Patrick McMullan
at the Annual Marc Jacobs Holiday Party "The Red and Gold Masked Ball"
The Pierre Hotel, NYC
December 14, 2004
© Patrick McMullan
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: DECEMBER 14, 2004
Marc Jacobs
at his annual Marc Jacobs Holiday Party "The Red and Gold Masked Ball"
The Pierre Hotel, NYC
December 14, 2004
© Patrick McMullan
For additional images:
Thursday, December 2, 2010
PMc MIAMI PARTY OF THE WEEK: DECEMBER 2, 2010
THREE STOOGES WE LOVE
PATRICK McMULLAN, BRIAN ANTONI & ROBERT CHAMBERS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2010, 11PM
RSVP: cafeina@taraink.com
or 305.864.3434 x125
CAFEINA WYNWOOD
297 NORTHWEST 23RD STREET,
MIAMI, FL 33127
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
PMc PHOTO of the DAY: DECEMBER 1, 2010
78th Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and Concert
at Rockefeller Center, NYC
Tuesday November 30, 2010
© Patrick McMullan Company
Photo - Marie Havens / PatrickMcMullan.com
For additional images:
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: DECEMBER 1, 2008
Beyoncé
at the CADILLLAC RECORDS after-party
Marquee N.Y.C.
December 01, 2008
© Patrick McMullan
Photo- CHANCE YEH /PatrickMcMullan.com
For additional images:
Monday, November 29, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: NOVEMBER 29, 2007
Marie Havens & Daniel Stark
GLAMOUR MAGAZINE & ELIE TAHARI party for
PATRICK MCMULLAN's book "GLAMOUR GIRLS"
at Elie Tahari, NYC
November 29, 2007
© Patrick McMullan
Photo-PATRICK MCMULLAN/PatrickMcMullan.com
For more images:
Friday, November 19, 2010
PMc PHOTO of the DAY: NOVEMBER 18, 2010
Prince Poppycock
Performing Live at Assouline's WINDOWS at BERGDORF GOODMAN Book Launch
Bergdorf Goodman, NYC
Thursday, November 18, 2010
© Patrick McMullan Company
Photo - MARIE HAVENS / Patrick McMullan.com
ART DIRECTION: MARIE HAVENS
For additional images:
Thursday, November 18, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: NOVEMBER 18, 2002
Samantha and Charlotte Ronson
Scoop Men Store Opening, NYC
November 18, 2002
© Patrick McMullan
for additional images:
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: NOVEMBER 17, 2008
Mr. T at the Bolt Premiere
El Capitan, Hollywood, CA
November 17, 2008
© Patrick McMullan
For additional images:
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: NOVEMBER 9, 2009
Rihanna & Stella McCartney
GLAMOUR WOMEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS DINNER
Southgate, NYC
November 9, 2009
© Patrick McMullan
For additional images:
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: NOVEMBER 2, 2009
LADY GAGA
at the ACE Awards presented by the Accessories Council
Cipriani 42nd Street, NYC
November 02, 2009
© Patrick McMullan
Photo - CHANCE YEH/PatrickMcMullan.com
For additional images:
Monday, November 1, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: NOVEMBER 1, 2002
Backstage at the Alexander McQueen Fashion Show
produced by Neiman Marcus at the new "Fashion Show"
retail development located on the Strip in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
November 1, 2002
©Patrick McMullan
Photo- Marie Havens / PMc
Thursday, October 28, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: OCTOBER 28, 2003
Courtney Cox and David Arquette
at the launch party for "Mix It Up" a new home design series
by Courtney Cox and David Arquette held in Mix New York (Alain Ducasse), NYC
October 28, 2003
© Patrick McMullan
Photo Credit- CHANCE YEH /PMc
For additional images:
http://www.patrickmcmullan.com/site/event_detail.aspx?eid=16024
For additional images:
http://www.patrickmcmullan.com/site/event_detail.aspx?eid=16024
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Interview with Art Production Fund - ADVANCED PREVIEW of PMc Magazine Content
YOU ARE READING AN ADVANCED PREVIEW OF AN UPCOMING FEATURE IN PATRICK McMULLAN'S NEW ONLINE MAGAZINE:
PMc MAGAZINE
SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH BY DEC 2010!
For additional details on PMc Magazine please contact:
Marie Havens / Art Director / marie@patrickmcmullan.com
Tyler Malone / Editor / tyler@patrickmcmullan.com
Interview w/ Yvonne Force Villareal & Doreen Remen of Art Production Fund, who recently worked on the project White Ghost with Yoshitomo Nara, in conjunction with his exhibition Nobody’s Fool at the Asia Society
This August you may have noticed two large white sculptures on Park Avenue. These large sculptures by Yoshitomo Nara, and in association with the Art Production Fund, stood near the entrances to the Asia Society and the Park Avenue Armory. As the Art Production Fund explains, these sculptures act as “komainu, mythical lion-like animal statues commonly placed at the entrances to shrines in Japan as guardians.” Their recent work with Yoshitomo Nara is only one of many interesting and inspiring projects. Recently Anita Marie Antonini sat down to ask Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen, of Art Production Fund, about APF and their relationship with Nara.
Anita Marie Antonini: The Art Production Fund does such great work and is already 10 years old. Your baby is not such a baby anymore. You are a staff of three. What roles do you play or are you all in the Get it Done Department?
Yvonne Force Villareal & Doreen Remen: We met at RISD in the late 80’s--and our Director, Casey Fremont, has been with us since she was a 16 year old intern--so we are as much a chosen family as co-workers and have definitely maximized our individual strengths within the team. We also have just hired a 4th person, a project coordinator, Theo Schamber, who started as an intern. We have a strong ongoing intern program--and wow, they work it! We do have our designated roles, but also are flexible about what they are should one of us feel an intense connection to a certain aspect of any project. In general, we’re all somehow involved with every aspect of every project; whether it’s giving our opinion or being the point person. Working as a team allows us to have the biggest impact. We love the flexibility a small office gives us yet partner when we need to with large companies and established institutions.
AMA: Public Art Projects are sadly too few in NYC. Other major cities around the world have more of a devotion to this cultural service. Toronto for instance owns over 200 works of public art alone and is very forward thinking in this arena. How do you feel the APF makes a difference?
YFV & DR: There is not enough public art or public arts presenters in this world! The amount of work, bureaucracy and responsibility necessary in order to get something “out there” can be intimidating. Our mission is to bring the important messages found in contemporary art to a broader audience than one finds in a gallery or museum, so that is what we do. Many of our projects happen in unlikely places--McDonald’s for example, or on the TV set of Gossip Girl!--and most are temporary but their impact lives on in their documentation. When appropriate, we strive to facilitate permanent pieces--such as the Prada Marfa installation by Elmgreen & Dragset in Marfa, Texas. Otherwise, the venues where we work remain available for another installation!
We are very fortunate to meet like-minded sponsors and venue hosts that believe as fervently as we do that art can raise the collective consciousness of any given community. For example, our sponsors for Nara, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (opening in Dec. 2010) currently are co-presenting with us on their 64 foot marquee on the Vegas strip three artworks every hour: two by TJ Wilcox and one by Yoko Ono. The series is called Pause and offers the viewers a moment of contemplation while in their given saturated environment.
AMA: Yoshitomo Nara got arrested for making graffiti and resisting arrest in the NYC subway before his last exhibit here last year. Now with the help of APF he has installed huge sculptures on Park Avenue. Who do you think has the last laugh?
YFV & DR: We can all laugh together! The sculptures are joyous and surreal. They stand guard at the two sites of his exhibitions in NYC: The Asia Society and Park Avenue Armory protecting the space. Nara is such a sincere person and his work is direct and authentic. And lets not forget that a little graffiti (read: a lot) is not such a bad thing in our opinion!
AMA: Tell me a little bit about your collaboration with him.
YFV & DR: We always wanted to work with Nara--while he has not done much public work it is of great interest to him and reflects his spirit of generosity. His work is sophisticated and art historically complex while very accessible in presentation and content. Nara deals with cartoon imagery that everybody can relate to while bringing issues to the surface such as the complicated territory of youth culture--feelings of restlessness, alienation and repression that we all went through or are still going through, as individuals or societies. We also always wanted to work on Park Avenue--it is a super interesting site with major traffic/pedestrians on both sides, directions and across. Both highly structured and formal while very much a part of the chaos and grit of NYC. Not unlike the work of Nara.
The Art Production Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping artists realize difficult-to-produce works, reaching new audiences, and expanding public participation and understanding of contemporary art. This fall they were working closely with Yoshitomo Nara and his exhibition at the Asia Society.
LINKS:
http://www.artproductionfund.org/
http://sites.asiasociety.org/yoshitomonara/
http://www.
Art Production Fund interviewed by Anita Marie Antonini
Written and Edited by Tyler Malone
Photo by Shaun Mader/PatrickMcMullan.com
PMc MAGAZINE
SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH BY DEC 2010!
For additional details on PMc Magazine please contact:
Marie Havens / Art Director / marie@patrickmcmullan.com
Tyler Malone / Editor / tyler@patrickmcmullan.com
Interview w/ Yvonne Force Villareal & Doreen Remen of Art Production Fund, who recently worked on the project White Ghost with Yoshitomo Nara, in conjunction with his exhibition Nobody’s Fool at the Asia Society
This August you may have noticed two large white sculptures on Park Avenue. These large sculptures by Yoshitomo Nara, and in association with the Art Production Fund, stood near the entrances to the Asia Society and the Park Avenue Armory. As the Art Production Fund explains, these sculptures act as “komainu, mythical lion-like animal statues commonly placed at the entrances to shrines in Japan as guardians.” Their recent work with Yoshitomo Nara is only one of many interesting and inspiring projects. Recently Anita Marie Antonini sat down to ask Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen, of Art Production Fund, about APF and their relationship with Nara.
Anita Marie Antonini: The Art Production Fund does such great work and is already 10 years old. Your baby is not such a baby anymore. You are a staff of three. What roles do you play or are you all in the Get it Done Department?
Yvonne Force Villareal & Doreen Remen: We met at RISD in the late 80’s--and our Director, Casey Fremont, has been with us since she was a 16 year old intern--so we are as much a chosen family as co-workers and have definitely maximized our individual strengths within the team. We also have just hired a 4th person, a project coordinator, Theo Schamber, who started as an intern. We have a strong ongoing intern program--and wow, they work it! We do have our designated roles, but also are flexible about what they are should one of us feel an intense connection to a certain aspect of any project. In general, we’re all somehow involved with every aspect of every project; whether it’s giving our opinion or being the point person. Working as a team allows us to have the biggest impact. We love the flexibility a small office gives us yet partner when we need to with large companies and established institutions.
AMA: Public Art Projects are sadly too few in NYC. Other major cities around the world have more of a devotion to this cultural service. Toronto for instance owns over 200 works of public art alone and is very forward thinking in this arena. How do you feel the APF makes a difference?
YFV & DR: There is not enough public art or public arts presenters in this world! The amount of work, bureaucracy and responsibility necessary in order to get something “out there” can be intimidating. Our mission is to bring the important messages found in contemporary art to a broader audience than one finds in a gallery or museum, so that is what we do. Many of our projects happen in unlikely places--McDonald’s for example, or on the TV set of Gossip Girl!--and most are temporary but their impact lives on in their documentation. When appropriate, we strive to facilitate permanent pieces--such as the Prada Marfa installation by Elmgreen & Dragset in Marfa, Texas. Otherwise, the venues where we work remain available for another installation!
We are very fortunate to meet like-minded sponsors and venue hosts that believe as fervently as we do that art can raise the collective consciousness of any given community. For example, our sponsors for Nara, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (opening in Dec. 2010) currently are co-presenting with us on their 64 foot marquee on the Vegas strip three artworks every hour: two by TJ Wilcox and one by Yoko Ono. The series is called Pause and offers the viewers a moment of contemplation while in their given saturated environment.
AMA: Yoshitomo Nara got arrested for making graffiti and resisting arrest in the NYC subway before his last exhibit here last year. Now with the help of APF he has installed huge sculptures on Park Avenue. Who do you think has the last laugh?
YFV & DR: We can all laugh together! The sculptures are joyous and surreal. They stand guard at the two sites of his exhibitions in NYC: The Asia Society and Park Avenue Armory protecting the space. Nara is such a sincere person and his work is direct and authentic. And lets not forget that a little graffiti (read: a lot) is not such a bad thing in our opinion!
AMA: Tell me a little bit about your collaboration with him.
YFV & DR: We always wanted to work with Nara--while he has not done much public work it is of great interest to him and reflects his spirit of generosity. His work is sophisticated and art historically complex while very accessible in presentation and content. Nara deals with cartoon imagery that everybody can relate to while bringing issues to the surface such as the complicated territory of youth culture--feelings of restlessness, alienation and repression that we all went through or are still going through, as individuals or societies. We also always wanted to work on Park Avenue--it is a super interesting site with major traffic/pedestrians on both sides, directions and across. Both highly structured and formal while very much a part of the chaos and grit of NYC. Not unlike the work of Nara.
The Art Production Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping artists realize difficult-to-produce works, reaching new audiences, and expanding public participation and understanding of contemporary art. This fall they were working closely with Yoshitomo Nara and his exhibition at the Asia Society.
LINKS:
http://www.artproductionfund.org/
http://sites.asiasociety.org/yoshitomonara/
http://www.
Art Production Fund interviewed by Anita Marie Antonini
Written and Edited by Tyler Malone
Photo by Shaun Mader/PatrickMcMullan.com
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: OCTOBER 27, 2003
Alice Cooper
at his concert promoting his new album, "The Eyes of Alice Cooper"
Beacon Theater, New York City
October 27, 2003.
© Patrick McMullan
photo: Michael Loccisano/PMc
For additional images:
Monday, October 25, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: OCTOBER 25, 2004
Mary Boone & Jay McInerney
Party to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerney
The Odeon, NYC
October 25, 2004
© Patrick McMullan
For additional images:
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: OCTOBER 20, 2003
Alec Baldwin and Yvonne Seidel
at Project ALS 6th Annual New York City Gala
The Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC
October 20, 2003
©Patrick McMullan
PHOTO-JIMI CELESTE/PMc
For additional images:
Monday, October 18, 2010
WHO WE LOVE: DARIAN DARLING
FAB MAKE-UP ARTIST. STYLE ICON. BLOGGER. CELEBRITY CONFIDANT.
 |
DARIAN DARLING at the Semi Precious Weapons concert featuring The Dirty Pearls, Lady Starlight, Darian Darling, and Breedlove Irving Plaza, NYC, Friday, October 8, 2010 © Patrick McMullan Company Photos - MARIE HAVENS / Patrick McMullan.com |
 |
**DARIAN WILL BE FEATURED IN AN UPCOMING PMc MAGAZINE COLUMN, SET TO LAUNCH NOVEMBER 2010** |
--
For further information:
--
AND THANKS, DARIAN FOR THE PLUG! XX
SEE OUR PHOTOS OF THE SPW SHOW HERE:
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: OCTOBER 18, 2007
Mary-Kate Olsen & Ashley Olsen
Neiman Marcus, Beverly Hills
October 18, 2007
© Patrick McMullan
Photo - Stefanie Keenan/patrickmcmullan.com
FOR ADDITIONAL IMAGES:
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Interview with Steven Kasher - ADVANCED PREVIEW of PMc Magazine Content
YOU ARE READING AN ADVANCED PREVIEW OF AN UPCOMING FEATURE IN PATRICK McMULLAN'S NEW ONLINE MAGAZINE:
PMc MAGAZINE
SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH THIS FALL 2010!
For additional details on PMc Magazine please contact:
Marie Havens / Art Director / marie@patrickmcmullan.com
Tyler Malone / Editor / tyler@patrickmcmullan.com
“PHOTOGRAPHS ARE THE BASTARD CHILDREN OF ART AND HISTORY”
Interview w/ Steven Kasher, upon the release of his new book Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll (Abrams Image, 2010) and the corresponding exhibition at Steven Kasher Gallery (http://www.stevenkasher.com; 521 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011).
According to Andy Warhol, "Max's Kansas City was the exact place where Pop Art and pop life came together." It's true: there are only a few places throughout history that perfectly, for their time, manage to fuse life, art and glamour so seamlessly and cook up such a cultural stew. Lou Reed, in his afterward to Steven Kasher's new photography book of pictures from the heyday of Max's, writes, "Thousands of words have been written about Max's and many more will come." Thousands upon thousands of words—but if a picture is worth a thousand words, then we're in luck, because Steven Kasher's Max's Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll has over a hundred photos of the classic club and its cool clientele. If each picture is worth a thousand words, then Steven Kasher gives us over 100,000 more “words” on what Reed calls "the all-time hang." In celebration of the release of the book and the opening of the corresponding exhibit at Steven Kasher Gallery, Anita Marie Antonini sat down with Steven Kasher to discuss Max's: the book, the exhibit and the place that started it all.
Anita Marie Antonini: Tell us about the editing process: How did you decide what to include? And what not to include? How long did it take you to do? Personally I would have loved the book to be bigger—I could have kept on looking after I hit the last page.
Steven Kasher: It took about a year to put it all together. I started with Anton Perich and Danny Fields, and Billy Name, because I knew they had done great shots in Max’s and I work with them. Then I realized that one of my heros, John Chamberlain, was a lynchpin of Max’s artists. My uncle had been an actor in one of Chamberlains films from the 60s. I got to be friends with John, and his beautiful wife, Prudence. And we found some great Chamberlain sculptures for the show. We added some other artists who were in the inner circle: Forrest Myers and Neil Williams and Larry Zox. Then we looked around for other photographers who shot in Max’s. Turns out almost no one besides Anton did during Max’s first chapter. But during the later Max’s Upstairs period there were great photographs made of the musicians. Tamar Brazis at Abrams did a lot of the research for that. She found superb performance and backstage shots by photographers notorious and unknown: Marcia Resnick, Stephanie Chernikowski, Bob Gruen, Nicky L, Lily Hou, Ebet Roberts and more. We couldn’t include all the fine work in the book; there is much more in the show.
AMA: Is there a camaraderie that you think still exists today among artists, musicians, and the glamorous? Or was that a specific period in time that just could never happen again?
SK: There are scenes and hangouts today that bring visual artists and musicians and designers together, of course. All over the world. But nothing like Max’s. It was a smaller art world then, lonelier, less spotlights, less press, less money. Somehow Max’s became THE place, not one of many. It stood above the other hangs for years. Things come and go much faster now. And Max’s owner and impresario, Mickey Ruskin, was a uniquely hip, sensitive, nurturing, generous, brave guy. He had a hugely successful bar/restaurant for years but saved not a dime. He let all the artists run up tabs, pay when they could, or never. Who does that today?
AMA: There can never be another Max’s, but what do you think is the present day Max’s Kansas City in this post-internet world? Or could something like Max’s even happen today?
SK: Not in New York: the world of artists, musicians, hipsters here is way too big to get under one roof. And, sadly, creative people don't really meet, mate, and converse in bars as much anymore. But somewhere, sometime there will be another Max's. When a big cultural paradigm shift is in the offing. Maybe when prevailing Western models of cool are replaced by something from the Far East, or the Middle East, or Africa.
AMA: What is interesting to me from looking at the book is how uncomplicated the time period feels which seems in contrast to how chaotic some of the photos are in the details. The overall content is in the posture, eye contact and how so much is reveled in those details. Can you elaborate on that at all?
SK: Good photographs will always body forth the attitudes and poses, the faces and fashions particular to a time. It was a fraught, creative, revolutionary time. Max’s was the place where new models of cool--more androgynous—were coming to the fore and mixing with the older, more macho models. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Miles Davis, and Jackson Pollock were being replaced by Lou Reed and Iggy Pop and Janis Joplin and Andy Warhol. How beautiful is all that cultural turmoil and revolution—captured in the photographs of Anton Perich, for instance!
AMA: Your gallery focuses on social & historical photography as well as contemporary fine art photography. Do the photos that document a period become important because of their historical value and are they not considered fine art in and of themselves? Or can they be both?
SK: Photographs are the bastard children of art and history, of sensibility and reality. Always. So-called art photography is a tiny subset of the much wider field of endeavor. Great photographs from that wider field can become art when they are recontextualized as such. But they remain also part of other disciplines: documentary, photojournalism, science, fashion, snapshot, etc. They cross open borders back and forth, are democratic and cosmopolitan. I find that very stimulating, philosophically and aesthetically. As do the many collectors, private and public, that come to us to find these sorts of interdisciplinary photography.
AMA: Ephemera adds the nostalgic touch throughout the book. The New York Rock Drink menu is very entertaining and has a definite 70s/80s sense of a humor. I would be all for bringing that back. What would your drink of choice be? And why do you think the Patti Smith was so expensive?
SK: Entertaining for sure, but I wouldn’t want to drink that crap. Way too sweet and synthetic, like alcoholic Kool-aid. I’m looking for a more rye sense of liquor. Patti is generous as one can be, but never cheap.
AMA: So when can the public look forward to seeing the exhibit/book release?
SK: September 15, 2010
Steven Kasher is the owner and director of Steven Kasher Gallery. He has put together photography books such as The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (Abbeville, 1996) and America and the Tintype (Steidl,/ICP, 2008). His newest book—Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll—features photographs of the famed New York City nightclub, restaurant and music venue from throughout the 1970s. In conjunction with the book release, the Steven Kasher Gallery will have an exhibition of over 100 vintage and modern photographs and large-scale sculptures and paintings by the inner circle of Max’s Kansas City artists, including John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers, Larry Zox, Neil Williams, Dan Flavin and Larry Poons. The exhibition will run from September 15 through October 9, 2010
Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011.
LINKS:
http://www.stevenkasher.com
Steven Kasher interviewed by Anita Marie Antonini
Photos by Shaun Mader/PatrickMcMullan.com
Written and Edited by Tyler Malone
PMc MAGAZINE
SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH THIS FALL 2010!
For additional details on PMc Magazine please contact:
Marie Havens / Art Director / marie@patrickmcmullan.com
Tyler Malone / Editor / tyler@patrickmcmullan.com
“PHOTOGRAPHS ARE THE BASTARD CHILDREN OF ART AND HISTORY”
Interview w/ Steven Kasher, upon the release of his new book Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll (Abrams Image, 2010) and the corresponding exhibition at Steven Kasher Gallery (http://www.stevenkasher.com; 521 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011).
According to Andy Warhol, "Max's Kansas City was the exact place where Pop Art and pop life came together." It's true: there are only a few places throughout history that perfectly, for their time, manage to fuse life, art and glamour so seamlessly and cook up such a cultural stew. Lou Reed, in his afterward to Steven Kasher's new photography book of pictures from the heyday of Max's, writes, "Thousands of words have been written about Max's and many more will come." Thousands upon thousands of words—but if a picture is worth a thousand words, then we're in luck, because Steven Kasher's Max's Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll has over a hundred photos of the classic club and its cool clientele. If each picture is worth a thousand words, then Steven Kasher gives us over 100,000 more “words” on what Reed calls "the all-time hang." In celebration of the release of the book and the opening of the corresponding exhibit at Steven Kasher Gallery, Anita Marie Antonini sat down with Steven Kasher to discuss Max's: the book, the exhibit and the place that started it all.
Anita Marie Antonini: Tell us about the editing process: How did you decide what to include? And what not to include? How long did it take you to do? Personally I would have loved the book to be bigger—I could have kept on looking after I hit the last page.
Steven Kasher: It took about a year to put it all together. I started with Anton Perich and Danny Fields, and Billy Name, because I knew they had done great shots in Max’s and I work with them. Then I realized that one of my heros, John Chamberlain, was a lynchpin of Max’s artists. My uncle had been an actor in one of Chamberlains films from the 60s. I got to be friends with John, and his beautiful wife, Prudence. And we found some great Chamberlain sculptures for the show. We added some other artists who were in the inner circle: Forrest Myers and Neil Williams and Larry Zox. Then we looked around for other photographers who shot in Max’s. Turns out almost no one besides Anton did during Max’s first chapter. But during the later Max’s Upstairs period there were great photographs made of the musicians. Tamar Brazis at Abrams did a lot of the research for that. She found superb performance and backstage shots by photographers notorious and unknown: Marcia Resnick, Stephanie Chernikowski, Bob Gruen, Nicky L, Lily Hou, Ebet Roberts and more. We couldn’t include all the fine work in the book; there is much more in the show.
AMA: Is there a camaraderie that you think still exists today among artists, musicians, and the glamorous? Or was that a specific period in time that just could never happen again?
SK: There are scenes and hangouts today that bring visual artists and musicians and designers together, of course. All over the world. But nothing like Max’s. It was a smaller art world then, lonelier, less spotlights, less press, less money. Somehow Max’s became THE place, not one of many. It stood above the other hangs for years. Things come and go much faster now. And Max’s owner and impresario, Mickey Ruskin, was a uniquely hip, sensitive, nurturing, generous, brave guy. He had a hugely successful bar/restaurant for years but saved not a dime. He let all the artists run up tabs, pay when they could, or never. Who does that today?
AMA: There can never be another Max’s, but what do you think is the present day Max’s Kansas City in this post-internet world? Or could something like Max’s even happen today?
SK: Not in New York: the world of artists, musicians, hipsters here is way too big to get under one roof. And, sadly, creative people don't really meet, mate, and converse in bars as much anymore. But somewhere, sometime there will be another Max's. When a big cultural paradigm shift is in the offing. Maybe when prevailing Western models of cool are replaced by something from the Far East, or the Middle East, or Africa.
AMA: What is interesting to me from looking at the book is how uncomplicated the time period feels which seems in contrast to how chaotic some of the photos are in the details. The overall content is in the posture, eye contact and how so much is reveled in those details. Can you elaborate on that at all?
SK: Good photographs will always body forth the attitudes and poses, the faces and fashions particular to a time. It was a fraught, creative, revolutionary time. Max’s was the place where new models of cool--more androgynous—were coming to the fore and mixing with the older, more macho models. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Miles Davis, and Jackson Pollock were being replaced by Lou Reed and Iggy Pop and Janis Joplin and Andy Warhol. How beautiful is all that cultural turmoil and revolution—captured in the photographs of Anton Perich, for instance!
AMA: Your gallery focuses on social & historical photography as well as contemporary fine art photography. Do the photos that document a period become important because of their historical value and are they not considered fine art in and of themselves? Or can they be both?
SK: Photographs are the bastard children of art and history, of sensibility and reality. Always. So-called art photography is a tiny subset of the much wider field of endeavor. Great photographs from that wider field can become art when they are recontextualized as such. But they remain also part of other disciplines: documentary, photojournalism, science, fashion, snapshot, etc. They cross open borders back and forth, are democratic and cosmopolitan. I find that very stimulating, philosophically and aesthetically. As do the many collectors, private and public, that come to us to find these sorts of interdisciplinary photography.
AMA: Ephemera adds the nostalgic touch throughout the book. The New York Rock Drink menu is very entertaining and has a definite 70s/80s sense of a humor. I would be all for bringing that back. What would your drink of choice be? And why do you think the Patti Smith was so expensive?
SK: Entertaining for sure, but I wouldn’t want to drink that crap. Way too sweet and synthetic, like alcoholic Kool-aid. I’m looking for a more rye sense of liquor. Patti is generous as one can be, but never cheap.
AMA: So when can the public look forward to seeing the exhibit/book release?
SK: September 15, 2010
Steven Kasher is the owner and director of Steven Kasher Gallery. He has put together photography books such as The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (Abbeville, 1996) and America and the Tintype (Steidl,/ICP, 2008). His newest book—Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll—features photographs of the famed New York City nightclub, restaurant and music venue from throughout the 1970s. In conjunction with the book release, the Steven Kasher Gallery will have an exhibition of over 100 vintage and modern photographs and large-scale sculptures and paintings by the inner circle of Max’s Kansas City artists, including John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers, Larry Zox, Neil Williams, Dan Flavin and Larry Poons. The exhibition will run from September 15 through October 9, 2010
Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011.
LINKS:
http://www.stevenkasher.com
Steven Kasher interviewed by Anita Marie Antonini
Photos by Shaun Mader/PatrickMcMullan.com
Written and Edited by Tyler Malone
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| John Chamberlain, Dorthea Rockburne, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Steven Kasher and Taylor Mead |
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| Atmosphere at the Steven Kasher Gallery |
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| Steven Kasher and Joel Grey |
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| Atmosphere at the Steven Kasher Gallery |
Monday, September 20, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 20, 2002
Usher, Chili, David Copperfield
at David Copperfield's Birthday Bash
The GQ Lounge, NYC
September 20, 2002
©Patrick McMullan
Photo- Jamie McCarthy/PMc
For additional images;
http://www.patrickmcmullan.com/site/event_detail.aspx?eid=14255
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 20, 2002
Chloe Sevigny
at David Copperfield's Birthday Bash
The GQ Lounge, NYC
September 20, 2002
©Patrick McMullan
Photo- Jamie McCarthy/PMc
For additional images;
http://www.patrickmcmullan.com/site/event_detail.aspx?eid=14255
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
WHO WE LOVE: STORM LEE
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Monday, August 23, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: AUGUST 23, 2003
Roger Federer
30 Years of Nike Tennis party
Lot 61, NYC
August 23, 2003
©Patrick McMullan
Photo- Andrew Walker/PMc
Friday, August 20, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: August 20, 2003
Marilyn Manson & Dita Von Tesse
at Burlesque Superstar Dita Von Tesse's
Strip for Boyfriend Marilyn Manson at SHOW
on August 20, 2003
© 2003 Patrick McMullan
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010
TODAY IN PMc HISTORY: AUGUST 10,2006
Zac Posen and Sandra Bernhard
at a luncheon in Celebration of M.A.C. Plushglass
Michael's, New York, NY
August 10, 2006
©Patrick McMullan
Photo-Jimi Celeste/PMc
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