Whitehot Magazine

Frieze New York Spotlights Famous Artists’ Artifacts

 Helen Frankenthaler. Artifacts from Helen Frankenthaler. Courtesy Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. Photography: Nicholas Calcott

 

By PAUL LASTER, MAY 2017 

Working closely with artist foundations and museums, Frieze has developed a clever campaign—Artists’ Artifacts—to promote Frieze New York. Seen in art publications and postings around the city, the colorful series of still life photographs explore the personal objects of celebrated 20th Century artists who had a significant presence in the New York art scene.

We discover Helen Frankenthaler’s paint-encrusted brushes and palette, the tools that Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner used, Keith Haring’s passport and signature black-rimmed eyeglasses, a railroad sign that Robert Rauschenberg displayed in his studio and a polaroid of him when he first found it, Josef Albers’ Pantone color chart and a small weaving by Anni Albers, a tabletop model of a sculpture garden by Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Calder’s notes and sketches and Donald Judd’s fur hat.

Photographed by Nicholas Calcott, who has previously documented artists’ artifacts and studios for Stella and T Magazine, the pictures smartly present an inside look into the personal lives of artists and their creative process.

Scroll through the images below to get a further glimpse at an artistic life. WM

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Artifacts from Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Courtesy Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

Keith Haring. Artifacts from Keith Haring. Courtesy The Keith Haring Foundation. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

Robert Rauschenberg. Artifacts from Robert Rauschenberg. Courtesy Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

 Josef and Anni Albers. Artifacts from Josef and Anni Albers. Courtesy The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

Isamu Noguchi. Artifacts from Isamu Noguchi. Courtesy The Noguchi Museum. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

Alexander Calder. Artifacts from Alexander Calder. Courtesy Calder Foundation. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

Donald Judd. Artifacts from Donald Judd. Courtesy Judd Foundation. Photography: Nicholas Calcott
 

 

Paul Laster

Paul Laster is a writer, editor, curator, artist and lecturer. He’s a contributing editor at ArtAsiaPacific and Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art and writer for Time Out New York, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Galerie Magazine, Sculpture, Art & Object, Cultured, Architectural Digest, Garage, Surface, Ocula, Observer, ArtPulse, Conceptual Fine Arts and Glasstire. He was the founding editor of Artkrush, started The Daily Beast’s art section, and was art editor of Russell Simmons’ OneWorld Magazine, as well as a curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, now MoMA PS1.

 

 

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