~FRED W. McDARRAH . . LAST WEEK !!

WILL THE REAL !! . . FAB FREDDY !! . . PLEASE STAND UP !!

LISTEN UP: LAST WEEK TO CATCH . . PUTTING ASIDE, JOSH HARRIS !! & RENE RICARD !!
AN AMAZING SLICE OF NYC ART WORLD HISTORY . .

FRED W. McDARRAH . . ‘SAVE THE VILLAGE’
JAN 30 thru SAT MARCH 8, 2014
STEVEN KASHER GALLERY – 521 WEST 23, CHELSEA, NYC

FRED W. McDARRAH (1926-2007) was the “first picture editor and only staff photographer at the VILLAGE VOICE for decades” . . so, GO FIGURE !!
this wonderful, amazing, archival show . . presents over 130 rare & original VINTAGE PRINTS that span 1958-1979, in short: the height of when NYC truly was the center of all.
art world included !!
so, listen up, all you digital geeks, these are the original hard copy black & white prints !! many of which are . . signed, dated and often accompanied with Fred McDarrah’s own notations, in his characteristic squiggly script – scribbled by hand, in thick black ink – across the bottom white border.

this is a big week in NYC – BUT this jewel box of a show should go to the top of YOUR list, no matter who you are, and . . what your interests !!

the show’s card, says it very well:
“Before the Internet there was FRED W. McDARRAH: the most curious, knowledgeable, and indefatigable photographer of the New York downtown scene in the second half of the 20th century. NOBODY did more than FRED to save Greenwich village in our collective memory.” !!

read more: FRED W McDARRAH – BIO & background

see: selection – exhibit images


FRED W. McDARRAH, ‘CARL BERNSTEIN AND NORA EPHRON’, ca 1978.
vintage gelatin silver, printed ca. 1978, 10 x 8 in.
($2,500)

I’d snap that up in a nanosecond – if I had the dough.
damn, if NORA EPHRON wasn’t such a foxy, cute chick, back in the day.

this is such a famous image, it played at the top of the game, when essayist Nora (sadly) passed away a few years back. it makes you realize the huge impact digital photography has had on the proliferation of pictorial material & images. back in the day, there was no way to get photos out there, except though print, newspaper & magazines – mostly.
an indie ? forget about it !!
and, when a photographer caught a moment, it was a real ‘catch’ – there weren’t that many people out there, going for it.
you can also see that great ‘characteristic’ of the most gifted event photographers, very plainly here in this image.
you have one chance, one second . . to catch the moment, and then: time was up !! so you had better be . . quick & g-o-o-d.

and, if you are too much of an art world purist to be interested in NORA EPHRON, who was NOT well served by that stupid Meryl Strep cinematic characterization, what about:
ED RUSCHA . .


FRED W. McDARRAH, ‘ED RUSCHA and UNIDENTIFIED’, ca 1968.
vintage gelatin silver, printed ca 1968. 4-3/4 x 7-1/2 in.
($3,000)

a young and super, super hip, cowboy: ED RUSCHA !!
taken in 1968 – when most people, even those in the art world, and esp those on the East Coast !!
still hadn’t heard about him, ED RUSCHA. . to become known as possibly contemporary art’s most influential . . ‘sign painter’ – !!