#AlexKatz #artist #RedBalloon
Sometimes when I recall my past, my mind shifts to an underused overdrive gear. It makes
my brain feel like a giant balloon thrusting, squealing, whistling helium like a spirited banshee. My eyes then partner with ten thousand bunny rabbits dancing the watusi.
I search deep into my hippocampus. I espy amber like prehistoric DNA detected naked under a Madagascar lava rock or possibly a millennium of Antarctic ice tundra. Everything I wish to see is archived in my brain and coated virtually in my lens. I merely need a jolt or a tickle to awaken the vault. So I begin.
When I was a little boy I dreamed of dreams that would follow me.
Some of my most inspired film negatives come from my sessions with artists. My memories of Alex Katz and Jim Dine reveal my sudden awakenings and link to Nadar’s potent history in photography. My Alex Katz portrait begged for a single element of color in his studio. I placed a forsaken red balloon in the window. Katz paused and asked if I was a fan of the movie “The Red Balloon”. I certainly wasn’t thinking in that way. I was merely recalling the dozens of frames of artists in which I included an article of red in the frame. I was simply thinking about imitating Yves Klein’s artist leaping from the balcony. I only wanted a question mark to rise into the viewers’ mind.
Looking around Alex Katz’s New York Soho studio, one would undoubtedly feel the space needed a pulse. Alex’s art was/is about the amplification from within. The red balloon always felt like a gentle nudge, a mild absurdity that still screams Yves Klein.
I love Hans Bellmer’s La poupèe series. The series reminds me of the friendship between the artist Jim Dine and RB Kitaj. I traveled to conquer London’s art world so many years ago. I made about one hundred portraits. Two American artists captured this young naive photographer’s heart. The predictable artists’ garrets were merging my present with the ideal of lives of the artists.
#JimDine #London #artist
Like Bellmer and his niece (the raison d’être for his poupèe series) the two famous artists were a wall apart. The two were anxious and fabulous. They would listen for each other’s footsteps. Ears attached to the wall, jealousy and paranoia prevailed like school children tattletales. Bellmer’s issues were more of a sexual nature. Dine and Kitaj’s were infantile and speculating. The two artists were brilliant and interesting. I was merely the photographer.
#RBKitaj#artist #art#Americanartist
one of four Jim Dines I made over a decade
#JimDine #NewYork #Artist
Jim Dine’s art piece titled “Hair” became the titular musical famously alive for the Aquarius generation. Most second half century musicals were measured by that generational success.
My red balloon is a surreal cadence spoken in the church of Katz.
The 1956 short film and the lofting color red remind me of a time when I was young and I could playfully morph into that child.
Artists in my time reached for something J.M Barrie wished for all creative stylists: a bit of pixie dust that allowed everyone to fly.
Shall we sing:?
“lets dance
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let’s dance…”
David Bowie
#JimDine #artist #art #London #american
#AlexKatz #Americanartist #NewYork Art