TERRY RICHARDSON . . . MOM DAD
OPEN NITE: NOV 11, 2011
the show runs NOV 11 – DEC 4, 2011
HALF GALLERY – 208 FORSYTH ST – LOWER EAST SIDE – NYC
TERRY RICHARDSON pops a cold one . . . at his new super-heated re-constituted ‘family’ package show.
“My parents split up when I was four. It feels good for me to have them back together again, even if it’s in a gallery and only for a little while. It’s something I’m doing for me and in a way, for them.” ~ Terry Richardson, 2011
yo, TERRY !!!!
PHOTO by TERRY RICHARDSON of his DAD.
Terry’s . . . “late father BOB RICHARDSON was a renowned fashion photographer . . . ”
“and his mother Annie — still alive and kicking it (!!) in Ojai, California — was a former Copacabana dancer, stylist and . . . Jimi Hendrix paramour. (!!) Although they divorced when Terry was quite young, the couple are brought together again here in these touching, funny, sometimes funny, sometimes desperate photographs.” ~ gallery press release
“PRAY FOR ME DAD” – photo by TERRY RICHARDSON
“shit still in toilet” – photo by TERRY RICHARDSON
just coming off, as I was – the fantastico CATTELAN show, that had defied the gallery mind-box, floor and walls. well really brought into play the entire circle of the staid Guggenhiem – it was captivating to step into the Half Gallery – and see that Terry had just as much disdain – for the status quo of gallery viewing !!
shake it up, baby !! twist and shout.
down with floors !!
the floor was covered with archival prints from Terry’s childhood. a depth-less metaphor, if I ever did see one.
I guess cause his dad was a studio photog – there were maybe tons of reject prints suit-cased somewhere, ha.
Terry up at bat. the pix on the floor were just as mesmerizing – as the pix on the wall. but also loved how they spoke to: down with art objects, the relentlessness and unstoppable march of time, the fragility of the human condition, and of course – hard copy before the age of computers & digital cameras !! and the absolute bad boy disrespect – !! – as they all ended up being pretty trashed by the end of the nite. though they remain, however they devolve – and rightly so – as part of the exhibit. someone else can write the thesis.
and yes, his wild, c-r-a-z-y moms . . . so beautiful when she was young, was she not ?
say what – about the relentless march of time. . . that eventually leaves us all – humiliated.
the opening nite crowd was very chic and very enthused, Terry’s fans cross over into many tribes.
BILL POWERS . . Half Gallery is his baby – and it stands so apart and so above the rest of the mediocre and predictable riff raff on the Lower East Side – as to be the only Lower East Side venue that can rightfully claim the honored moniker of this once gloried frontier hood. Chrystie St. never looked better. this Half gallery exhibit is the first show Terry Richardson has presented in NYC since his last show at the now defunct Deitch Projects in 2004.
Bill told me he remembers going to the Alleged opening (Aaron Rose) on Prince St. for the even earlier Richardson show: ‘These Colors Don’t Run’ in 1998, and from which – he even bought a piece.
so what else goes hand-in-hand with photo portraits and the sad, or rather tremendous but ephemeral parade of history ? they have audio of Terry’s late dad, Bob leaving voicemails for him. personally I couldn’t make the no-holds audio tape journey. maybe next time. I did hear they moved people to tears.
photo by TERRY RICHARDSON.
the archival prints are in editions of 5 + 2 AP.
they are (BLACK FRIDAY !!) priced to sell. $2,000 to $5,000 depending on size – and that includes the frame.
his crazy wild mom, paramour of JIMI HENDRIX indeed, believe it.
photo by TERRY RICHARDSON.
there’s obviously no stopping her.
MOM
photo by TERRY RICHARDSON.
DAD
photo by TERRY RICHARDSON.
the gallery was packed, and so was the street. but everybody got in, the ambience stayed nice throughout.
outside on the street – we spotted, graff legend . . . COPE2
with INDIE 184 !!
INDIE told me that her and COPE will have a pop-up store in the WYNWOOD section at the Miami Art Fair – I guess that be – next !! weekend, already.
you can follow her, here: twitter.com/kweenzdestroy – & – facebook.com/kweenzdestroy
CYNTHIA ROWLEY – a Half Gallery insider, for sure. dig the satchel !!
having fun on Chrystie – it was a very lively scene. a big mash-up of the coolest tribes . . .
STEPHEN SULLIVAN, a fashion photog for WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY – he just had a profile gig on the RACHEL ZOE show. oh yeah . . .
photog PORTS BISHOP – his new iPad format magazine – with interviews focused on the art world – is about to pop soon.
artist WES LANG always seems to capture the magic of the streets . . .
but we’ll give the parting shot – back to the show.
TERRY RICHARDSON and his dad, BOB RICHARDSON – back in the day . . .
PHOTOS of the OPENING NIGHT & INSTALLATION: NANCY SMITH
~TERRY RICHARDSON OPENING NITE PIX |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 25th, 2011, 9:13am
or: isn’t rat . . . . just art – spelt backwards ?
CHARLIE FINCH . . . wrote a book called ‘Most Art Sucks’. I’m gonna one-up him and write a book called . . . ‘ALL Critics Suck’. pun intended.
as in all critics of ‘MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL’ – suck. and big time. and may they choke on whatever they’re sucking on, too.
I’ve been hearing that almost every pathetic excuse of an ‘art’ critic in this town has followed the lead of the high (Roberta, the B is for banal) and the low ballers (Charlie – C is for only knows how to chug) and panned the Cattelan show.
what a friggin mistake.
what a friggin nightmare this town is. no wonder the art community is sinking faster than the Titanic. and while you are at . . . take down some of those god damn trust fund babies . . . with ya.
so, you got out-of-town guests for the holidays ? there be only one place to take them. museum-wise.
that would be the MAURIZIO CATTELAN show ‘ALL’ . . . at the GUGGENHEIM.
(note: closed Thursdays !!)
and gallery-wise:
the TERRY RICHARDSON show at the HALF GALLERY.
and yes, the long awaited . . . opening night pix – ARE posting tomorrow – !! – HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!
the so-called art critics, in this town . . . dumber than a bunch of donkeys, and way – more out-dated, if not just plain deader than a dead horse . . . they, the critics, the ‘stuffed’ shirts, with absolutely no living gray matter that I can see, should only be so lucky as to be hanging from the rafters of the Guggenheim.
down with the lot of ya. you’re only living – to be forgotten . . .
what do you think . . . ? hanging a horse in the Guggenheim means, anyways. the perceived powers to be & the establishment are crap. over and done with . . . amen.
and I guess that means: YOU !!
guess he called that right.
and oh yeah, anti-establishment, that’s a really “childish” notion in the fucked-up world we live in today.
tell that to OWS, students and rioters for change around the globe.
you guys are so mind-boggling out of touch, its unbelievable. somebody should drop some acid into your morning cuppa joe, and do you all a favor.
hear this (establishment) art writers of NYC: you are all imbeciles. unbelievable – like I said, how the top 1% of the talent – goes sailing right over your heads. poof. it never fails to amaze me how the people who profess to be the art ‘pros’ . . can be so unfailingly dumb. the blind leading the blind ? not good enough.
it’s more like putting a solid black field on a computer screen, remember those early graphics-challenged websites ? ha.
“avenir” – to the FUTURE !! that be Cattelan calling it – and, very nicely, too. just blowin’ in the wind.
the rats – I mean art critics in this town, should be shot. and saved from their own misery instead of being allowed to drag the rest of us through their small minds and glass ceiling eyes. never mind pushing their uninspired and most certainly unskilled barely there – human life forms – on everybody else.
since when has ‘pencil pushing’ – ever been considered a higher art form ? (ok when its lit – and this is not lit) and these pencil pushing – for a living, make no doubt about it, they are sucking the life out of the culture for a penny – and they are standing in the way of a great time, and a great vision. REALLY they are lining up like fascist monkeys – following the (loudest) leader – and giving the Nazi salute to the lowest cultural denominator.
the herd mentality. the anti-art, if I ever did see one.
media bullies . . and cowards ALL – they should ALL be lined up and put into body bags – and dumping them in the East River . . . wouldn’t do the river justice !!
CATTELAN should go back to the show – and stencil ALL their names on the body bags. no wonder the guy has to come off as a clown. you have to play stupid around this dumbed down crowd – just to duck ALL their crap.
the establishment. the critics. the (huge) elephant in the room. and blindfolded to boot. or is that vision impaired. no diff. no joke.
so, who gives a rat’s ass – about the art writers of New York City !! a dumber bunch could not be found.
in your dreams – art ‘critics’, not.
but don’t worry, CATTELAN got your number: loud and clear. the only thing that would or could one-up his ‘ALL’ – would be if that horse’s ass could dump a pile of (steamin) shit, excuse me, horse crap . . . on you . . . the moment your low-rent talent (?) entered the room.
trust me – we can see y’all coming from a mile away. just as big and dumb and stupid, and blindfolded – as that (circus of fools) elephant. Cattelan got it right. turned the Guggenhiem upside-down and sideways.
just the way we like it !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~a rat’s ass . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 23rd, 2011, 9:56am
HOLY BATMAN !!
it’s LORENZO MARTONE (left) and MARC JACOBS at the hyper-active, totally thrilling . . . . MAURIZIO CATTELAN retrospective at the Guggenheim !!
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH. NYC. SAT, NOV 12, 2011
MARC JACOBS is in the news today because apparently someone took off with his entire spring/summer 2012 clothing collection in London this past Wednesday. according to the NEW YORK POST:
“Details were scarce, but it was believed the collection was in a delivery van when persons unknown looted it.
The New York-born Jacobs used Twitter to ask for leads in the mystery yesterday.”
“See any chic truck drivers cruising around Europe dressed in [Jacobs’] #SS12 Collection?.” he tweeted.
“Get a pic & call 212-343-0222. Reward.”
but apparently busy man that he is, he made time to catch the super feisty Cattelan retrospective just before he split New York for London, last weekend, – Sat Nov 12, 2011 !!
and, yes just like the rest of the excited, and super animated crowd there, he seemed absolutely enthralled by the once-in-a-lifetime experience. he was also probably pretty happy he didn’t pay attention to the New York Time’s so-called voice of authority – that would be: Roberta Smith’s low rent take on the show – which didn’t seem to have held any negative sway – in the fashion world. and trust me, the fashion world knows a good art world event, when they see it.
this is the multi-faceted view he was looking at . . . the hooded, hands impaled by pencils – scribe . . . named, after who else ? Charlie !! . . . right on. maybe Cattelan will treat us to a “Roberta” version – for his next go-around ?
MAURIZIO CATTELAN , ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’, 1997
School desk, chair, mannequin, clothing, rubber, paint, shoes, and pencils. Edition 1/3.
lent by: Andrea Thuile and Heinz Peter Hager, Bolzano, Italy.
a swinging (!!) body bag . . .
a swinging 40s matron . . . looking down,
and a not-so-dumb … donkey dead straight ahead.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
‘MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL’ – at the GUGGENHEIM, Nov 4, 2011 – Jan 22, 2012.
~MARC JACOBS – lost & found !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 19th, 2011, 3:50pm
YES, I MOST DEF do have great GREAT pix – from that fun, wild and damn straight – great art, for sure . . . . TERRY RICHARDSON .. MOM .. DAD OPENING – at HALF GALLERY !!
THEY’RE COMING UP NEXT . . . cutting edge: New York City-style, just the way we like it !!
but first: DANGLE AWAY, MAURIZIO !!
MAURIZIO CATTELAN, taxidermied dog hanging in . . . ‘MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL’ – at the GUGGENHEIM.
November 4, 2011 – January 22, 2012.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH.
note: general admission to the Guggenheim is $18.
students & seniors: $15 – with valid ID. children under 12 free. the museum is closed on Thursdays.
yes, the Cattelan show is worth the price of admission.
see: Guggenheim Museum for hrs.
so, I really got to say: what up with ROBERTA SMITH of the New York Times ? (no relation. believe it.)
and, you can see from this post’s date-stamp . . . I took a few days to consider this carefully.
I mean Charlie Finch I get – but Roberta ?
she’s supposed to be top tier – but she’s still, always ? missing that top 1% – and in the art world dudes, that’s a bad thing !! the top 1% just goes right over her head. and the top 1% is all that really counts.
cue in SHEPARD FAIREY, whose May 1, 2010 show at JEFFREY DEITCH, titled ‘MAY DAY’ – and which was Jeffrey’s swan song to NYC bye the way, resounded with a mythic and real-world S.O.S. – opening as it did, right on the eve of that huge gulf oil spill – and who is, Shepard, that is . . . really a kind of master of the universe, art world-wise, and which show she unbelievably trashed . . . and cue out RACHEL HARRISON. that’s right, Rachel who. but somebody Roberta thought you should know.
just saying.
her say, Roberta’s that is, carries a lot of weight in the art world. or did.
the New York Times under her headlining banner – used to be the bible of the art world. so, she’s fair game to take down. . . it’s like they sing in the streets: she who dish, and play hardball . . . can no turn around, and then, cry baby. her critical kibosh could, and very well used to, signal: the END.
if she didn’t cover your show, you were nobody.
and maybe that’s why the scene, if not just the art auctions – are off kilter, to put it mildly. or is that: kindly.
seriously, she hasn’t been the last word – for quite a while, and she certainly hasn’t been the trailblazing last word – on the contemporary scene, for quite some time . . . though she does a nice descriptive job, a summing up. sometimes. it sure ain’t cutting edge.
BUT for sure, after what she wrote about the MAURTIZIO CATTELAN show at the Guggenheim – people are really re-thinking their take on her opinion. and, if it matters. and why did it ever, anyways. no doubt about it. her rep is on the wane, that’s for sure – just with that one ‘bad’ review. not too many had the guts or vision to question it before.
they are not only questioning her relevance, but questioning how they let her occupy that black amex card ‘branding’ position in the first place. the art world’s a rough and tumble mash-up, make no mistake about it. a lot of (big) money rides on the art world and by implication – its critics, not to mention the sanity and health of its most important denizens – the artists, the creative talent at the base of the pyramid. and the most at risk.
amen.
so when she bombs, forget it. its bad. and most sadly, her say-so affects us all. so I’m not keeping my mouth shut, because – it’s a big friggin loss to let her run the game.
I mean Charlie’s one thing. he is entertaining and his (twisted) poetry – well, it just boosts the game . . . and nobody really takes him seriously, in terms of his words affecting whether someone will actually cut a check for you, or not.
but Roberta is another story.
she is a killjoy, plain and simple. but it’s worse than that, because of her perceived authority . . . . and I guess there goes my friggin career, down the toilet, too.
hey, Maurizio, move over . . . they be calling artlovers ‘toilet paper’ from now on, too. but really . . . why let the losers, the clueless – win ? what’s the point of caving . . . in the age of the web. the free and the brave.
my biggest wake-up call to her tin ear, glass eye ? apart from her ignoring WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – a Sundance winner if I ever did see one, and apart from her pushing Rachel Harrison, Rachel – who ? was when she called Rob Pruitt’s amazin’ glory of a pumped-up waterfall down those damn Shafrazi steps – for that epic Gavin Brown/URS FISCHER show of a few years back – sophomoric. translate: exhibiting immaturity, and lack of judgement. I think mostly because he called it . . . “Viagara Falls.” ha. it was a friggin gem of a piece, and a title. a sandbagged DIY waterfall that gushed water down 2 flights of gallery stairs. everybody was talking about it. nobody had seen anything like it. everybody loved it. and I dare anybody who saw it – to say they didn’t also gasp with disbelief at her low ceiling of a review. what a shame to be putting such a lame critical kibosh on something so so so so New York City cutting edge funny gritty awesome . . . and original.
SO HEADS UP – all you young dudes . . . and everybody else, despite what Roberta wrote – the MAURIZIO CATTELAN show at the GUGGENHEIM – is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. fantastic. super great. no words can claim it. you gotta go see it.
this is – one art world situation – where, for sure: the whole is greater than the parts.
this is the one single reason that validates your rent.
this is why you came to live in New York, in the first place.
what more can I say. how bout this:
‘MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL’ . . . is on par with that other recent museum super hit: the ALEXANDER McQUEEN retrospective at the Met – this summer (2011).
does that do it for ya ?
it’s only up through JAN 22, 2012 – so you better bust your little “I don’t go above 14th Street” footsies – and get there . . .
and soon, or the lines will be so long, you’ll never get in. because yes, despite Roberta’s in-vain rain cloud on the hangman’s parade – word of mouth is gathering among the tribes . . and the lines are starting to add up. not joking, you better get there this weekend. by next weekend, with the kind of word of mouth the show is generating – it’s game over . . . in and out, in a New York City minute, not !!
and, YO. CATTELAN, ding dangle away, you crazy Italian clown puppet master !! you rock and you rule.
running out of ideas, as if . . . . !!
as for CHARLIE FINCH. wake up, dude, and fling your damn dingleberries – in the right direction.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
. . . . and, as a FINAL BON MOT – FOOT in MOUTH – POST-SCRIPT – or – MAKE THAT: STICK A PIN in ROBERTA DAY !!
I offer you this – just check out her recent take on LOS ANGELES !! – lame as lame can be – can it get any worse ?
unless it’s the damn Lower East Side, and the New Museum ?
or maybe Performa. what ? who ? exactly !!
the article is titled: “A New Pin On the Art Map” – all I can say is: NOT !! more like a new low point for the Times. (!!)
the way this article reads, if anybody can actually stay awake long enough to get through it, maybe the B in Roberta – stands for for banal. and she’s putting down Cattelan ?
and since images do speak a 1,000 words, just contrast the article’s featured ‘artwork’ photo lead-in, (below) . . . (the artwork inside the article is even worse !! ) . . to the TERRY RICHARDSON MOM.. DAD.. graphic (in the post just previous).
and, let’s leave it at that.
enough said. game over. New York City is still the one and only. like I said, we like our art gritty in the city. it can still be pretty, pretty can still rhyme with gritty. but it gotta have that edge. you know, just like how Lou Reed laid it down, melodic can be tough. New York City is still the one and only. L.A. not, so much. Chicago and San Fran ? with the way this article bombed, I really don’t think so.
‘A New Pin on the Art Map’ . . . not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
IMAGE/newspaper scan: ‘A New Pin On the Art Map’ by Roberta Smith, ARTS & LEISURE, THE NEW YORK TIMES. Sunday, November 13, 2011.
~Dingle Balls, Dingle Balls, dingle all the way . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 16th, 2011, 8:38pm
TERRY RICHARDSON . . . MOM DAD / OPENING To-NITE FRI NOV 11, 2011 / 6-8 PM
the show runs: Nov 11 – Dec 4, 2011
HALF GALLERY – 208 FORSYTH – LOWER EAST SIDE / NEW YORK CITY
note: there is a nice intro to the show – on the gallery website.
~TERRY RICHARDSON .. MOM .. DAD |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 11th, 2011, 10:08am
OTTO DIX, ‘Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann’, 1920. oil painting.
in the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of ART exhibit: ‘GLOOM and DOOM: German Portraits from the 1920s’.
the exhibit ran: Nov 14, 2006 – Feb 19, 2007.
PHOTO: KATE CERIGO
German painter, OTTO DIX (1891-1969) was also cited as an influence on the young LILY RENEE.
according to the exhibition notes:
Dr. Stadelmann . . . “considered dada a kind of mental disease of society . . . worth studying.”
the other paintings of his in the exhibit – were beyond racy . . . beyond “erotic”, more like approaching porn. they were still shocking, even today. and esp in the Met. It was one of the most profound, explicit, and interesting historical exhibits I have ever seen in the Met. it made for a topnotch visual experience, as well as a curious encounter with pre-war, pre-Nazi art. decadence in a head-on collision with freedom of expression. and the perceived “degeneration” of society.
the comic book influence – is a no-brainer.
image courtesy: Metropolitan Museum of Art
read more on the exhibit: ‘GLOOM and DOOM’/Metropolitan Museum of Art
it’s worth noting that: “with more than 50 works by OTTO DIX . . . this (2006-07 exhibit) is the first major presentation of his work in the United States. (!!)
~OTTO DIX, Gloom & Doom . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 11th, 2011, 9:47am
. . . also a war story & a coming of age, make that prominence.
the recent blue chip modern art auctions were termed: “tepid” by the New York Times. even the New York Post chimed in:
“a stunning flop in the $1.1 billion season-opener of the art auction world.” most of this because the work offered was tired and over-priced. esp in the Picasso marts. I always thought Picasso was a snooze. I never did get the $35 million dollar prices tags. and Henri Matisse / I was over him by the time I got out of high school. but KUSTAV KLIMT – that’s another story, even though he never even really made the art school must-read lists. so it’s been real fun watching his reputation rise over the years.
in fact – it was his name being bandied about – that first drew me to the LILY RENEE story.
while in the same media week – a long fought-over GUSTAV KLIMT landscape, ‘Litzlberg am Attersee’ – was the only true break-out sale success of the auctions !!
and it was not even one of his golden flecked art deco portraits, but a lowly landscape. Estimated to go for $25,000,000 – $30,000,000 in Sotheby’s November 2, 2011 Impressionist and Modern Art Auction here in New York – it hit a record high, going for: $40,000,000. that’s 40 million big ones.
GUSTAV KLIMT, ‘Litzlberg am Attersee’ – recently sold for $40,000,000 – or almost double its estimate of $25 million.
PHOTO CREDIT: Sotheby’s, c/o : NEW YORK TIMES
from the New York Times article: “This landscape was thought to have been painted in Klimt’s Vienna studio in 1914 after he spent the summer with Emilie Floge, his model, in Weissenbach, a town on Lake Attersee in Austria.”
and the background story, also a Nazi era war-story, and another rare one – in that, it also came to a happy conclusion, continues thus:
“George Jorisch, an 83-year-old retired camera store manager from Montreal (!!), acquired this painting from his great-uncle, the collector and Austrian iron magnate Victor Zuckerkandle, and his wife, Paula. It had been hanging in Mr. Jorisch’s family home in Purkersdorf, Austria, but was seized during World War II. It is one of two Klimts that were returned to Mr. Jorisch after years of attempts to recover them. (The other one – ‘Church in Cassone, Landscape with Cypresses’ – sold for $43.2 million in 2010.)
read the full article: ‘A Bouquet of Offerings to Test Uncertain Waters’, by CAROL VOGEL, The New York Times, Oct 20, 2011.
KLIMT and Emilie Floge in the garden of the Josefstadterstrasse studio, c. 1905-10.
(Photograph: M. Nahr, Vienna)
Klimt’s collection of Japanese color woodcuts and c Chinese scrolls, as installed in the foyer of his last studio in Hietzing, 1914-18.
(Photograph: M. Nahr, Vienna)
so I guess it’s not far-off to say Lily Renee, brought both erotic, expressionist, and high style German cutting edge art, as well as, indirectly, Japanese and Chinese dramatic flourishes, not to forget flat compositional planes – to the comic book world of New York City, circa 1940s !!
from the same book where those above archival photos were scanned, ‘Gustav Klimt’ by Alessandra Comini, published by George Braziller, New York, 1975:
“As early as 1908 the outspoken Viennese architect and defender of a new, proto-Expressionist severity in art, Adolf Loos, had publicly accused Klimt and the artists of the Weiner Werkstatte – Vienna’s arts-and-crafts center – of erotic pollution. In a speech intending to shock the complacent bourgeoisie, and published under the title ‘Ornament and Crime” (!!), Loos discussed what he considered the erotic origin as well as the outdated “plague of ornament” besetting Austrian art:
‘All art is erotic.
The first ornament that was born, the cross was of erotic origin. The first work of art, the first artistic act which the first artist scrawled on the wall to vent his exuberance was erotic.
A horizontal line: the recumbent woman. A vertical line: the man penetrating her . . .
But the man of our own times who from an inner compulsion smears walls with erotic symbols is a criminal or a degenerate . . .
Just as ornament is no longer organically an expression of our culture.’
talk about, sock-it-to-me fascism, parading as – art criticism. but this is the passionate sophisticated and many splendored art world of early 20th C. Vienna – that incubated the artistic sensibility of the young Lily Renee . . .
GUSTAV KLIMT, ‘Friedericke Maria Beer’, 1916. oil on canvas. 168 x 130 cm. in 1975 it was in the collection of Mrs. F Beer-Monti, then residing in Honolulu (!!)
image from: ‘Gustav Klimt by Alessandra Comini. Publisher George Braziller, New York, 1975.
~GUSTAV KLIMT, heartbreaker money-maker |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 10th, 2011, 9:55am
I did !! – catch the ‘LILY RENEE, Escape Artist’ booksigning !!
it was an absolutely amazing evening.
‘LILY RENEE, Escape Artist’ – the true story of LILY RENEE WILHEIM . . . “From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer”.
Written by TRINA ROBBINS.
Pencils by ANNE TIMMONS.
Lettering by FELIX RUIZ & CAYETANO GARZA Jr.
Coloring by Studio C10.
Published by GRAPHIC UNIVERSE – A Division of Lerner Publishing Group, NYC
96 pages. full color.
Hardcover: $10. note: prices at the MoCCA event.
Softcover: $7.
LILY RENEE WILHEIM comic book artist, as in illustrator – at the talk and booksigning.
MoCCA/Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, NYC. Thursday, Nov 3, 2011.
LILY RENEE WILHEIM, elegant and composed, and who finds herself suddenly in the limelight – and being outed as a pioneering, and one of the most influential woman comic book artists ever, in the male-dominated comic book industry of the 1940s . . . the so-called golden age of the comic book industry. she seemed quite pleased, very lively and eager to address this formerly forgotten chapter of her life.
we have to thank TRINA ROBBINS, the book’s author, a well regarded comic book artist and comic culture historian in her own right – for bringing Lily Renee’s story to light for a new generation of fans.
the illustrated book, moving as fast as a comic book – which it is – gets right to it, beginning with Lily Renee’s upper class childhood in Vienna, Austria, in the 30s – just before the dark storm that was the German Nazis – shook her world upside down.
there’s nothing better than a true story – and Trina Robbins tells it well.
the book is fast paced, full of facts and covers a lot of ground, in a most compelling page-turning manner. seemingly addressed to young readers, I found it an absolutely fascinating read . . . children’s books are the best – ain’t that the truth !!
Trina Robbin’s swift narrative is a kind of retelling – based on the specifics of the oral history as Lily Renee remembered it, over the course of several interviews.
as anybody who has ever attempted to write knows – it’s the pace – and the edit, that make the story flow – and this story does flow.
what was so interesting about the booksigning . . . was being able to hear the author and her subject discuss the book in person – and thus to learn a little more of the fascinating personal memories – behind the pages.
for example: YES, I DID ASK why wasn’t our heroine pictured . . . robed in that huge princess-style all white coat with a huge Leica camera swinging about her neck, as she boarded that Kindertransport whisking her out of Austria just in the nick of time . . . on the cover of the book, which would have been a super striking image – or what !!
esp as it was so graphically recalled by Lily Renee in a recent Newsweek interview. the somewhat very sane answer from Ms. Robbins: “because she hadn’t told me !!” . . .
isn’t that just like human memory – an organic fluxus with no inbuilt google bot search. we so forget how is it is to be human – these days. memories are like that – especially memories from long ago – they bubble up slowly, accumulatively – especially perhaps those memories long repressed.
this being a storybook, a comic book albeit an historically accurate one, of a not very easy time, a dark time, a cruel time . . . and not an art book, or detailed biography per se (which is sure to follow) . . . the early reference to the artwork that Lily Renee was exposed to as a child, the gorgeous but brooding and sensual Gustav Klimt, the dark emotional Shiele, the grotesque pornographic Otto Dix – which is what originally attracted me to this adventure – is rather badly addressed, and skimmed over – in this single frame reference on page 5, illustration above.
but, not to fear – it holds plenty of other actual moments . . . better rendered.
one memory that seemed to have made a particularly hurtful impression on Lily Renee, and which is addressed in depth in the book – was how degrading it felt to be labelled an “enemy alien” once she escaped to London, even though she was not singled out personally, all Austrian and German refugees were labelled such across the board.
and as such, being a young “enemy alien” woman, she told her audience at MoCCA she was not allowed to work at the general hospitals in London – which had men, in particular soldier patients . . . . for fear of her potential to be a spy !!
in fact, at the MoCCA booksigning this was still one of the most single most stinging episodes that she spoke about – it still seemed an issue. a thorn, a huge huge insult to her soul and her integrity. instead, and please take note of the bulldog British solution – she was sent to work at a maternity ward: no males. only mothers and babes. her unspoken implication: they wouldn’t trust me among their men, but there I was racing their vulnerable babies, the future of their race – in my arms to air raid shelters. imagine.
the talk was accompanied by a brief but striking slide show. this is Lily Renee on her first day in New York City – where she is one of the lucky few to be re-united with her parents. the book sadly recounts the continuing upheaval in her family’s life. her father once the proud and prosperous manager of a huge European steamship line, the legendary Holland America – has found work as an elevator operator in New York. and even that he cannot do – he has hurt his hand the very first day. a memory apparently deeply ingrained in Lily Renee’s heart.
Trina Robbins even had a few slides of the actual little painted ‘folk art’ wooden souvenir boxes that Lily Renee hand painted and resorted to selling – to make ends meet, to put food on the table for her and her parents.
Her mother took in piece work (sewing).
this was a slide of Lily Renee working as a fashion model, as the book relates: “Sometimes Lily modeled clothing for Jane Turner, a well-known fashion illustrator.” Lily was quite, and still is – a beautiful woman. she also worked drawing pictures for Woolworth catalogues, fifty cents an hour.
‘JANE MARTIN’.
and, then at the concluding pages of the book – we learn that, although nobody quite realized it at the time – she was to make history, of another kind, apart from her saga of Nazi survival . . . as the book relates, her mother sees an ad in the paper, “Lily — a comic book publisher is looking for artists. Why don’t you go there ?” and so Lily went to work at the New York City office of Fiction House comics – – in the 40s, suffering from the absence of so many men gone to war.
it’s ironic that she gets her big break, though to her it was just a job and a low-level one at that – as she recounted in the Museum talk – because of the shortage of men – gone to fight Hitler and his Nazis !!
and simply put . . . as this slide which Trina Robbins presented, Lily made comic book history, not only for being one of the few woman at the time to get to draw their own features, but for bringing onboard into the formerly straightforward American comic book lexicon – the German Expressionist and chic, not to mention, foxy drama and high sophistication voltage of her Viennese youth. this was ‘WEREWOLF HUNTER’ !!
she also illustrated ‘LOST WORLD’ – which Ms. Robbins said was the very first comic book to reference alien invasions !! put that in your art history hat !!
but, she has become most famous for her sexy Brazilian counter-spy, the dangerous Senorita Rio – or as the comic book story of Lily’s life says: “She’s a Brazilian nightclub entertainer, but in her secret identity she’s a counterspy, fighting Nazis in South America . . .” !!
and thus the comic book and true story, ‘Lily Renee, Escape Artist’ comes to a final page, where the current Lily Renee is given the closing quote: “Senorita Rio was a fantasy for me. She got clothes that I couldn’t have, she had a leopard coat, and she wore high-end shoes and had grand adventures and was very daring and beautiful and glamorous.”
and she . . . “Beat the Nazis.” (!!)
the real-life – 2011 – Lily Renee seemed to enjoy the talk, and discussion very much.
the last page in the storybook, also relates that: “Lily Renee continued to live in New York. She married and raised a family. After she stopped drawing comics in 1949, she created textile designs and designed jewelry. She wrote and illustrated children’s books and wrote 5 plays . . . Her two children and grandchildren grew up proud that their grandmother was a comic book artist.”
well, not quite that simple – as it turns out.
LILY RENEE . .. with the book’s author – TRINA ROBBINS, signing books after the talk.
and that’s the great thing about going to hear – the artist talk in person.
apparently not quite so . . . though all’s well, that ends well.
LILY RENEE and TRINA ROBBINS . . .
apparently the real truth is: after Lily Renee, for reasons not quite disclosed, walked away, after a decade, the entire run of the 40s, of pioneering vivid illustration work in the comic book world, both as a woman, and as an artist – she seemed to turn her back on it. she didn’t keep any copies of her work, she certainly didn’t have any on display in her home . . . . and apparently she really didn’t tell her own family, as in husband or children about it either !!
they had no clue !!
TRINA ROBBINS.
. . . until one of her granddaughters recently googled her grandma – and voila !! BUSTED !!
she found Trina Robbins’ groundbreaking essay, ‘LILY RENEE’ in The Comics Journal, Nov 29, 2006 – online.
for the most part a first person interview – this essay started the ball rolling, and the interest which it generated – mushroomed into the book at hand. Grandma – you were a comic book artist !!
and, so a big big thank you, to Trina Robbins. ‘herstorian’ and story-teller.
and so this wonderful artist, also a woman with a big big survival story – Lily Renee, long unrecognized, has finally come to light, after what ? . . . she worked as a comic book artist through the 40s, and now its 2011 – 70 years . . . !!
it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the profound and, way way vivid, sexy, ok, erotic !! chic and dramatic visual impact this young escapee from the turmoil and terror of the Nazis – left behind her in the comic book world . . . and by extension in our contemporary culture . . . and if that isn’t a darn good story – I don’t know – what is.
read: Trina Robbins original essay & 2006 interview with Lily Renee – in The Comics Journal, for yourself.
and lastly, what’s a look to the past, without a word to the future.
outside the booksigning: ERIN FINNEGAN, currently an animation tech support at Tisch Film School, NYU. who just happened to work as a Graphic Novel Editorial Assistant at Lerner Publishing Group – the publishers behind this book – while it was in production.
She has also been an Animation Production Co-ordinator at Cartoon Network, PBS and Fox . . . She writes freelance for ‘Anime News Network’, and among other projects, she is a Manga Reviewer for Publishers Weekly. she also podcasts at: ninjaconsultant.com
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, source photos are credited in the captions.
UP-DATE: NOV 13, 2011: NAZI TORCHERS in BROOKLYN . . .
just in case you think comic books aren’t relevant, serious or need to be heeded . . .
or . . . that the Holocaust – is an old story.
the above ‘LILY RENEE, Escape Artist’ comic book review was posted on Nov 7, 2011 . . . with no timeline anticipated in the artist talk – or the post.
but 3 days later, in New York City, on Nov 10, 2011 – which turned out coincidentally to be the actual 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht – the notorious night of outright public Nazi destruction targeting Jewish shopkeepers in Germany and Austria – we had our very own little, but very real – mini Kristallnacht of hate in Brooklyn !!
“Hate mongers torched 3 cars on a heavily Orthodox stretch of Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn yesterday and scrawled swastikas and other vile messages in vehicles and park benches.
Residents on the Midwood block lined with synagogues and yeshivas were awoken at 5:30 a.m. to the sounds of sirens and the sight of towering flames shooting from the vehicles. . .
‘The fact that this most recent attack came on the heels of the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht may or may not be a coincidence,’ Mayor Bloomberg said. ‘Either way, this kind of hateful act has no place in the freest city in the freest country in the world.'” – NY KRISTALLNACHT, Nazi torchers in B’klyn/THE NEW YORK POST/Nov 12, 2011
TRINA ROBBINS did present this archival slide of Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass – in her artist talk. but she made no mention of the eerie historical timeline – when in early November of 1938 the Nazis destroyed the glass windows and storefronts of Jewish owned shops – in a very graphic display of hate, and sent a crystal clear message as to their future intentions.
When she projected the slide, Trina actually said: “Kristallnacht, what a beautiful word – to have such a terrible meaning.”
in the comic book, ‘Lily Renee, Escape Artist’ … ‘From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer’ – Kristallnacht gets 3 whole pages . . . this evil night of outright and public Nazi destruction and aggression against Jews in Germany and Austria . . . in Vienna – her hometown – apparently made a deep and terrible impression on the young Lily Renee. it’s especially terrible when one considers what a civilized, make that sophisticated, chic and creative society Vienna had been, during her early childhood – when it was virtually the center of the intellectual and scientific world of its time.
“In Berlin, a seventeen-year old Jewish boy named Herschel Grynzpan, protesting the brutal treatment of his family by the Nazis, had shot and killed a German diplomat. The Nazis retaliated by starting riots in Berlin and Vienna, with mobs led by the Gestapo disguised as citizens.” “So this time they really did burn the synagogue.” “It’s not safe anymore. We have to leave Austria.” “Because of the broken glass covering the sidewalks and streets, this night was named Kristallnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass.” ~ ‘Lily Renee, Escape Artist’, the true story of comic book artist and pioneer Lily Renee Wilheim – written by Trina Robbins, and illustrated by ANNE TIMMONS and MO OH.
~LILY RENEE & TRINA ROBBINS . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 7th, 2011, 6:15pm
. . . there’s no escaping Charlie.
MAURIZIO CATTELAN and CHARLIE FINCH of artnet have a super feud going on . . . I don’t know the origins of the sad saga, but it’s a colossal feud. like super heated particles colliding head-on at vast speeds, like an epic-sized red-black lacquered dragon madly spinning in the ancient skies, biting its own tail and shooting off sparks, or is that blood – they have become one – locked in fierce battle. egging each other on to greater heights . . . aggravating the hell out of the diva egos that inhabit both. in this case – more is more.
the whole is greater than the parts . . .
Charlie’s most recent diatribe, written in advance of Cattelan’s Guggenheim retrospective is titled: ‘CATTELAN’S DINGLEBERRIES’. and if you think dingleberries is a quaint expression, not !! it means: “a piece of dried feces caught in the hair around the anus” – American Heritage Dictionary. (!!) like I said, ouch.
Mr. Finch begins his cutting rant thus: “The news that MAURIZIO CATTELAN plans to hang his expensive “masterpieces” from the strongest steel bar (also the largest suppository from the world’s largest asshole, Cattelan), suspended in the Guggenheim’s rotunda, would be laughable if it weren’t so funny.” . . . and ends, “Dangle away douchebag.”
and if you think talking dirty on the web doesn’t pay – think again, you’d be wrong there too.
just google the situation and see for yourself, how many internet splinters Charlie’s post shattered into, how many digital sparks flew.
so, wiseguy read it for yourself: Charlie Finch on Maurizio Cattelan/artnet
for his part, Cattelan used to put out a kind of magazine, called, ‘Charlie’ – but now he calls it: ‘toilet’.
( . . . sorry, ‘toilet paper’ !!)
MAURIZIO CATTELAN, view of the performance in the ‘Giardini’ during the 50th Venice Biennal, 2003.
PHOTO: ZENO ZOTTI/COURTESY GALERIE PERROTIN, Paris
“Charlie”, 2003. Tricycle, steel, varnished, natural gum, resin, silicone, hair, fabrics. life-size.
edition of 3.
and, of course there was that great insider joke, when Cattelan titled his show-stealing remote-controlled bot boy – on a tricycle – ‘Charlie’ !! even though, it was a self-portrait of the artist, Cattelan, as a young boy – himself !!
you tell me who has the “drier” wit.
though Charlie’s – the stalking slasher, no doubt about it . . .
I did catch them once, at the beginning of the battle royale in the same room. but not side by side, that’s for sure.
it was in 2005 at the big DAMIEN HIRST show at Gagosian’s on 24th St. appropriately enough, the show was titled ‘Damien Hirst: The Elusive Truth’ – and the photos are from the opening night, March 11, 2005.
MAURIZIO CATTELAN at the Hirst opening, NYC. March 11, 2005
MAURIZIO CATTELAN, the Italian ‘clown’ – always in motion. and very wired.
CHARLIE FINCH, the sharp-tongued saber-toothed scribe looking almost benign, or is that benevolent, out and about – among the ‘little people’.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, NYC. MARCH 11, 2005.
~MAURIZIO CATTELAN v.s. CHARLIE FINCH, ouch . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 4th, 2011, 7:02am
FILE UNDER: well, while we’re talking bout Nazis . . .
‘HIM’, (2001), by MAURIZIO CATTELAN, whose retrospective at the Guggenheim opens tomorrow, Nov 4, 2011 – will be made up of over 130 of the artist’s original works dangling overhead . . .
PHOTO BY: ZENO ZOTTI/THE NEW YORK TIMES
this striking photo . . . headlined the recent NEW YORK TIMES advance essay on the new Guggenheim Cattelan retrospective – informatively, and most entertainingly penned, as usual, by RANDY KENNEDY.
the exhibit, titled – ‘MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL’ – will run NOV 4, 2011 – JAN 22, 2012. A retrospective survey, of more than 130 original pieces, dating back to the 1980s and on through the present – will be hanging from the ceiling. down with walls . . . and, damn, who needs floors.
Cattelan is quite the contrarian. the joker . . . and the political statesman. the extensive sampling of his works are on loan from private and public collections – around the world. so don’t blink – it’s not likely you’ll see many of these pieces again.
I wonder if his, ‘Charlie’ – the remote-controlled mechanized bot boy on a tricycle – that stole the 50th Venice Biennial in 2003 – will be among them ?
and one wonders how the floor anchored on-site pieces will be rendered ?
of course the funniest part of the Randy Kennedy interview, is Cattelan’s exit strategy: “Mr. Cattelan, 51, insists that the show will be his last, and that he will officially retire from making art as soon as it is over, though what that means in the Cattelan lexicon is anyone’s guess.”
like I said, Maurizio Cattelan, Escape artist !!
view of the exhibit ‘out of senses’, 2002. Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
PHOTO COURTESY: GALERIE PERROTIN, Paris
MAURIZIO CATTELAN, ‘untitled’, 2001. wax figure, natural hairs, cotton. life-size.
edition of 3 + 1AP
(self-portrait)
see: ‘Hanging with Cattelan’ – by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, Oct 2, 2011
see: ‘MAURIZIO CATTELAN: ALL’ – at the GUGGENHEIM
~MAURIZIO CATTELAN, Escape artist . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 3rd, 2011, 3:46pm
