The Joe Coleman show has not opened yet (the Tilton gallery is still closed till September 5th- Tuesday) but the show is already reviewed by John Strausbaugh onf the New York Times.   Very cool but also very unusual.

“A retrospective of Mr. Coleman’s art over the last 16 years will open at the Tilton Gallery in Manhattan on Thursday. With 33 paintings and installations, it will be the largest exhibition of his work ever held in New York, the city where he has lived for 30 years, yet where he has always operated outside the fine-art mainstream.”

“…….He paints “one square inch at a time,” he said, never sketching or plotting out the completed work in advance.

“The composition reveals itself to me,” he explained in an interview. A large work, roughly three by two feet, painted in acrylic on wood, can take up to a year to complete.”

“Another recent portrait is of Mr. Coleman’s friend Larry Desmedt, a Coney Island legend known as Indian Larry who died in a motorcycle accident in 2004. “

I can feel that Joe and Larry are friends ….you just feel it.  You know.

Am not sure we overlapped, but I attended School of Visual Arts the same year that Joe Coleman did - 1976 (actually, I was there from 1974-1976) but it’s quite possible we met as SVA was not that large a college (more like a small building at the time- and even now it’s not that different) in this respect (though it costs 10 times more go attend then in 1974-76).

There are a couple of other things I noticed that we have in common - children that  are emotionally distrubed were not dealt with well in the 1960’s.  While I did not have the m.o. that Coleman appears to have had, many kids were thrown into classes like the one that Joe described, including me, in The Bronx, NY.

“1961 -Placed into special 1st Grade class for emotionally disturbed, disabled and retarded children.”

At that time, all problem kids were thrown into one class - that’s how it was - and there was not much in the way of medication or treatment either, as I recall.

But if Joe Coleman did act Bizarre at SVA in 1976 and get expelled - I don’t remember it.  From what I remember, what he was doing, was what a lot of students at SVA where doing (not me though) which was worshiping “Fire Paintings” by lighting fires in the 21st basement building - inspired by Hannah Wilkie, who was also an art and painting instructor of mine.  Kinda sad, she died of Cancer shortly after the last time I saw her, bumped into her at the Guggenheim Museum in 1991, I believe. Small world - I was not really on her wavelength - but I do recall being attracted to her - she was a very interesting woman.

Anyway, getting back to Joe Coleman -

“On Friday at 9 p.m. the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village will screen some of the films in which Mr. Coleman has appeared, and on Saturday he will give a talk at the Tilton Gallery at 3 p.m. Warning: He may explode for old time’s sake.”

My experience of Joe’s website it’s kinda slow to load - has a lot of multimedia (looks like a lot of money was spent on the site).  

There’s also an interview of Joe Coleman here (it’s about 12 years old though).  Maybe I should try to interview Joe Coleman….hmmm…now that would be an interesting interview, because I tend to see things past what other people ask.