057 Diaries 19/02/2014 21:34 Page 3

THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 255, March 2014 57

When asked how much the pigment in his cost, Milton Resnick replied: “A DIARY thousand dollars on the canvas. And three thousand on the floor” Anthony Haden-Guest’s ’s NEW YORK LONDON

work of both artists still pulses with that Hamilton: king of calypso energy, a sense of restless seeking that differ- entiates it from the huge derivative works Was there anything Richard Hamilton that occupy so many galleries in the art world couldn’t do? As a spate of exhibitions devoted of the 1%, like fat yachts in safe harbours. I’m to the polymath Pop-art pioneer opens across delighted to have played a part in putting the the capital, it emerges that the great man, in show together. addition to being an all-round zeitgeist barometer, could also pen a mean Milton’s paradise retained calypso. His musical gift was revealed at the opening of The story goes that someone was looking at the Institute of Paloma Faith and George Condo partied hard From prime-time TV to Bed-Stuy: Dana James one of Milton Resnick’s thicker paintings and Contemporary Arts’ re-cre- at Nobu: could she be the artist’s new muse? has opened a gallery in Brooklyn’s hippest spot asked how much all the pigment cost. “A ation of An Exhibit, 1957 (the thousand dollars on the canvas,” the late artist hanging maze of Perspex everyone present seemed to morph into one Williamsburg is over reportedly said. “And three thousand on the sheets created by Hamilton of Condo’s shrieking fiends—and the fully floor.” Resnick was one of the original with his fellow Independent recovered artist, partying with the best of The Brooklyn neighbourhood Bedford- Abstract Expressionists and has an enduring Groupers Victor Pasmore and them, was particularly happy to make the Stuyvesant (“Bed-Stuy” to street-smart New reputation. The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Lawrence Alloway), acquaintance of Paloma Faith, who rocked Yorkers) is increasingly attracting art-world Foundation, which is also named after his late Messrs Serota and when guests were up with the music producer (and Condo col- types for whom Williamsburg has got a bit wife, aims to build on it. “We have 25 paint- Dercon were enchanted treated to a spirited lector) Nellee Hooper. An accomplished musi- too pricey. One recent arrival is Dana James, ings in what I guess you would call the core by Alexander D. Great rendition of “An cian himself, Condo has already made his who opened the Elgin Gallery in a former collection,” says Exhibit Calypso”, mark on the music biz with his notorious hair-braiding salon to show established and Geoffrey Dorfman, a performed by the veteran calypso singer quintet of covers for Kanye West’s “My Outsider artists as well as under-represented trustee of the foun- Alexander D. Great nearly six decades after Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” album: who locals. James, who grew up in Tribeca and is dation, which is in Hamilton composed the ditty to mark the knows what fantasies he might have in mind the daughter of the artist Lizbeth Mitty, sup- the artist’s former unveiling of the work. There was much toe- for our soulful Stoke Newington chanteuse? ported herself as a freelance make-up artist, home and studio on tapping from Nick Serota, Pet Shop Boys god working on magazines such as Vanity Fair and Eldridge Street, on Neil Tennant and Hamilton’s son Rod to such Stump up for Interview and the TV programme Late Night the Lower East Side. unforgettable lines as “the catalogue costs with Jimmy Fallon. The gallery’s first show, The foundation has half a crown/Because it’s printed upside Megan Piper is not yet 30 years old but already which opened last September, included work funding—and big down”, not to mention entreaties to visitors to has a reputation for showing work that’s ripe by Mitty as well as James, plus—continuing plans. “We have “Workhorse” Resnick, with “come and test your reflexes/And find out for reassessment. The Piper Gallery in the parental dynamic—pieces by the artist money to fix the dog (and wife) in tow what real Perspex is”. Indeed, so catchy was Fitzrovia championed older artists who had R.M. Fischer and his daughter Dena Paige building,” says the tune that Tate Modern supremo Chris dipped under the radar, and her latest project Fischer. Coming up is a show of two Dorfman, who was a student at Syracuse Dercon couldn’t resist quoting the lyrics at also aims to bring hidden works to light. She Outsiders: John Drury, who works with University when Resnick was a visiting artist the dinner to celebrate his gallery’s Hamilton describes the Line (www.the-line.org) as a found objects, and Ionel Talpazan, who there. “And we have money to get started. The retrospective (until 26 May). He refrained “world-class sculpture walk” linking the arrived in New York from Romania in 1987. fourth floor is going to have rotating exhibi- from singing, but did note that, while this Olympic Park in Stratford to the O2 in North SKAYA. CONDO: DAVE BENETT, 2014 BENETT, CONDO: DAVE SKAYA. Talpazan believes he saw a UFO as a child, tions. We’re going to have two shows a year of year’s catalogue is rather more expensive, at Greenwich; the four-mile route will host up to and has made flying saucers, often bisected other people’s work, and we’ll have visiting least it’s printed the right way up. 30 Modern and contemporary works, submit- like ’s cow , through- curators.” Dorfman is determined to boost the ted by UK galleries, collectors and artists who out his career. An admission: I bought a piece profile of in the city. “We want this Condo keeps the Faith have pieces stashed away. “The amount of art by Talpazan in an East Village thrift store not to be a place that people who love painting that is out of sight in artists’ studios and long ago and have been popping into thrift come to,” he says. “In New York, painting has London is being treated to a George Condo gallery storage is quite astonishing,” Piper stores to find more ever since. taken a back seat. We double-whammy this month, with two exhi- says. Mark Wallinger, who will sit on the want to present a long- bitions that also stand as chilling and highly selection panel, describes the idea as “simple East Village explosion range view: not just personal memento mori. The dark and but brilliant”; other fans include the Oscar- the past year or two, deeply disquieting ink drawings on show at winning director Danny Boyle and the athlete I’m not given to devoting space to my but people who have Skarstedt Gallery (until 5 April) were created Christine Ohuruogu. But the project has no own doings, but I’m making an excep- really invested their during the excessively hard-living period just public funding and time is tight: the submis- tion for the show of paintings by lives in this.” And fans before Condo’s near-fatal brush sions deadline is 14 March Peggy Cyphers and Ford Crull (until of Resnick’s work can with Legionnaires’ disease last and the route is sched- 17 March) at the Roger Smith Hotel rest assured that those year, while the vividly coloured, uled to open in July. A on Lexington Avenue. It’s no coinci- 25 key pieces aren’t gurning, fractured portrait £150,000 crowdfunding dence that both artists went into lift- going anywhere. “We heads over at Simon Lee’s space campaign has been off back in the days of the East are not going to sell (until 22 March) were created launched for the first Village, the last concentrated explo- them unless it’s to a in its aftermath, and appar- phase, but £3m is needed sion of raw energy in the Manhattan place like the Tate,” ently owe their air of delirium to cover the three-year art world before the big money Dorfman says. “And we to the memory of his hospital- scheme. So dig deep— rolled in. Cyphers showed at Stefan have a great many bed hallucinations. After in your crates and your Eins’s Fashion Moda in 1984 and smaller works. He was a downing the abundant chilli pockets—so that art- Crull at Vox Populi, Colin de Land’s Pulsing with restless energy: workhorse. He only cocktails at the shared after- Piper dream: Megan is working with loving Londoners can Third Stone RESNICK PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE MILTON RESNICK AND PAT PASLOFF FOUNDATION. JAMES: PHILLIP GRAYBILL. CALYPSO: ERDELEV CALYPSO: © VICTORIA GRAYBILL. PHILLIP JAMES: FOUNDATION. PASLOFF PAT AND RESNICK MILTON THE OF PHOTOS: COURTESY RESNICK first gallery, the following year. The Ford Crull’s , 2013 came up for air to eat.” party at hip hangout Nobu, Mark Wallinger on a sculpture walk walk the line.