Mary Heilmann, 70 next year, is the woman painter that women painters between the ages of 33 and 53 talk about, because her career is what is maybe waiting for you, if you are lucky, when you are no longer a hot young thing. (There oughta be a name for that: the long, empty middle age of the lady art career when you are ignored for being of a boring age, between young 'n' sexy and old 'n' noble.) That makes this picture from her studio, from this excerpt from a new book documenting artists' studios, all the more interesting, as she has the musical tastes of a hot retro young Williamsburg thing! Kraftwerk! New York Dolls! Who knew. Hot.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
8
Um, well, it's your parents' music now, kids.
She's got the musical tastes of one of my parent's friends asking for a mix tape in 1982.
Your parents are hot.
I've never heard of Duracell - sounds German New Wave (and not cinema).
Her recent retrospective was called "Surfing on Acid," and she often titles her paintings after songs by bands such as the Velvet Underground. Yet the actual work is free from any annoying hipster content - she's a great abstract painter and a HUGE influence to younger generations. The first time I met her as a grad student at SVA I acted somewhat like that fat kid who tried to give Megan Fox a flower, except that at that time I was not fat and unlike Megan Fox, Mary was actually very sweet.
Youth is overrated, now more than ever! Especially since most of them are bone stupid. Long live Lady Painters with musical tastes from 1985--and other throwbacks! I hope she's having the time of her life and making a decent living!
Hep cat went out with 23skiddoo, your mother wears combat boots and kilroy was here. The word is hip. And she is.
The Drifters! Give the Drifters some respect. I bet she has The Kingston Trio in there, too, just behind the Stooges and to the left of the Ivor Cutler.
Anyway, the confusion between good taste in anything and good work as an artist seems to me to underlie our entire crisis. Which is to say nothing about her work, I know nothing of it.