You Can Hire an Artist

Elegantly Dressed Wednesday: Ross Bleckner

Posted by Kathleen Benton on Sep 23, 2009

Well, I said I’d do it and so I have.  But coming up with an  elegantly dressed contemporary artist has not been easy!  Gone are the days when an artist put on his coat, necktie and beret before mixing pigments.  And of course those lady artists must be properly corseted and capped before marching off to work (more on this next week!).  Making art can be a messy and very physical job and so, from a practical standpoint, today’s ubiquitous t-shirt and jeans do make sense.  But some artists think their calling gives them permission to dress in paint rags for any occasion.  Now here I sit, having spent six hours painting in the studio, dressed in my seasonal uniform of t-shirt and shorts (it’s a hot, humid day).  But if I were to go out into the world, my painting clothes would not do.  That is where I draw the line.

For this week’s elegant modern specimen I’ve been screening candidates and shaking my head all week; I must admit we are a shoddy lot.   Then it occurred to me that I do know a good example and have a personal anecdote to go with him!  It just so happens that Ross Bleckner was  my teacher.  Long ago and far away, the time spent in his class is a pleasant memory for me.  For it was while listening to Ross talk about the New York art scene that I determined I would go there and see it for myself.  Three months later I visited New York for the first time.  One year later I moved to Manhattan to study art at NYU.  New York turned out to be the place I would come to call home.

Ross Bleckner’s art has been exhibited and recognized for quite some time.  He was one of the first artists to be represented by Mary Boone Gallery.  He was just beginning to make a bit of a name for himself when he was given the position of “Visiting Artist”  for a quarter at The Ohio State University during my junior year.  (If he ever reads this I’m sure he will wince at the memory.  Ross did not especially like Columbus, Ohio and made an effort to return to New York City every weekend. –  Who could blame him?  The Mudd Club was just opening in his Tribeca building.)

I was enrolled in his painting class and every Friday he would appear in the large classroom painting studio to have a critique of our work.  He would come dressed in the uniform t-shirt and jeans.  But there was something different about his clothes.  His t-shirt was always a spotless white, like it had just been bought.  His blue jeans looked pressed as if from having been dry-cleaned.  But what facinated me most were his shoes. Of polished soft black leather with thin leather soles, I now realize they were probably fine Italian-made loafers, but I only knew then that they were different and beautiful.  They were probably the most expensive shoes I’d ever laid eyes on (having come from Ohio farm country).  They seemed very classy and somewhat incongruous with the paint-splattered cement floor of the studio.  I would stare at his shoes while he talked and moved about the room.

To get to the classroom studios students must go down a hall of faculty studio doors.  I would pass Ross’s studio door and on a few occasions it would be open.  I could see him working inside, holding a wide brush and saucepan filled with black wax.  Now he would not seem so spiffy, having changed to a black or gray t-shirt and dingy white painter’s pants, dotted with paint.  So, I realized, he dressed for our class down the hall!

Nowadays you can easily find pictures of Ross Bleckner dressed to the nines as an active socialite.  He is often photographed for gallery and museum exhibit openings, but he has also become a frequent fixture at social and charity events.  Bleckner’s work as a gay activist and for AIDS-related causes has been ongoing.  He was president of ACRIA (AIDS Community Research Initiative of America) for a decade.   This year he was honored as the first visual artist to be appointed a

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking.  His  mission was one of art therapy for former child soldiers and abducted girls from Gulu, Uganda.  So not only does Ross Bleckner set an example for all artists by dressing well, he is a model for service, using his work and celebrity status for worthy causes.

I’ve always thought Ross Bleckner’s painting was elegant.  Early on his work  was very dark, geometric, and abstract.  He worked the surfaces with concoctions of oil, wax, and pigment to find different levels both visually and physically.  That preoccupation has continued even into his more well-known work.  The paint is now hung onto and worked around the objects and icons for which he has become famous,  those symbols as elegantly dressed as the man himself.

Kathleen Benton

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To see more of Ross Bleckner’s work visit his website: www.rbleckner.com.

Sara Krulwich, Ross Bleckner in his studio in Chelsea, 2009, Photograph, The New York Times

Jonathan Becker, Ross Bleckner in his Sagaponack studio, Photograph © 2009 Jonathan Becker