— April 2020
Thanks to “de l’air” magazine, which publishes in its anniversary edition of April 2020 a portfolio of works by the great Gerard Malanga.
During the lockdown, “de l’air” authorizes us to give you the link below, to consult its last number: 20 th anniversary, with the participation of many photographers whom we appreciate: Jürgen Nefzger, Eric Bourret, Georges Rousse, etc…
Happy reading … and subscribe to this quality magazine, published in Nice!
But let’s also take the opportunity to better present to you Gerard Malanga, American poet, dancer, director and photographer that we have worked with at Bel Œil for many years:
Hired initially at the Factory for the design of the serigraphs, he was Andy Warhol’s right-hand man from 1963 to 1970, with whom he created, among other things, the Interview Magazine.
Gerard Malanga will meet the entire New York underground scene of the 60s and 70s, and will portray many of the actors, artists, musicians, writers, and dancers present at that time.
In 1966, at Café Bizarre, Gerard Malanga met the Velvet Underground, hosted by Lou Reed and John Cale, and introduced them to Warhol.
Gerard makes contact by dancing with them, armed with a trainer’s whip, in the show Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI).
After leaving the Factory in 1970, he continued to photograph representatives of the literary, artistic and musical world, and furthermore, continued his research in poetry: he developed his own very personal approach, and truly installed his work as a poet and outstanding photographer, witness of his time.
We had the pleasure of presenting Gerard’s work at multiple exhibitions, and for the Show Off, Art Geneva, Paris Photo and Photo London fairs. (in collaboration Galerie Caroline Smulders – ILMJ and Gagosian Paris).
His works have entered many prestigious collections … and he has come from New York regularly over the past few years, to present lectures at La Villa Arson, at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, at the Philarmonie de Paris …
Contact with Gerard is always rich in lessons, as his experience of the contemporary cultural world is great, and nourished by exceptional encounters …
He recently told us about his friendship with the great Ettore Sottsass.
Here is an excerpt from his last email:
“I was friends with Ettore & his wife Fernanda (“Nanda”) Pivano. Ettore dabbled in photography with all else that he was doing. The Valentine typewriter, etc. His editorial know-how with Domus…
We go back to the late 1960s. In 1976, Ettore & Nanda came to New York for the opening of the boutique department store called Fiorucchi. Ettore designed the entire interior. It was all so funny. He had colored cables dangling from the ceiling ; I call them his ‘guts’. It was a grand opening. What a group of people who had assembled.
I loved Ettore & Nanda; they were like mentors to me.
Ettore’s proudest moment, as he confided in me, was designing the home of the gallerist, Bruno Bischofberger. Bruno had made a very astute move to choose Ettore because Ettore, in his heart of hearts, had really wanted to design homes, to be an architect in full swing. For some strange reason, he did very very little of that. Bruno’s house, if I remember correctly, is a beautiful & simple unadorned black cube, somewhere in a Swiss forest.
Sadly, I never had the opportunity to photograph him. It had to do with either of us not being together at the right time & place. Nanda I did photograph in 2004 when she came to visit at my home in Brooklyn. She’s in my “Souls” box.”
… tout est lié !
You can see more of his work on our page “Collection”