Jean-Louis Trintignant 1930-2022 RIP

 

Journey Beneath the Desert (Edgar G Ulmer, 1961.)

Weird film to have as a favorite.

There's even a missing scene.

It involves Trintignant.

Killing his friend Rad Fulton.

A movie of eerie rhythms and moods.

Jean Louis as Pierre maintains that mood.

RIP

Duncan Hannah 1952 - 2022

One of my favorites of gallery shows seen in my youth was Duncan Hannah and Walter Robinson at Semaphore in October 1984. It had a long slow influence on so much of my subsequent work. I was just looking at Duncan's delicate portrait of Walter that appeared on the invitation. Many thanks to DH and RIP.

Mike Lamas in a Hotel in LA

Mike plays a hotel guest who has kicked the sheets off and his anonymous friend plays a Cat Burglar.  Naked Mike is so handsome the burglar delays his thieving to make love.  A worthy digression, but he ends up robbing the horny youth just the same.  It's not an entirely sad tale.

 

Rod Garetto at Old Reliable

David Hurles

Los Angeles, CA

1988

Beginning with the first photo I ever saw of Rod Garetto and ending with a blurry little frame from one of  his Old Reliable stroke fims.  I have much to thank both Garetto & Hurles for.  There is much work I would not have done had it not been for them.

Four Drawings by Kalabro

 4 Vampire Drawings by Kalabro and a collaboration by him with Jotto

Kali Drawings for Irving

Four Illustrations for Irving Rosenthal translation of

Ramprasad Sen Complete Lyrics;

graphite on paper; 8.5 x 5.5 inches each; April 2015.

At one point Irving asked if I would make some drawings

for his translation of the complete lyrics

of the legendary 18th century Bengali songwriter,

Ramprasad Sen.

He allowed me to read as much as I cared to

in his Library, and he made a copy of one lyric,

about a dissatisfied sculptor, to study at my leisure.

The head, gripped by the hair in one of Kali's left hands,

in the first drawing, is a portrait of Irving.

Oh Calcutta, why should I go to Benares when I have the Flower of Bengal?

Irving Rosenthal (October 1930 - April 2022) RIP

Irving Rosenthal in the Garden; acrylic & toner on card stock; 11 x 8.5 inches; February 1997. My old friend, Irving, died on Friday (22 April 2022). He was 91 years old. I was told by his good friend and longtime constant companion, Sam, that they moved him to a room overlooking the garden after he fell and broke four bones recently. (He should have done those exercises the doctor gave him to improve his equilibrium. They worked for me.) These aren’t the best portraits I painted of him. The best from this series are in his archive. I’ll post some other portraits I made of him, but these will do for now. RIP. May his name be a blessing. 

Irving & Joel in a Tableau Vivant from Flaming Creatures; acrylic & gesso on canvas; 16 x 12 inches; April 1997. I was able to rent a badly recorded video of Flaming Creatures from Le Video and took many photos with my Pentax, on which I based a series of paintings on card stock for Giftland and Max Fish. This canvas shows Irving Rosenthal and Joel Markman in one of the cameo tableaux vivants they, Marian Zazeela and LaMonte Young posed for near the end of the film shoot. Appropriately enough, one of the last long conversations I had with Irving largely concerned Joel and his peculiar beauty (and difficulty). We agreed he was very beautiful.

Irving Rosenthal as Master Humphrey; acrylic, graphite & gesso on grey card; 1.5 inches diameter; January 2019. From the ID Portrait series (44 miniatures) made for A cumulative tale... curated by Robin Winters & Brigitte Engler for the Spring Break Art Show, Fact and Fiction, February 2019. The image on which the miniature is based was a capture from my long (now lost) video of the Old Curiosity Shop where Irving played Master Humphrey (aka the Single Gentleman), the editor of the story. I gave this portrait to John Matturri because of his great admiration for Irving (in exchange for one of John's portrait photos of Jack Smith). The last time Irving called me was to praise an essay by John on Jack that Irving mistakenly thought I had written under a fictitious name. I assured him that he had met John long ago and recorded a video interview with him recounting the time Jack set his apartment on fire for a film, which John shot for him and Jack eventually misplaced.