
When Paul Tschinkel started ART/new york: A Video Magazine on Art in 1980, he was the first filmmaker to begin regular coverage of New York’s growing art scene. Each ART/new york program featured footage shot in galleries, as well as, interviews with artists and critics. It was a winning formula, and Tschinkel continued making new programs for the next 45-years. At first, ART/new york was distributed on video cassettes sold directly to schools, libraries and museums. Today, seventy-two of these programs are available for streaming on Vimeo.
On Friday, 9 October 3:30pm The Downtown Festival will be showing three ART/New York programs documenting the provocative downtown art scene of the 1980s: “Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Fun Gallery” (1982) captures the artist at an early career highpoint; Nan Goldin is interviewed on the occasion of her 1996 Whitney Museum retrospective; and “Robert Mapplethorpe” features the only known interview with his father Harry Mapplethorpe, along with a rare 1983 interview with the artist.
Marc H. Miller of Gallery 98 worked with Tschinkel on ART/new york from 1981-1985. The Basquiat and Mapplethorpe interviews are conducted by Miller. The Downtown Festival program will include a Q & A with Tschinkel and Miller.
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Short Excerpts From The Program 3 Downtown Artists

This program centers on Basquiat’s breakthrough exhibition at the Fun Gallery, and includes the earliest known interview with the artist.

Nan Goldin is interviewed about her Whitney Museum retrospective that included more than 25-years of photographs documenting her friends, lovers, and the alternative cultures of New York, Boston, Berlin, and beyond.

The Mapplethorpe documentary provides an intimate view of the artist through interviews with his father, brother and family priest. The interview with Mapplethorpe was held in conjunction with the exhibition of his photographs of Lisa Lyons at the Leo Castelli Gallery.
