le mag Bel Œil

Gerard Malanga is featured in “de l’air”!

Our thanks to “de l’air” magazine, which published a portfolio of works by the great Gerard Malanga in their April 2020 Anniversary Edition.

Given the lockdown situation, “de l’air” has kindly allowed us to share the link below to browse their latest issue – the 20th anniversary edition, featuring many photographers we admire: Jürgen Nefzger, Eric Bourret, Georges Rousse, and more…

Happy reading… and consider subscribing to this quality magazine published in Nice!

But let’s also take this opportunity to better introduce you to Gerard Malanga, the American poet, dancer, filmmaker and photographer we’ve worked with at Bel Œil for many years:

Initially hired at the Factory to create silkscreens, he became Andy Warhol’s right-hand man from 1963 to 1970, collaborating on projects including the founding of Interview magazine.

Malanga immersed himself in New York’s 60s-70s underground scene, photographing the actors, artists, musicians, writers and dancers of that era. In 1966 at Café Bizarre, he introduced Warhol to The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed and John Cale) after dancing with them using a trainer’s whip during the Exploding Plastic Inevitable performances.

After leaving the Factory in 1970, he continued photographing literary, artistic and musical figures while pursuing his poetic research, developing a highly personal approach that established his exceptional body of work as both poet and photographer – a true witness to his times.

We’ve had the pleasure of presenting Gerard’s work at multiple exhibitions and fairs including Show Off, Art Genève, Paris Photo and Photo London (in collaboration with Galerie Caroline Smulders – ILMJ and Gagosian Paris).
His works have entered numerous prestigious collections… and he’s traveled regularly from New York in recent years to give lectures at La Villa Arson, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, and the Philharmonie de Paris…

Conversations with Gerard are always enlightening, given his vast experience in contemporary culture and extraordinary encounters… He recently shared memories of his friendship with the great Ettore Sottsass. Here’s an excerpt from his latest 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 Fiorucci. 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.”

…everything is connected!

You can see more works, texts and videos on our “Art Collection” page.

Links to magazine and Bel Oeil Collection