The Gregory Battcock Archive (original) (raw)

Art Thu Dec 10 2009

For a guy who doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, Gregory Battcock had a very interesting life, and an equally interesting death. Born in 1937, Battcock was a painter in the early 1960s who found his way into several of Andy Warhol's films (he starred in "Horse" and "Drunk"), and later he became a critic with eclectic interests--he wrote about minimalism and performance and video art as well as the aesthetics of ocean liners. He lived a short life, though, and was found dead on Christmas day in 1980 on the balcony of his San Juan condo. He was stabbed 102 times.

Through a random series of events in 1992, Chicago artist Joseph Grigely discovered a chunk of Battcock's archive, and is exhibiting a selection of it in custom designed vitrines arranged as a modular grid at Rowley Kennerk gallery. The exhibition includes correspondence, unpublished essays & photographs, postcards, keepsakes, and other remnants of the New York art world in the 60's and 70's. The show opens tomorrow night (Friday December 11) at Rowley Kennerk (119 N. Peoria St. #3C) at 6pm and will stay up through January 30.