On Shell Toe Adidas and the Netherlands
Apr 6, 2010
Biennial artist Ari Marcopoulos shares images of his early work with teens at the Whitney, March 25, 2010. Photograph by Danielle Linzer
On Thursday, March 25, Ari Marcopoulos came to the Whitney to talk about his art and answer questions about the creative process. Always the inveterate cool guy, Marcopoulos described growing up in the Netherlands, where he dropped out of high school, and went to work in a camera shop. After his father, an airplane pilot, bought him a Japanese single lens reflex, Marcopoulos never put down the camera. He cites the aesthetic of fashion photography (his mother was a model) as an influence in his incipient development as an artist. We were treated to a photomontage of selections of his oeuvre from his early years making zines through his time in New York City to the present. When asked why he came to America, he noted that New York was where all the cool kids were, and described making prints for Andy Warhol and living in the basement of a film studio. Highlights of his slideshow included a self-portrait of the artist as Egon Schiele and street shots of Public Enemy.
By Brandon, guest blogger from Youth Insights Artists