Book Review: Artist Studios New York
At age fifteen, oil-faced and beer-breathed, I tread barefoot into a stale barn, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. As mildew nipped my toes and the clicks of the flashlights illuminated the shadowed corners, I stood, scrawny and goose-pimpled, in the studio of one of the most influential painters in history – Willem de Kooning.
Francesco Clemente, NoHo, Manhattan 2018 © Marco Anelli
What is it about being in the presence of such a space that demands reverence? As a species who clings to antiquated notions of religious whimsy and idol worship, we have a tendency to transpose this piety onto the artist’s place of creation. The mythology of the artist’s studio thus occupies a unique place in our perception of physical space. New York-based Italian photographer Marco Anelli has been exploring this phenomenon since 2011. Through his photographs he gives us a rare window into the creative processes of prominent artists such as Alfredo Jaar, Cecily Brown, Dana Schutz, Kiki Smith, Jonas Mekas, Marilyn Minter, Robert Longo, Shirin Neshat, and William S. Burroughs.
Kiki Smith, 2013 © Marco Anelli
Anelli’s rare access into the sacred space of one’s studio is both an honor and a valuable opportunity to experience and document the lives of private artists working in New York. The relentless creative process, which demands time and persistence, is evident in his photographs. The artist’s studio, like their work, is an unfinished and perpetually transforming entity, an expression of their process that informs their labor.
From a messy countertop, to a refined portrait or indiscriminate corner, Anelli welcomes us into this space with him. When consuming the photos of this book we can wipe the dust off the top of the canvas, chip the hardened paint spills with our fingernails, smell the fumes of bleach and ammonia, and simmer in the hallowed spaces he enters.
Julie Mehretu, Chelsea, Manhattan 2012 © Marco Anelli
Shirin Neshat, SoHo, Manhattan 2011 © Marco Anelli
Our modern conception of the artist studio was created in the Renaissance, where masters taught their apprentices in workshops. The studio has gradually evolved to become increasingly performative, transforming from an industrial workplace into a stage for creation. The reality of the New York artist studio often falls somewhere between these two conceptions. Being both a site of creative production and personal exploration, the artist’s studio is home to the performative and deeply private alike.
Yet, in a post-studio, post-Internet artistry era where artists work primarily out of backpacks, collaborating in coffee-shops or remotely from a laptop, the artist studio can be seen as a nostalgic artifact from the the long-lost days of Soho’s vacant lofts and bohemian community. Alone time in a highly personal workspace arguably remains an essential condition for creativity, which, in an era of excess information and connectivity, holds a sort of mystic magnetism in the eye of the public.
