Patti Astor's interview in New York's Vulture webzine #pattiastor

Patti Astor in February 1983 with Keith Haring's "The Smurfs" and " II" (photo credit: Eric Kroll)

New York's Vulture published a great interview with Patti Astor, the "Queen of Downtown" (New York,) to publicize her book about her life story. In it, we're reminded how influential Astor was, even before her starring role in Charlie Ahearn's "Wild Style" hip hop film.

I've interviewed Astor in the past and she knows how to tell a story. But, it's hard to keep up. She was there during the creation of  the urban culture blueprint in the '70s and '80s, yet she'd be the first to say there was no grand plan. The people in Astor's circle include unsung heroes, long forgotten players and a few people whose reputation precedes them. She treats them all the same when she tells her tales.

Check out Vulture here. Even better, go to The Fun Gallery website to buy Patti Astor's self-published book.

Here are a few snatched paragraphs of my favorite parts of Patti's interview by Mary Kaye Shilling.

If you've never heard of Patti Astor, it may be because she’s one of those people who should take credit for things but doesn’t. Back in the day, she was more interested in making sure the young artists she championed — graffiti masters like Dondi, Zephyr, and Futura 2000, as well as Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat — were properly respected. She's still at it some 30 years later. 

"We were the first gallery to give one-man shows to graffiti artists," says Astor, poking her head into her former gallery, where a guy is renovating the tiny space. 'Our first hit of the big time was [Fab 5 Freddy’s] show. I remember sitting in the gallery, in that tiny room, and Bruno Bischofberger drives up in a limo like a city bus. He looked like Goldfinger and had a babe on each arm. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but [sculptor] Arch Connelly, who was kind of like our art guardian, later told me that Bischofberger was the second biggest collector in the world after Count Panza.” Astor, who sounds like Roseanne Barr, cackles at how ridiculous the names sound. “Anyway, Bischofberger dumps the babes and pulls out these index cards and starts asking me all these questions: Who is the most important person in graffiti? What do you think of Basquiat?" She snorts derisively. "I couldn’t believe it when I saw Tamra Davis’s documentary about Basquiat, which is really valuable for all the footage of him, but the rest is revisionist bullshit. Bruno and all these other people were like, "Yeah, we were really good friends." And I thought, You fucking pricks! You all treated him so poorly. Fred is the only one in the documentary who was a real friend of his. It really pissed me off.

Diatribes like that could be another reason Astor isn’t better known; she's not what you'd call political. Take, for example, her opinion about Julian Schnabel, who was an aspiring artist and fry cook when he first started hanging out at FUN. “Julian was really nice when he was still a cook,” says Astor. “But he got a real chip on his shoulder because he was a fry cook and not some world-famous fat slob artist. And then, of course, he fulfilled both of those goals. I loved how in his Basquiat he took 40 pounds off himself. That movie also makes me sick — that whole scene of him telling Jean-Michel what to do, like they were friends, which they weren’t.”

Don’t even get her started on Jay Z referencing Basquiat.

Jean-Michel Basquiat remembered - "The Radiant Child"

Last month, Nowness, aka eLuxury, (led by Jefferson Hack for LVHM) presented Tamra Davis' documentary film "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Where did this film come from? Well, it seems that Davis was a good friend of Basquiat’s in the 80s and filmed him over a period of several years before he passed in 1988. It's said that Davis kept her footage a secret until the art dealer (and now Los Angeles MOCA director) Jeffrey Deitch encouraged her to complete her film.

The result is a mix of old footage and new interviews, graphics by Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One and original music by Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond of Beastie Boys fame.

It's not often you get Fab 5 Freddy Brathwaite, Kenny Scharf and Jeffrey Deitch sat in one room. But the MoMA "The Radiant Child" screening brought Basquiat's friends together to discuss Basquiat's rise and fall, his heroin addiction and subsequent death by overdose in a poignant end to this screening event. I wonder if anyone sat at the table thought they'd be discussing how this played out over 20 years later in the same city?

"In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200, and became best friends with Andy Warhol. Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom. However, soon his cult status began to override the art that had made him famous in the first place.

Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad; as a successful black artist, he was constantly confronted by racism and misconceptions. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat’s own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man." Sundance Film Festival 2010.

My trip to New York

I was excited to read the story about some recently 'excavated' old skool graffiti in New York's SoHo district. "Wow! I need to see that", I thought to myself, so I jumped on Farecast and patiently waited till fares fell to $277 (on Virgin America, baby!)



Bust my bubble As I was eagerly reading about the graffiti, I found an article entitled, "Writers of the Lost Ark", which was posted as a comment on NY's Paper Magazine blog. Although it didn't put the dampeners on the trip for me, but did put it all into context:

"Is anyone really interested in the ‘mystery’ behind this ugly and hilarious artifact? Because there’s no mystery at all. Everyone who scrawled on it is alive and well and willing to talk - but few of us are (or ever were) graffiti artists. The 80’s were an era of ‘fake it till you make it’, so we might give 1 or 2 poseurs a pass here, but the only legitimate exception on the ‘151 Wooster Street Mural’ is Lenny (futura 2000), who got up (note the clean background) well before any of us came over to Edit Deak’s and pretended to be ‘writers’ for an evening or two.

If a legend exists concerning this mess it is one that’s been actively hyped by a number of respectable people, no doubt with the best of intentions. Since hype is the dope of today, we might forgive a group halucination, at first. But I know that an email naming each artist and spilling the beans on Jean-Michel’s perfect absence was forwarded to Lisa Denisson at the Gugenheim well in time to head off the howlers that are now everywhere in print. What hapened to those beans? And what do we actually have here? Fragment’s of a lost Basquiat? Francesco Clemente’s only graffiti? The birth of Graffiti itself? Why not the lost Amber Room of Catherine the Great? Certainly the truth will devalue this treasure."

Full disclosure Read the full story to see whether Basquiat's work is actually part of the graffiti discovered and who else is "up" on the wall (or not)! I have no idea who Seth Tillett is, but he's obviously a 40-something hipster from back in the day ;)

VIP, baby If you couldn't make the opening, like me, here's the video. Love the soundbites - bag o' shite!

Graffiti classics uncovered in New York

I used to wish I could travel back to New York in the 80s so I pick up all those old break beat albums, hang out with the legends and may be even get myself a role in the film, Wild Style! Okay, the last two wishes are only since I've moved to LA trying to make a name for myself! Hah!

SoHo in the 70s So, why mention this now? Well, I got to thinking after reading a recent Newsday report that a Futura (2000) tag was uncovered in a 10-storey limestone building dated ~1973! Damn! I'm out by a decade! :)

Along with the Futura tag was work by SAMO (aka Basquiat) and Fab 5 Freddy. How could this be? What *is* this building. Well, it seems that the 8th floor loft was lived in by art critic, Edit deAk, until 1984. During those years he had cool uptown kids visit his loft and let them loose on his walls and stairwell.

The artwork isn't high-end gallery fare. It's simple, raw and archaic! It really captures the early formative days of graffiti art. Before it hit canvas and US$ '000s dollar price tags. The picture above shows various images and tags in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker in a limited range of colors - silver, gold, pink and red (unlike the rainbow-colored subway cars they later painted). Newsday added,"There are cartoon-like pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a heart and a cake, and several references to Quaaludes, a popular 1970s party drug".

"It's a great discovery," says Alberto Mugrabi, a major Basquiat and Andy Warhol collector. "It's the beginning of graffiti (as art)."

"Obviously, it's a critical piece of history, SoHo history," says Lisa Dennison, the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

The building was bought by developers in 2004 who wondered about the rumors about some hidden art within the walls. It's reported that Rite-Art magazine editor, deAk, even bragged: "There is a Basquiat, and it's somewhere where you won't think it is."

Art over commerce? The construction development has stopped now the art scrawls have been authenticated by Guggenheim chief conservator Paul Schwartzbaum and other experts. But, I can't help but feel if this discovery didn't have any (social) currency* value it wouldn't be high on anyone's 2008 list. In place of demolition, the developers decided to create an exhibition, investing "six figures" on the mural, hiring art conservator Harriet Irgang and California landscape photographer Bob Weingarten to document the process and produce a catalog for the exhibit.

"Irgang has stabilized the two walls by applying an adhesive to flaking paint and glitter. Next, she will cover the mural with tissue paper, cheesecloth and a stiff fabric to enable the graffiti to be 'peeled' off _ a process that involves using spatulas and chisels to separate the plaster from the coarse brown mortar behind it. Once freed, the graffiti will be mounted on a lightweight panel so it can be moved".

The Wild Style Exhibit The mural will be publicly unveiled on 29th November 2007 and called "The Wild Style Exhibit" after the classic hip hop film directed by Charlie Ahearn. The retrospective exhibit will feature the graffiti art movement between 1980-1985. The show has Keith Haring, Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Ero and Fab 5 Freddy with many pieces coming from from private collections that have never been seen before.

The show runs until February 15th 2008 in the SoHo building's Gallery 151. Funnily, someone I know in NYC has a friend who works there who said the opening party was "off the hook!" I hope to make a trip to see the show before it ends so watch out for my blog in a few weeks (Farecast says prices are over $300 now, but due to fall) - I don't care what Gawker says. Or may be I do!

* not just money, but socialite value. Here's a thought: does art attract money, or money attract art? Is graffiti art? I've always thought that the joke was on the buyers of graffiti, especially in the case of "Banksy fever".