trouble finding covers for them. Peter Galassi said to them, “Look at Harry’s work. I think you can find something there.” So, the guy from the publishing company sent me some lay-outs and I didn’t think it could work because the cover is vertical and 90% of my work is horizontal. But, the way he cropped it, it was really quite interesting and I asked him to print the full frame image on the back cover. 

The full frame source Photo for the cover. Bar, Antwerp, Belgium. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

Then, Penguin Books in London picked it up. Believe it or not, we’ve done 65 covers.

KS- You’ve done 65 covers for them?

HG- Yes. Just from my archive. My archives are not only Magnum, only a small percentage is Magnum. So, she comes to Paris and looks through mainly my old work. When I did my show at FOMU at Antwerp, there was a big wall with all the covers of the books and small pictures of the full frame.

The strange thing is Simenon is Belgian. He’s from Liege. I’m from Antwerp. I met his son and he showed me some Photographs that Simenon did himself, and you find this kind of thing of a small figure in an urban landscape. With a certain lonelieness. Which you find often in my work. It’s really quite funny.

KS- You’ve spoken about a number of the places you’ve worked- Moscow, Belgium, California & the American West. How do you feel about New York?

It’s a small world. New York City. USA, 1996. The 23rd Street Subway station, across from the Met Life Building. It’s immediately recognizable to me because it’s in my neighborhood. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

HG- Extremely exciting. I’ve done lots of work in New York. The first time I came to New York was in ’68. I was friends with people like Gordon Matta-Clark. All those Artists were important to me, in terms of the energy, in terms of what they were doing. 

National Road 1,near Mechelen, Antwerp Province, Belgium, 1988

Pop Art taught me to look at a certain banality with interest, a visual interest and a certain sense of humor.That changed the nature of the work I was doing in Belgium at the time.  In the beginning it was only in black & white. For two years, I didn’t see any color there. But Pop Art taught me to look at things in a different way and then I started to work in color.

So for two years there I only shot black & white.

Near Bruges, Belgium, 1975. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- I don’t really consider Robert Rauschenberg a Pop Artist but he was obviously very important at that time, and since. Has he had any influence on you at all?

Robert Rauschenberg, Black Market, 1961, seen at MoMA’s Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends show, 2017.

HG- Oh, I love his work. I mean the personality… the openness, trying other things. There’s more sensuality in Rauschenberg. It’s more fun as well. 

KS- In looking at someone like Robert Rauschenberg, and there’s others, too, who were Painters, but also were Photographers, it seems to me that their Photography doesn’t get any attention at all. Have you seen Rauschenberg’s Photography, and if so, what do you think of it?

Robert Rauschenberg, Anchor, from Studies for Chinese Summerhall, China, 1983. Photo by Graphicstudio, USF.

HG- Oh, sure. It’s interesting. Sometimes it takes time to discover things. So many Photographers are being discovered…look at Saul Leiter.

Excerpts from T.V. Shots, Photos taken between 1969 and the early 1970s. From the publisher- “Gruyaert’s break from television wasn’t all peaceful, though: his first serious body of work contained photographs of distorted TV images. By following events such as the 1972 Munich Olympics from home, he created a distressed parody of the current-affairs photo-story. The work caused controversy, both for its disrespectful assault on the culture of television and for its radical challenge (both formally and in terms of content) to the conventions of press photography. Gruyaert views it as the closest thing to journalistic photography he has ever made.” Photos by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos, as seen in the 2007 Steidl book of the same name.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, someone said. This is NOT by Harry Gruyaert. NYC Subway ad for Maniac, September, 2018

KS- Speaking of that…another Photographer who is also a Painter, is William Eggleston. You were able to see the legendary 1976 show at MoMA, Photographs by William Eggleston, and you spoke about being impressed with his dye-transfer prints. I’m wondering- What did you think of his work when you first saw it?

HG- It was amazing to see that, especially the quality of the printing. The first book is one of his best and one of my favorites. 

KS- So you think William Eggleston’s Guide would be among his best work?

HG- Sure. Yes. Definitely. There are other good things too. But the problem now is that publishers want to publish too many books. Some are good, some are not so good. Banality can be interesting, but sometimes, it’s just banal!

KS- In the Gallery Fifty One show you have 41 works in black & white and 19 works in color, though they are large. I notice there seems to be more surrealism in the black & white works, where it’s more subtle in the color work. Does that seem to be the case for you?

Belgium, Hofstade, Carnival (Superimposition), 1975, is included in the Gallery Fifty One show. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum

HG- Black and white and color are two different approaches. I took pictures of my daughters in black & white because I felt I got closer to them. Shooting in black and white I feel less preoccupied by the way people dress, the background or things that could distract me. I concentrate on the human quality of the person. Color is more complex. With color, the color really has to be the main thing…the most important thing…

A normally very busy street deserted by citizens for the first meal of the day. During the Ramadan. Cairo. Egypt, 1987. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- It’s said that Roots was, at one point, basically a “farewell” to Beligum, after your difficulties with your father…

HG- That was not so much the problem as the lack of a cultural environment.

“Midi” train station district, Brussels, Belgium, 1981, is included in the Gallery Fifty One show. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

KS- But, it seems that you’ve made peace with Belgium. Have you done work in Belgium since Roots? 

HG- I do all the time. At the show I gave Roger (Gallery Fifty One’s Director) about 15 prints I did very recently, to show whoever’s interested that things change. Nothing stays the same. The colors are different now. The mentality’s different. Belgium is more like the rest of Europe, I guess…the same clothing…the same advertisements. It’s actually much more colorful, but in a more capitalistic driven way. It’s more fashionable somehow, and It’s more alike. Before, in Holland and Belgium, which are very near to each other, things were very different in the color aspect and all that. And now, things have become much more the same, like in the States.

KS- So you were saying that some of the American Photographers influenced you more than the Europeans. Who were those American Photographers who influenced you?

HG- (Lee) Friedlander, definitely. (Irving) Penn, (Richard) Avedon. Helen Levitt is wonderful, sure, Bruce Davidson and others…

Stephen Shore, Merced River, Yosemite Park, CA, 1974, Seen at the Stephen Shore Retrospective at MoMA, 2018

When I look at Stephen Shore’s work, I have the feeling that I am traveling with him. It’s really important in Photography to get to the person and have the feeling of being with him. That’s really important. Stephen Shore, but other Photographers as well. It’s physical. It’s the experience they have that appeals to me. It’s a physical thing. That’s why I don’t care much for conceptual work. It comes from the brain. For me, it has to come more from the stomach. It’s physical. It’s experience, which someone has at a given time, and through the experience I get contact with the person who did it.

A visitor spends quality time with Rembrandt(s). At The Met, February, 2015.

To me, Art is…When I look at Rembrandt, I’m with Rembrandt. When I look at Bonnard, I’m with Bonnard. When I look at conceptual work, I’m with the brain of somebody. If they have to write a lot of stuff before we’re able to understand what it’s all about, I’m not interested in the exhibition. I have to first look at the work and it should mean something. It has to appeal to me visually. 

KS- Have there been any Directors or Painters that have spoken to you more recently?  Anyone that’s come along since Antonioni, Magritte? Anything that’s more contemporary? Anything that you’ve really been impressed with?

HG- Recently? I’m a movie fan. I go to movies all the time. In the past I went to the cinema every day. I learned more from movies than anywhere else…movies and paintings…

About Antonioni. What’s really interesting…In 2009, 10 Magnum Photographers had a show at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, exploring  the relationship between still Photography and Film. My part was to show how much I was inspired by Film, and mainly, by Antonioni. So, I did a projection, which lasts about 25 minutes, with extracts of his movies – l’Avventura, The Eclipse and the Red Desert –  and some of my Photographs next to them.

Province de Brabant, Belgium, 1981. One of my personal favorite Harry Gruyaert Photos reminds me of the scene in Antonioni’s La Notte when Jeanne Moreau sits in the car in the rain. Photo by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

There are three Antonioni Films I was limited to1. So, I was able to use certain things. …. But, when they saw the thing produced, the review were very happy about it.

KS- I would love to see that. You have a new book, Rivages about to come out, (to be released in the USA as Edges later this year). I’ve read that you’ve been enjoying using today’s technology to make better prints. Are you also involved with the selecting of the images for the books and the way they are sequenced, or does somebody else do that?

HG- Completely. It’s team work. I’m the first person, obviously. I’ve been working with the same people the past 4 or 5 books. It’s like teamwork. 

The English edition of Rivages (Edges) is coming out at the end of September. The French edition is earlier. I’m very happy with them. The printing and everything. 

KS- So, you’re selecting the images for the books. 

HG- Sure. There’s some discussions, obviously…yeah, teamwork.

KS- Are you working on another version of Morocco?

HG- No plans for the moment, but everything is sold out. 

I want to do a book about street photography in the different cities I’ve been to. You know like New York, Brussels, or whatever And also a book on India and Egypt, a book about my industrial work, about airport, about my daughters… So many things… I also want to redo It’s not about cars, which was first published with  Roger Smulewicz of Gallery 512, but in a larger and more complete version. 

KS- Was Luigi Ghirri an influence?

HG- I discovered him later. I like some of his work…I think lots of his …He’s more of an intellectual. He has a real concept, I think. And I’m kind of… I think more in terms of color and I don’t think that’s his main interest. We have a very different approach

KS- There’s a couple of images that kind of remind me of yours. The shot of Versailles from the distance…

HG- Those are the ones I prefer. 

Still from the Harry Gruyaert Photographer Documentary showing the Artist on the corner of West 42nd Street and 7th Avenue.

KS- What did you think of the final documentary, Harry Gruyert Photographer? Did you have a chance to see it?

HG- Sure.

KS- What was your reaction? Were you pleased with it?

HG- I’m pleased with it. It’s not my Film. Well, it’s the Film of the director. It became very personal. You know, the thing is my father had about 25 hours of family films. The director knew that and he used a lot of that in the Film, comparing what my father did and what I did, and talking about my upbringing, so it became a very family kind of Film, which is fine, I think it’s a bit over done…it’s his Film.

Harry Gruyaert in action in Times Square, NYC. He has spoken about how taking Photos is like a “dance” for him, which is obvious, here, in this shot from the Harry Gruyaert Photographer Documentary website. While other Photographers bring full Hollywood movie making gear to bear in making their Photos look “cinematic.” Mr. Gruyaert does it the old fashioned way, as you can see.

KS- Are there any plans to release it in America? Are we going to get to see it over here?

HG- Who knows. It’s just the beginning. 

Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium.

KS- You just returned form Gallery Fifty One and the opening of your show in Antwerp. How did you feel about the show? How did the installation look to you?

HG- We tried something I had never done before. We set two screens, one on top of the other, very close. On one we showed black and white photographs and on the other color photographs.

Installation view of Roots at Gallery Fifty One showing dual video monitors. Photo by Gallery Fifty One.

Sometimes the relationship between them worked, sometimes it did not. But it was an an interesting experience. There’s much more black and white stuff (included in the show) than I have ever showed. The color photographs are the ones published in the new edition of Roots.

The Gruyaert family at dinner in a peaceful moment. Harry’s father, left, worked for the AGFA Film Company. His feelings about his son becoming a Photographer have been written about elsewhere. Still from Harry Gruyaert Photographer.

KS- Did your father ever come to accept you being a Photographer? Did he come to appreciate your work at all?

HG- Oh yes. He became very proud. (laughs) Once I was vice-president of Magnum, that was it for him. I think it was more about my position at Magnum than about my work.. 

KS- No one’s ever mentioned that anywhere. They always talk about how adamant he was against your becoming a Photographer. They never mention that he did finally come to accept it. Unlike Saul Leiter, who’s father disinherited him. So, at least, that’s good to hear.

HG- No, no no. My father was very proud at the end. He was. Whenever he would tell others how great his son was, it was special for him.

Our conversation ended there. A few days later in an email, Harry added this-

“I am just a photographer. If people look at my work and think it’s art, I am happy about it. But it is not for me to decide.”

Count me in that group of “people.”

While the mystery in Harry Gruyaert’s work will enthrall me for years to come, I hope the mystery surrounding his lack of recognition here will be history in the near future. After all, I’d rather leave the mystery writing to Simenon.

BookMarks– Morocco is Harry Gruyaert’s most renowned book, winning the 1975 Kodak Prize. As he said, it’s been out of print since the last French edition, Maroc, published by Textuel in 2013. At the moment, two books are in print in the USA, Harry Gruyaert, with a red cover, a retrospective, published by Thames & Hudson in 2015, is likely to remain the most comprehensive overview of his work for the foreseeable future, particularly because, as he said, it has the Artist’s direct involvement.

It’s gorgeous, in my view, and the place to start exploring Harry Gruyaert’s work and achievement among books currently in print in the USA.

Harry Gruyaert: East/West, a two volume set in a slipcase, contains East, Photos taken in Moscow near the very end of the USSR in 1989, and West, Photos taken in the American West (including Los Angeles and Las Vegas) in 1981, was published in 2017 by Thames & Hudson. It’s a fascinating look at both places decades ago, and intentionally, or not, provides a powerful visual contrast between capitalism and communism.

East/West

Equally compelling is how much Mr. Gruyaert’s color palette changes between the two bodies of work.

Just released by Editions Xavier Barral this past May (2018) is the new edition of Harry Gruyaert – Roots, a book “about” the Artist’s relationship with his native country, Belgium. It adds over 20 additional Photos to the 2012 edition, which quickly went out of print. As the Artist said in the conversation, he finds today’s printing far superior to what he was able to achieve in the past, making this the edition to get.

Coming soon will be Edges (or Rivages in French), another new edition of an out of print beautiful collection. In visual poetry, Mr. Gruyaert explores the relationship of man to nature, the land to the sea, and the earth to the sky in 144 pages. Soon to be published by Thames & Hudson.

While I recommend starting with the red Retrospective, all of these books are excellent and recommended.

Cover image cropped from an original by Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos.

And, for lovers of detective novels, Harry’s images appear as covers on 65 Simenon novels published by, and available in the USA through, Penguin Books.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “I Should Watch T.V.” by David Byrne & St. Vincent from “Love This Giant.” Lyrics, here. Video, here-

My thanks to Harry Gruyaert and Gallery Fifty One.

My prior Posts on Photography may be found here.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

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.
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  1. In 2009 the Cinematheque Francaise presented Images to Come, an exhibition exploring Magnum photographer’s take on the relationship between cinema and photograhy. The works are displayed alongside still from L’Avventura, The Eclipse and the Red Desert. ↩
  2. Harry Gruyaert: It’s Not About Cars, published by Gallery Fifty One in 2017. ↩

The Met To Close The Met Breuer In 2020

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Outside The Met Breuer. Click any Photo for full size.

This, today, from Met Museum President and CEO, Daniel Weiss-
The Met
Dear Member:

I am writing to bring you up to date on a new series of developments related to The Met Breuer and, more generally, on our long-term goals for modern and contemporary art at The Met.

We are in the process of creating an arrangement between The Met and The Frick Collection through which the Frick will use the Breuer building while its own building undergoes a substantial upgrade and renovation. This collaboration would ensure that the public continues to have access to the Frick’s collections, exhibitions, library resources, and education programs.

Although final details are still under review, as currently envisioned the Frick would begin its programming at the Breuer building in late 2020, after obtaining the necessary public approvals for its renovation project. The Met will continue operations at the Breuer until the summer of 2020.

In the last few years, under the outstanding leadership of Sheena Wagstaff, the Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Met Breuer has received critical and public acclaim for its exhibition program, which has been devoted to telling multiple histories of modernism from across the world.

Most of all, we have enjoyed sharing the building with Members like you. Together, we have examined modern and contemporary art through unparalleled exhibitions such as Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300-Now) and Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, and important displays of artists who were overdue for recognition, such as Nasreen Mohamedi, Marisa Merz, Lygia Pape, Kerry James Marshall, and, now on view, Jack Whitten.

In the coming months, we have several major exhibitions planned for the current Modern and Contemporary galleries at The Met Fifth Avenue, including Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera later this fall, and our special exhibition galleries in the main building, as well as a number of large photography exhibitions. Finally, our programming at Breuer will continue until summer 2020, with a very exciting and diverse exhibition schedule ahead.

Our long-term commitment remains with the main building, and, of course, the Cloisters. We are actively working to reinvigorate and reimagine the role of modern art in the Fifth Avenue building, guided by the leadership of The Met’s new Director, Max Hollein, and in partnership with Sheena and the Modern and Contemporary team.

We are extraordinarily proud of our work at The Met Breuer. Over the last three years, we have accomplished exactly what we set out to do, namely, present modern and contemporary art within the context of our broader mission and encyclopedic collection. Building on that success, we are now able to realize an even more ambitious program at The Met Fifth Avenue.

I am excited about the collaboration with The Frick, and the opportunity to unify and expand modern and contemporary initiatives at The Met Fifth Avenue.
Dan
The Met
Fifth Avenue 1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028		 The Met
Cloisters 99 Margaret Corbin Drive
Fort Tryon Park
New York, NY 10040		 The Met
Breuer945 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021		 metmuseum.org

According to Mr. Weiss, the new arrangement will save The Met about 45 million dollars over 4 years1. That The Met would try and exit their lease on the Breuer building early is not totally unexpected, but that they were able to execute it so soon (two and a half years after the Met Breuer opened in March, 2016, and a year and seven months after the resignation of Director, Thomas P. Campbell, under who’s regime, the Museum had taken on the Breuer), seems quite fortuitous for their bottom line beginning in a few years, and so will probably be seen as a coup for the Museum. Part of the reason The Met wanted the Breuer was to display Modern & Contemporary Art while those galleries at 1000 Fifth Avenue were being renovated. With that plan shelved in 2017, and the existing galleries continuing to serve, today’s announcement makes me wonder what effect, if any, there is to the April, 2013 gift of Leonard Lauder’s superb collection of 78 Cubist paintings, drawings, and sculptures, among them 33 Picassos, 17 Braques, and 14 Légers valued at more than $1 billion, which was seen as part of The Met leasing the Breuer, and which were to be housed in part of the new Modern & Contemporary Wing. Nothing about it is mentioned in Mr. Weiss’ letter.

Thornton Dial, History Refused to Die, 2004, verso, seen in the excellent show of the same name that just ended at The Met 5th Avenue,, put on by Sheena Wagstaff and her team.

On the Art front, I am pleased to see that Sheena Wagstaff will, apparently, continue as Chairperson of Modern & Contemporary Art. As I’ve said, in my view, she has done a terrific job.

UPDATE- To be clear, The Met will still hold the lease on the Breuer building. They will be “subleasing” it to The Frick Collection for the final 4 years of The Met’s lease on it. This wasn’t made clear at the time of Mr. Weiss’ letter.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “One Too Many Mornings” by Bob Dylan from The Times They Are A-Changin’. Lyrics, here. 

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

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.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

 

  1. New York Times, March 5, 2016 ↩