another king another dollar?

Nah. There is only one King although Andy may have played it otherwise. One of my favorite scenes in Mystery Train is the argument between the young Asian couple over who the real KING of R&R should be- Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis.

Elvis died on August 16, 1977, in an over-medicated and pathetic state of gluttony... ten years later one of his most famous admirers Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987 following routine gall bladder surgery. It is frightful to think about Elvis living in a world even more obsessed with celebrity and reality TV than the one he lived in. Lets count the man's, excuse me, KING'S blessings for him!

A version of Warhol's Triple Elvis series hangs in the Sydney and Francis Lewis Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. It plays a prominent role in a collection with numerous pop references. I miss seeing it now that much of the collection is under wraps due to construction and enjoyed its placement most when the collection was under Fred Brandt's direction.

This could be due to the fact that I have an acute memory of leading a pilgrimage to see this painting during that era. Ivan Karp, of OK Harris Gallery juried a show for 1708 Gallery back in the late 90's. He and his son, co-juror Ivan Karp; were scheduled to talk about the show the Saturday after it opened. Ivan didn't make it. Supposedly he was under the weather but I've seen him sitting on a stool in his cigar shop in SOHO smoking cigars on more Saturdays than I can remember. I can't tell you a single thing about the show they juried. I can tell you that Ethan's talk was memorable and that afterwards the only thing he really wanted to do was visit the VMFA collection.

Harry and I were assigned to be his tour guides and to negotiate the many demands and expectations of the community for his attention. We picked him up from the Jefferson Hotel and discussed his itinerary. He was balking at a request to visit Bill Fisher's studio. He really didn't want to. I told him that would be a mistake because Bill had sold 50 paintings the previous year. Before he would consider his options he wanted to hit the VMFA collection and to my surprise the main thing he wanted to see was the Triple Elvis depicted above. He said he remembered when his Dad sold it to the Lewis' for a song. The story goes that many of the paintings in that collection were acquired through direct barter with the artist (BEST PRODUCTS appliances for paintings) so I was surprised to know the Lewis' had purchased this one through Ivan. They must have really loved it.

We delivered Ivan Karp to an "entourage in waiting" at the now defunct but severely missed Coincidence Gallery. He quickly scanned the work on view there, found a photographer he wanted to show and eventually was delivered to Bill's studio. He recognized a good thing. Bill still shows with OK Harris in SOHO and I am sure there is are places in the world where people still report Elvis sightings. It seemed to me he would fill a hefty folder in the X-Files.

Kissee Collection

Harry and I had the opportunity to view the Kissee Collection tonite. I love seeing art in someone's home... the context of taste and place and a consistent point of view is inspiring and rare.

John Currin's name came up. He's obviously had the chance to view substantial collections of WPA era art - which aren't common. It isn't a period of style that museums can count on for block buster exhibitions - though that could change!

I loved the fact that the collection embraced various attitudes from the period: working class heroes from the WPA projects, genre and portrait painting, advertising from the era and best of all kitsch. It is work that appears to be conservative and subdued but... it isn't.