Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Solomon Gallery was supposed to do a show with Scott, and then Scott and she
had a fight and a falling out. Even after the show fell through, a lot of his art-
work still had the stickers on it from this woman's galleries, numbered stickers
that would have related to the pricing catalogue.
He had these huge paintings, like ten feet by twenty feet on rice paper that
he'd gotten at Chinatown. He'd draw these really tiny checkerboards on them.
Hehadthesehugecanvases,andthey'dhavethesetiny,tinycheckerboardsinred
ink all over them. And they had grave rubbings on them too, like of Billie Hol-
liday and Harry Houdini and Charlie Christian, and on and on, everybody you
could imagine. He'd do the checkerboards and the grave rubbings on the same
rice paper. But then he would fold them up. He took no care at all of the paint-
ings. He'd walk on them. If he was telling a story, he'd lay out this canvas, and
it'dhaveallthesegraverubbingsonit.He'djustlaymoreandmorepaintingson
top of each other, and then he would walk on them. He didn't really care.
When he first started out, he was trying to be really neat about making his
paintings. But once he went to Andy Warhol's grave and the wind started blow-
ing and it started raining, so he went in to get some coffee and said “Screw it.”
He left all his paintings and things out there in the wind and rain. It screwed up
all of his paintings. After he had calmed down a little bit, he went back outside
and got all his stuff. He just figured he didn't care. I guess it gave his paintings
the weathered look. From then on, the weathered look became his style.
As a person, Scott is a volatile guy, smart but prickly. When I met him, he
wasfullofenergy.IguesshewasolderthanIamnow,buthewas
wide open
and
I liked him.
He's got a photographic memory. He's never forgotten the name of anyone
he's met, nor any small detail about their lives, and he can be terribly, terribly
charming. He's truly interested in people, and people are fascinated by him.
He also felt like his artwork had catapulted him to vaunted levels, levels not
everybody agreed he had actually achieved. So he could very easily need you
onedayandnotneedyouthenext.Scotthadbeenarunnerandcocktail waiterat
Studio 54 when he was young and beautiful. He's gay. He was fascinating to be
around, but some people didn't consider his work, his grave rubbings, an art as
much as a craft. He was constantly fluctuating between being high and mighty to
being knocked down a few pegs by people telling him what they really thought
of his work. And he had trouble making the jump.
He did make an alliance with an art supplier by the name of David Davis,
whohadafamousartsupplycompanybythesamenamedownonHudsonStreet
in the West Village. He supplied Warhol and Basquiat with most of their paint.
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