"LEGENDARY" AUCTION FEATURES RARE BOWIE MEMORABILIA, "THE JEAN GENIE" HANDWRITTEN LYRICS

Paddle 8 online auction site is having a legendary auction. No, that’s the NAME; Legendary. Besides lots of Rolling Stones and early punk treasures (like the Sex Pistols‘ God Save the Queen original poster!), they are featuring a number of David Bowie bits of rock history that will have fans wishing Daddy was rich. (Although a few things are actually affordable.) But not the handwritten lyrics for The Jean Genie, which start at $43,000. Paddle 8’s head of Rock, Pop & Film, Caitlin Graham says,

“Handwritten lyrics are the closest you can get to a musician’s heart and mind. David Bowie’s lyrics for ‘The Jean Genie’ give us a glimpse of the Starman’s experience of a debauched 1970s New York during his first American tour—a meaningful piece of history for any Bowie fan.“

You can see more auction items and bid here.

THE SEX PISTOLS
“God Save The Queen” Promotional Poster, 1977, $950

DAVID BOWIE
Signed Handwritten Lyrics for “The Jean Genie”, 1972, $43,000

THIS AIN’T ROCK’N’ROLL
2016, $1300

GEORGE UNDERWOOD
David Bowie Tour Poster, 1972, $1100

DAVID BOWIE
Proof for Withdrawn “Station To Station” Album Cover, 1976, $1400

MICK ROCK
David Bowie Sax Rip Art, New York, 1999, $5000

DAVID BOWIE
Rare “Fashions” Mobile Display, 1982, $300

ANDREW KENT
David Bowie, Berlin, 1976, $300

I GET MY 15 MINUTES OF NEW YORK PHOTO-FAME (with a flattop, shirtless & in drag)

Everybody has pictures of their friends doing fun things and if you hold onto them long enough, they might just be seen as something other people are interested in. Today billions of pictures a week are shot and plastered all over the internet (what will happen to all of these photos, who knows?) But this week three shots I’m in (and two I took too) were all in NYC galleries, a feat I have never managed before as I’m primarily a painter. Here are my stories of how this happened…

Halloween 1988 at Kenney Scharf’s loft. Can you spot me (in drag) and Ann Magnuson, Joey Arias and Keith Haring (with the giant black dildo)? Photo, Trey Speegle

Tseng Kwong Chi; Performing for the Camera
Last month the fab retrospective of photographer Tseng Kwong Chiopened at the Grey Art Gallery at NYU. I knew Kwong, who was famous for his Chinese national costume portraits and documenting a lot of Keith Haring‘s public works. They were pals along with a lot of mutual friends like Ann Magnuson, Kenny Scharf, Bruno Schmidt, Pilar Limosner, Walt Cessna (my ex) and others. But when I walked into the exhibit one of the first pictures I see? A group shot of all of us on Halloween in 1988 at Kenny Scharf’s studio. The only thing was – I took the picture, not Kwong! It took some time to unravel the mystery of how two shots made it into his retrospective, but after I met up later with Muna Tseng, Kwong’s sister who manages his estate, I discovered the large print, along with another I took of Kenny & Kwong (left), that were blown up really large for a dual show of Kwong & Kenny’s work for an exhibit at Eric Firestone‘s gallery. When this retrospective got organized, the big prints were included in this show, as well as the book which I recommend. Actually, I’m thrilled it happened this way. Back in the day, I would shoot 35mm black and white film and then get little prints made of selects at Duane Reade, for like $1 each or something. When it was a group shot or a particularly good one, I’d make multiple prints and mail them to friends. Kwong died 25 years ago, not long after Keith, and the images were found among his things. As I said, I’m happy about the pictures seeing the light of day, as well as the pretty lady “realness” drag of my youth. Just wish a few other people were around too...

Kwong & Kenny, 1988. Photo, Trey Speegle

Trey & Spot, 1986. Photo, Mark Morrisroe

David Armstrong, Mark Morrisroe, Nan Goldin; Boston to New York
I once designed graphics for art galleries. It was my business. Invitations, catalogues, ads. The Pat Hearn Gallery was near me in the East Village and Pat Hearn, the person, was a friend. She came to New York along with a group of photographers and artists who are now very well-known; Jack Pierson, David Armstrong, Nan Goldin and Mark Morrisroe, all of who are in the new Whitney‘s opening exhibit, America Is Hard To See. Pat hired me to design a poster/fold-out invite (that’s now kinda collectible) and introduced me to Mark Morrisroe. We became friends and he asked to photograph me with my dog Spot in my apartment at the Christadora House. I had just gotten a MAJOR flat top haircut the day before, somewhat shocking if you are used to me with a shaved head of today. Mark was a really intense guy, who was a street hustler at one time and walked with a sever limp, but he was such a sweetheart one-on-one. He took about 8-10 shots, I still have one. There’ one he kept in a book on his work. These two small images are now up in this new show at Clamp Art in Chelsea, if you want to see them up close. Sadly, Pat, David and Mark are all gone. That’s the great (and sad) thing about photography freezing time for us to remember people and moments.

Jackie Curtis at the Pyramid (Straight To Hell) 1985. Photo, Trey Speegle

Friends In Deed, Benefit Photo Auction
Another friend thing, in deed, Tom Cashin, the charming partner of Jay Johnson, both of Jed Johnson Interiors is a friend and BIG supporter of the AIDS organization Friends In Deed. I’ve contributed to their auctions in the past and volunteered to contribute this year. I thought I would feature a shot from a new photo series I’ve been working on, but as the time got shorter I realized I couldn’t have it framed properly, and so I decided to include a vintage Polaroid shot of the late Warhol Superstar, Jackie Curtis. Back when Polaroid was still “a thing” you could send them shot and they would blow it up and frame it for you. So I did just this one test, this shot of Jackie. It was taken at a series I used to do at The Pyramid for Straight To Hell magazine; The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts. I had a full-time job in the art department of Vanity Fair at the time but every Sunday night, I hosted different downtown luminaries like John Waters, Fran Leibowitz, Kenneth Anger… and Jackie Curtis come talk or perform at the club. When I see the line-up of people it was kind of amazing. The magazine was true stories of gay hook-ups that was edited by my friend, Victor Weaver (that’s me on the cover, btw) Anyway, I put that shot in the auction and everyone seemed to LOVE it. Tom bid on behalf of mega-collector Beth Rudin DeWoodyand won it, so I’m thrilled. And Jackie got her moment in the sun for everyone to appreciate her again. Sadly, she died a few months after this shot was taken of a heroin overdose, which I believe was accidental. She had just gotten “married” to a young guy and was very happy here. Another moment frozen in a week of them on display.

In Good Company; Marilyn Monroe by Andre de Dienes, Debbie Harry by David Croland
and Jackie Curtis by Trey Speegle

THIS DRESS IS SOUPER (SOMEBODY BID $4600) BUT IT'S NOT BY ANDY WARHOL...

Paddle 8 is auctioning this dress that they are crediting to Andy Warhol. It’s described, “the present lot is screenprint on cotton paper depicting a 1960s styled dress designed with Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s soup can motif.” Except that it’s NOT by Andy. And this should be quite clear from a 2 second Google search. Here’s an ad for the dress below and as the text says says: 

“Send the label from any two cans of Campbell’s Soup plus $1 along with your dress size to….”

It’s great, but how it can be bid up to $4600 and credited to Warhol, I’m not sure. As they say, “Buyer beware.”

#LEGENDARY: KURT COBAIN'S CREDIT CARD, SINATRA'S DRIVER'S LICENSE & MADONNA IN MOUSE EARS BY...?

The Legendary auction on Paddle 8 has a lot of lots of legends memorabilia. This used to be Julien’s Auction‘s territory but Paddle 8 is now getting in on the act. I was surprised to see the (very famous) photograph of Madonna above listed online as “Artist Unknown.” Hello!? That’s by Herb Ritts – for SURE. If you can Google, you’ll find this out in less than one second. These sorts of obvious mistakes always make me a little skeptical that, A. auctions sell things they aren’t sure of ALL THE TIME, B. people buy things that are falsely attributed or not authentic ALL THE TIME. Having said that, everything else in this online auction is such fun to look at. I love pop star ephemera, it’s really just the junk of everyday life but with scribbling of a famous person’s pen or it came out of their junk drawer. These things, to me, are the real artifacts of popular culture. I have several such things in my “display case of life” like a bounced check from Courtney Love and the pajamas of Ray Bolger, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. But right now, the credit card of Kurt Cobain is up to $22,600so I’m staring to think …. hmmm. Maybe I’ll make a copy of that check and sell the original. I know, she was married to him, but Courtney ISN’T Kurt. I guess I’ll hang onto it for a while longer…

#PADDLE 8: VINTAGE POSTER ART FROM CHINATOWN TO CIAO, MANHATTAN

Normally, I would encourage people to buy original art, not posters but these all have great “wall appeal”. (I still miss my Warhol Trash poster, not the one here, a better one. I gave it to my ex. I think I want it back, the poster, that is.) Well, here’s a curated selection of iconic posters on Paddle 8, priced from a just a couple hundred – $200 starting bid on the I Shot Andy Warhol to $11,500 for Dr. No. Here’s a tip; framing MAKES the piece. Don’t cheap out. Have it floated in a 1″ deep painted black or white wooden frame. It’s looks SO much better than using a mat or smashing it under plexiglass. Don’t use glass. The Paddle 8 auction ends Tuesday, January 20. You can go here to here to bid and/or see more great examples.

JEREMY KOST'S "FRACTURED" POLAROIDS

Jeremy Kost has been shooting Polaroids of hot guys for a while now. He began this recent project in 2011 kind of by accident, usually the way great things start. He got a multiple exposure after a shot of film got stuck in the camera. It’s proved to be both an aesthetic –and logistical experiment– for Kost who told Interview;

“I never know what the colors are going to be like until the first frame is shot. Even then, you start to get these chemical errors where the chemicals don’t spread across the image. The multiple exposure is almost like a collage collapsed into one frame. It’s all done in the Polaroid. There’s no digital, there’s no retouching, there’s no manipulation. It’s all one layer.”

Last night, he had a book signing at BookMarc on Bleeker for Fractured, his new book featuring this work. And a limited edition of prints, on exhibit at the Calvin Klein Collection, 654 Madison, are available on Paddle 8. The proceeds will benefit ACRIA, to help those living with HIV/AIDS. And for more cute, mostly naked guys, you can follow Jeremy on Instagram here.

TODAY, KEITH HARING IS EVERYWHERE

There’s a Keith Haring show opening tonight. They used to be quite the event, back in the day. Keith would usually print thousands of posters to give away free and sign (I have few signed ones, still in my flat files.) This exhibit at Gladstone Gallery includes canvases and tarps painted in the 1980s. Keith created many works that initially appear to be celebratory and playful, but he was a politically active and socially conscious, interested in being involved in the cultural climate that lived in. His works explore themes of sexuality, technology, AIDS, and capitalist greed. This yellow, red and black piece shown here, shows his classic, simply outlined human figures; but unlike many of his other works in which the figures are dancing and bursting with energy, here they lie piled atop one another, with symbolic black x’s over their faces, a haunting representation of the toll taken by the AIDS virus which eventually killed him. (Tomorrow would have been his 56th birthday.)

He’s never been more widely recognized or “collaborated” with. Take these pieces on Paddle 8 done by his frequent collaborator LA II with Brian Boulos or the shirts, bag and scarves by Uniqlo, which you can get online. If you’re in New York, the opening is at Barbara Gladstone, 515 W 24th St, from 5-7 PM and runs through June 14.

Brian Boulos & LA II Collaboration, 2014

Haring boxers at Uniqlo Fifth Avenue, New York

Keith in his Pop Shop In New York City