Fame, No Detours

While making the rounds at different art shows and fairs for F.A.M.E NYC, I have met my fair share of artists, curators and collectors.  No one will dispute that New York City is the Mecca for art in North America.  Aspiring and even established artists migrate to New York in the hopes of being on the positive end of the statement, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”  Artists like Jennifer Murray, who just celebrated the opening of her first solo show at a New York City gallery, or Billy the Artist, whom I first met in 2007 and whose services have been commissioned by Hyundai, Sony and MTV,  are well on their way to creating a prosperous career in the art world.  But if you are fresh off the bus from Penn Station and looking to make a name for yourself, what happens next?  You find employment just to get by, create art whenever you can and pray that success finds you.   Katharine T. Carter believes that this philosophy will only lead to failure.   Poverty is not mark of a good artist nor is it necessary for anyone looking to live as an artist.

Katharine T. Carter is President and CEO of Katharine T. & Associates, a PR and promotional marketing firm exclusively for artists.  With the help of fellow art colleagues, she combined 25 years of experience, advice and essays to create her own seminal work of art titled Accelerating on the Curves: The Artist’s Roadmap to Success, a 363-page beacon that guides an artist through the channels of obscurity and places them on the fast track to notoriety and financial achievement. 

Accelerating on the Curves: The Artist’s Roadmap to Success consists of three books and meticulously details how an artist constructs his/her career.  Book one has nine chapters and three stages.  Stage one begins on the local and state level and features how to create a buzz wherever the artist resides by meeting the right people, generating the proper media presence and exhibiting and selling the artist’s work.  Stage two illustrates how to take the foundation created in stage one, and expand the artist’s profile regionally.  Stage three demonstrates what is needed for the artist to complete his/her ultimate destination and national recognition.  Book two contains the blueprint for manufacturing a winning press kit.  Book three is a composite of inspiring essays written by art insiders.

 Ever since man began painting crude images on walls, there have been individuals blessed with the gift to create a dialogue with humanity without words.   There have also been those who choose to see their talent as not only a gift, but a calling – a means to craft a destiny.  But as time shifts, the way in which an artist becomes prominent in his/her time has most certainly changed.  If paint, canvases, brushes and other elements used to create art are essential tools for an artist’s survival, then Accelerating on the Curves: The Artist’s Roadmap to Success must be considered an indispensible component as well.  It exposes how to turn one’s art into a business using the media and networking, and is a bible for anyone pursuing a thriving career in the arts.  It is a worthy read for any artisan regardless the genre and promises to be the best $95 investment you will ever make. 

Photo courtesy of Katherine T. Carter & Associates

Top Artist for 2010

Jason Bryant

Portraits with no eyes yet cleverly and brilliantly full of soul and expression.  That is the world that Jason Bryant invites us to.  Blending elements of classic Hollywood, modern pop and skateboard culture, he dares us to explore beyond the façade and creates a vivid and unique vernacular in which to express the human experience.  In 2010, Jason Bryant had two exhibitions at Raandesk Gallery, a solo exhibit and a collaboration with Kevin Cyr, another bright artist from NYC.  I never tire of viewing Jason’s work and cannot wait to embark on another soulful journey with this fascinating, modest young artist.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s full articles on Jason Bryant or view more of his work, click https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/10/18/three-dimensions-one-mind

https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/01/28/behind-the-curtain-unveiled/

http://www.raandeskgallery.com/artist.php?artistId=7

Photo courtesy of Raandesk Gallery

Top NYC Documentary for 2010

80 Blocks from Tiffany’s

Actually, this documentary is an oldie but goodie – a cult classic.  Re-released after 25 years on DVD, 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s resurrects the apocalyptic conditions of life in the South Bronx in the late 70s and early 80s that later gave birth to hip hop and its culture.  Released in 1979, 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s focused on two street gangs, the Savage Nomads and Savage Skulls.  The idea for the documentary came to director Gary Weis after reading “Savage Skulls,” an article by Jon Bradshaw published by Esquire Magazine which centered on both gangs.  After convincing SNL producer Lorne Michaels to help him produce the film, Weis and a camera crew went into one of the deadliest areas in New York City – a combat zone where various gangs ruled the streets serving their own brand of justice and terrorism.  Weis, Bradshaw and crew spent two weeks in the South Bronx speaking with and recording gang members, police officers, community activists and civilians. 

The title, 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s, referred to the distance between the much glamorized jewelry store on 5th Avenue and the South Bronx.   A viable walking distance for anyone that has the moxie, but too far the young men and women living a virtual Mad Max existence who had never been out of the Bronx.  The dilapidated, burned-out buildings, plots of barren land, and abject poverty displayed in the film were light years away from the famed store turned iconic by a Truman Capote novel and Blake Edwards film in which the heroine claimed that nothing could go wrong in Tiffany’s.  These young adults had no fabulous shelter to run to, so they created their own shelter, families, laws and opportunities in hellish conditions. 

Stark…inexorable…undeniably real, 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s has received a following that far outreached the expectations Gary Weis ever had for the film.  Part of the reason for its cult status is because of the participants in the film.  These young men were angels with tattered wings and filthy faces who admitted to beatings, rapes, robbery and other crimes, yet their compelling presence demanded viewers to see past their deeds and peer into their souls.  As mundane and clichéd as it sounds, they were the fruit of their environment, how could any viewer really judge having never experienced their life. These men and women were the displaced members of the civil rights movement that did not come up like George and Weezie, but instead got left behind.   And as the dust settled from riots, arson, the flooding of drugs into their community and the economic climate of the day (which was just as dismal as our present condition) they were forced to fend for themselves by any means necessary. 

The other component that draws people to the film is the portrait it casts on New York City, which serves as a microcosm for all inner-cities in the 70s.  After watching this 67-minute narrative of barrio life, you will completely appreciate how granular this metropolis really was.  Also, you will understand the correlation between the gang culture of NYC and its influence on the genesis of hip hop.  These gang members were the catalyst and founding fathers of hip hop culture, patriarchs like Afrika Bambaataa, a founding member of the Black Spades who used hip hop to thwart kids away from gang life and the violence that accompanies it.  

Mesmerizing from beginning to end, 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s is a collector’s item for anyone that loves New York or hip hop history, it is an essential slice of Americana that worth revisiting and should never fall back into obscurity again.

 

Photo and trailer courtesy of Audible Treats

Top Documentary about a New Yorker for 2010

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

 

First released at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, then released nationwide in June, Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child is Tamara Davis’ visual love letter profiling one the most enigmatic, creative entities that ever passed through the streets of Gotham. 

When Basquiat died at age 27 in 1988 of a heroin overdose, he had already been recognized as a prodigy who was equally known for being infamous.  Since his untimely death, he has ascended beyond the classifications that hindered him in life to become one of the most famous artists of his generation.  Being the first black fine artist to not only break in America, but internationally, he reached a pantheon of that few black artists attain – a trailblazer burdened with the responsibility of being the first, a star that ultimately becomes an anomaly that neither well-meaning liberals nor conservatives know what to do with.

Brilliant and tragic…beautiful and scarred…extremely personal and striking, this documentary presents an introspective portrait of Basquiat’s life through rare footage and interviews with Basquiat, as well as remarks from friends, colleagues and ex-girlfriends.  The film begins with Langston Hughes’ poem Genius Child.  It chronicles his move from Brooklyn to NYC in the late 70s, which was laden with crime and economic hardship, the forming of the band Gray (comprised of himself, Shannon Dawson, Michael Holman, Wayne Clifford, Nicholas Taylor, and Vincent Gallo and named after Gray’s Anatomy by Henry Gray) and his rise as a star in the downtown art scene from the SAMO graffiti to his first shows.  It also provides a comprehensive review of Basquiat’s work, paying homage to other artists, and chronicling the black experience in America, as well as details his isolation, becoming a prisoner of the fame he sought, his descent into heroin addiction, his friendship and collaboration with Andy Warhol and his grieving and further spiral into drugs upon Warhol’s death.

The 90-minute film ends with observations about his last show in April 1988 (a bleak prophecy or a massive cry for help), a pictorial retrospective of his work and the man himself and Fab 5 Freddy reciting Langston Hughes’ Genius Child, changing the last line to “Free him – and let his soul run wild.” 

When he died, Basquiat left over 1,000 drawing and paintings.  What I realized after watching this documentary is that the true last line of the poem is more accurate, “Kill him – and let his soul run wild.”  Was it really the heroin that killed Jean-Michel Basquiat, or was the katzenjammer of loneliness that often shadows success?  Maybe Jean-Michel Basquiat was murdered long ago by the press, the art elitists that control the New York and international art scene and straphangers that latched on to his coattails for a ride.  Maybe the heroin overdose really did free him to allow his soul to run unbridled and unburdened. 

Artists, especially great ones, always offer profound commentary about the history of our world and reflect the current circumstances of our society, sometimes even predicting it in their work. Basquiat was known for using the expression “Boom for real.”  Perhaps he knew he was not meant to wither and age, but instead, he was more like a comet illuminating the sky, fleeting, wondrous to behold and leaving fiery fragments behind – evidence that signifies that what was witnessed truly existed.

To learn more or order Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, click http://www.jean-michelbasquiattheradiantchild.com/.

Top Play for 2010

Time Stands Still

In 2010, the best that Broadway had to offer was at the Cort Theatre.  First theatre-goers were dazzled with the revival of Fences and in the fall they were awed by the debut of Time Stands Still on Broadway.  Like The Scottsboro Boys the buzz created by Time Stands Still during its Off-Broadway run demanded that this production come to Broadway.  This is a grown-ass play dealing with grown up, modern relationship issues.  Time waits for no man, but sometimes it pauses briefly for a display of greatness.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s full review of Time Stands Still, click https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/10/17/time-is-on-their-side/.

Photos:  Joan Marcus

Top Off-Broadway Play for 2010

Freud’s Last Session

Imagine if Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson had fought for the heavyweight crown, or Michael Jordan and Lebron James had a one on one game or Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy had a 90-minute “Yo Mama” session.  Can you imagine that?  If you can, then you can picture the mental match that transpired between the 20th century’s greatest thinkers in what could possibly be the most sophisticated “what if” ever imagined.   I could not stop raving about Freud’s Last Session.  Even if it was fictional, the play offered audiences the opportunity to get up close and personal with Dr. Freud and C.S. Lewis.  It is my hope that Freud’s Last Session has not seen its last run in NYC.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s full review of Freud’s Last Session, click https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/09/20/duel-on-the-couch-freud%e2%80%99s-last-session/.

Photos: Kevin Sprague

Top Off-Broadway Musical for 2010

The Scottsboro Boys

From Dixie…to the Vineyard Theatre …to Broadway, The Scottsboro Boys has had an eventful 2010.  When I saw this musical at the Vineyard Theatre I thought it would be criminal if this production did not make it to The Great White Way.  Luckily, I did not have to drop a dime to the theatre police because in the fall the musical debuted at the Lyceum Theatre.  Thrilling from beginning to end, The Scottsboro Boys took all the elements of great a musical production and created  a unique experience for its audience.  I hope it will return to Broadway once more this year.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s full review of The Scottsboro Boys, click https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/04/13/time-traveling-with-the-scottsboro-boys/.

Photos:  Carol Rosegg  

Top Revival of a Musical for 2010

Promises, Promises

Do you know the way to Consolidated Life?  If not, then follow the timeless tunes of Burt Bacharach.  I love boys in dresses and who can resist Catherine Zeta Jones, but I believe this should have received more hardware at the 2010 Tony Awards.   After all, who could resist Neil Simon, or Sean Hayes, or Kristen Chenoweth?  The holidays are over for now, but if you have the temptation for some turkey-lurking, then go to the Broadway Theatre.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s full review of Promises, Promises, click https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/05/19/promise-fulfilled/.

Photos courtesy of Broadway.com

Top Revival of a Drama for 2010

Fences

Gabriel blow your horn!  The angels certainly did sing for this revival of Fences, and August Wilson must have been smiling from heaven.  The play itself is a tour de force; add the direction of Kenny Leon along with the brilliant acting of Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, shake it up and you have lightning on stage.   I guess the best testament of this revival’s home run is the three Tony Awards it received.  This one knocked it over the fence and out of the theatre.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s full review of Fences, click https://famenycmagazine.com/?s=Fences.

Photo: Joan Marcus, http://fencesonbroadway.com.

Top Art Exhibit for 2010

Jason Covert’s CARNIVORA

Epic and wondrous to behold, Jason Covert’s CARNIVORA was a mystical journey of sight and sound.  This multimedia extravaganza gave new meaning to the Big Bang Theory as Jason explored man’s primitive ancestry and polytheistic creation myths.  I was truly inspired by the complete vision that started from doodling in a college classroom.   I think the Gods were very pleased.  To read F.A.M.E NYC’s interview with Jason and view the slideshow of CARNIVORA, click https://famenycmagazine.com/2010/09/27/carnivora/.

Photo:  F.A.M.E NYC Editor