The Possibilities of Art
Danielle Sonnenberg
Julie Harvey, Larry Gagosian, 56 x 36 in. Courtesy Artefact Pardo.
If you were lucky enough be one of the invited guests to the Go-Go party at the Puck building on March 11, you were given a chance to see Julie Harvey’s latest nudes. This party, inspired by Larry Gagosian’s nickname, Gogo, was created as a parody of the art world and aimed to inject some healthy self-mockery into the New York Art scene. Harvey always pictured these paintings in a party setting; "I always saw them in environment making fun of themselves."
These nudes attracted controversy in that Ms. Harvey has chosen the world’s top publicity addicts to characterize in these humorous works. She depicts each art star stripped naked in front of a Go-Go style 60s background. Her subjects include Larry Gagosian, Tony Shafrazi, Charles Saatchi, Mark Kostabi, Julian Schnabel, Damien Hirst and Mary Boone.
When guests first walked into the party, they encountered Austin Powers-like groovy hipsters pulling them to dance or pegging them with one-liners, "Hey baby, what’s your name?" Other actors and dancers mingled throughout the crowd as "British-mods," asking, "Wanna buy a groovy painting, or should we shag for a while first?" Later in the evening, an actor with a British accent played an art critic, telling the guests, "Everyone sleeps with me to get ahead."
The publicists Harvey chose to characterize are precisely the people that even the most egotistical artists avoid pissing off, and shier artists just avoid. So, to drench them in Technicolor parody took humor and courage. Harvey asserted, artists should paint for themselves and not for the art dealer. According to Harvey, the art scene in New York has become controlled and conservative. People are afraid to take risks; this fear of the all-powerful dealer is holding them back. Should the art world be about true expression or formulated work? Harvey believes that true expression is about not holding back.
The paintings will be exhibited at the Artefact Pardo Gallery on 119 East 31 Street, New York, NY. For more information on Julie Harvey’s work go to www.JulieHarvey.com.
