Paul Tschinkel

Program No. 61: Robert Mapplethorpe

A look at at the life and work of Robert Mapplethorpe, a world renowned and controversial photographer, who died of AIDS in 1989. It explores his photography, his relationship to the downtown New York art world, and the gay S&M club scene prevalent in the eighties. His infamously explicit pictures of the gay, leather, New York Underground were considered groundbreaking and made him a cause celebre. Mapplethorpe’s portraits, flowers, erotic subject matter and artistic presentation, elevated the photograph to serious art, worthy of exhibition in galleries and museums.

Nan Goldin: In My Life

This documentary features Nan Goldin’s celebrated 1996 mid-career photography retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Goldin’s exhibition filled an entire floor at the Whitney Museum with pictures that chronicle her involvement and fascination with the alternative, “downtown” culture of New York City, Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, etc. Culled from a period that spans more than 25 years of taking pictures, Goldin’s desire to make a visual diary of her friends and lovers, as well as her own life, makes for a moving, highly charged, visual experience.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: An Interview

On this program we see a rare interview with the mercurial painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, conducted in 1981 in his studio on Crosby Street, in SOHO. Basquiat, an internationally renowed as well as the enfant terrible of the 1980's art scene, died tragically in 1988 at the age of 28. Both during his brief life and since his untimely death, stories and legends abound which chronicle his metoric rise to art world stardom. In 1996, Basquiat's life was fictionalized in the film entitled BASQUIAT, directed by fellow artist Julian Schnabel. On this ART/new york program, the 21 year old Basquiat is interviews by art historian - curator Marc. H Miller, PhD. Already a well known art world figure, Basquiat's fondness for high jinks as well as his exuberant spirit are captured as he describes his working process and comments upon his art world persona.

Hannah's Haircut

Hannah Wilke, upon Tschinkel's suggestion, cuts fellow artist, Claes Oldenburg's hair, which is taped for Tschinkel's Manhattan Cable TV show, Inner-Tube Video. This memorable piece reflects a caring relationship.