Untitled - Rooster Gallery

September 5 - October 21 2012
© 2012 Rooster Gallery Inc.
NICO: NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Jerry Schatzberg - Nico: New York, New York,” Rooster
Gallery’s opening exhibition for the 2012/13 season,
celebrates the life of Nico (Christa Päffgen, 1938, Cologne,
Germany – 1988, Ibiza, Spain), a heroine whose life in
New York City is intimately connected to the Lower East
Side and the East Village.
The exhibition borrows its title from a filmed rendition of the
song “New York, New York” by Nico and is comprised of
photographic works by photographer and film director Jerry
Schatzberg (b.1927, New York). Portraying distinct moments
in Nico’s life, the exhibition is divided between both floors of
the gallery.
This exhibition consists of “fantasy” fashion shots taken by
Jerry Schatzberg in 1961 depicting Nico’s arrival in New
York and her career as a commercial model. This neverseen-before photography was not made for a magazine but
for pure pleasure due to Schatzberg and Nico’s friendship.
On them he was able to capture Nico’s unmatched beauty
and flawless features, as well as the mix of young naïveté
and self-assurance that also impressed Federico Fellini,
leading him to include her in his masterpiece “La Dolce
Vita.” These works, which capture the essence of the
1960s, stand in contrast with a film from 1981 of Nico
singing “New York, New York.” On Nico’s jaded rendition
made for Squat Theater’s “Mr. Dead and Mrs. Free” –
which typifies the epochal Squat Theatre’s idiosyncratic
cultural references - one will finally meet the underground
empress who turns burnout into flare-up and perceive her
nihilistic degradation.
Schatzberg’s photography presents a less known period
of Nico’s life before integrating Andy Warhol’s Factory, her
association with The Velvet Underground and the reinvention of her personality characterized by her Germanic
unapproachability. On Schatzberg’s works, one will feel the
joie-de-vivre of a 23-year-old woman who has just arrived
in New York City.
“Nico: New York, New York” chronicles the arrival in New
York of one of the 20th century’s last bohemian artists,
whose multidisciplinary and unclassifiable career crossed
modeling, music and cinema.
André Escarameia & Alexander Slonevsky
New York, August 2012
NICO: NEW YORK, NEW YORK
“Je suis de mon coeur le vampire
– Un de ces grands abandonnés
Au rire eternel condamnés
Et qui ne peuvent plus sourire!”1
—Charles Baudelaire
For an outsider—someone who is not acquainted with its
ragged streets—New York City is aptly characterized by
Sinatra’s schmaltzy singing: “The city that never sleeps,”2
where one’s eyes are always set upon the skyline…
But for those who have walked these ragged streets, who
have felt the solitude and desperation this city can induce,
and for whom the neon billboards are no more than an
undulating reflection in the puddles of dirty water, Nico’s
jaded rendition of “New York, New York” makes much more
sense. The irony pervading the entire track makes it the
definitive version for those who wander, for those for whom
the induced hallucinations have naturally become the only
way out.
You will never see these lights
Glowing in your nights
Until you feel this way 3
Adjectives and definitions fall short when talking about a
persona such as Nico. Her extraordinary and tormented(!)
life, as well as her multidisciplinary career, are unclassifiable.
Femme Fatale, model, actress, chanteuse, muse of many,
Warholian superstar, Empress of the Underground, Queen
of the Junkies, heiress of the 19th century bohemia, Charles
Baudelaire meets Marlene Dietrich—she was all of these
over time, but not exclusively any one.
Spanning a period of almost thirty years across various
areas of intervention, Nico’s personal life was intricately
entwined with her career. To separate them would make
her portrait incomplete. Devoid of constructions of the self,
Nico’s life confirmed Donald Kuspit’s idea of the artist’s
psyche as a weapon for public self defense, whether consciously generated or—as in her case—naturally preexistent:
“Personal insanity is a necessary way of individuation and
resistance to the crowd.”4 Still, according to Kuspit, “The
avant-garde artist in effect hallucinated his own insane individuality, transcending the false self he felt himself to be in
the crowd. Insanity became a kind of spontaneous gesture
and personal idea within the impersonal and unspontaneous crowd. Through insanity the avant-garde artist avoided
becoming an automaton in a crowd.”5 Nico’s extraordinary
ability to attract torments, to delve into the abyss of pain
while grinning at death’s face, and ultimately her nihilistic
self-destruction appear to be not a means, but an end in
themselves.
I have come to lie with you
I have come to die with you 6
Born Christa Päffgen on October 16, 1938 in Cologne,
Germany, signs of her erratic and strange life manifested at
an early age.
Nico relocated from her hometown to the outskirts of Berlin
with her mother at the age of two, at the height of the Nazi
Third Reich. Three years later, in 1943, Nico’s father was
detained in a “military hospital” and subsequently exterminated after being declared unfit by the authorities due to
head injuries that caused brain damage while on duty in the
German army.
In April 1945, when Berlin was already under siege by the
Red Army and heavily under fire, Nico and her mother
moved again, this time to Lübbenau where her grandfather
lived. “There Nico would play with her cousin in the local
graveyard and watch the trains (those trains?) go by. At
night she could see the burning red sky of Berlin in the
distance.”7
After the torments of National Socialism and the war were
over, Nico moved back to Berlin where she started selling
lingerie at KaDeWe department store. Around this time, she
was discovered by the photographer Herbert Tobias and
started modeling. Young Christa was dubbed Nico because
of Tobias’ former relationship with Greek filmmaker Nikos
Papatakis.
Also around this time, an unconfirmed event was alleged to
have taken place. At age 15, Nico was possibly raped by an
American GI who was later sentenced to death.
Unwed virgins in the land
Tied up in the sand 8
Not long afterward, Nico moved to Paris and her modeling
career took off. First she appeared in renowned fashion
magazines, such as Vogue and Elle, among others. Then,
at 17, she was hired by the French fashion house Chanel.
Splitting her time between Paris and New York, she started
taking acting classes with Lee Strasberg.
In 1959, Federico Fellini, impressed by her beauty, invited
her to play a minor role as herself in his masterpiece La
Dolce Vita, which premiered the following year. Her connections in the cinema milieu are evident by her romantic life. In
1962, Christian Aaron “Ari” Päffgen was born, supposedly
resulting from an affair with French actor Alain Delon, who
nevertheless always denied paternity of Nico’s only child.
In 1963, Nico was again on the big screen, this time in
Jacques Poitrenaud’s Strip Tease, for which she recorded
a song with the same title. In 1965 her career in the music
industry picked up when she recorded her first single “I’m
not saying.” Despite Jimmy Page and Andrew Loogham’s
production, this song is no more than a typical 1960s pop
song and Nico’s music career would hardly be remembered
for that alone. By now she was also regularly performing
at the Blue Angel Lounge on East 55th Street in New York,
but her music career would only get a significant boost after
she became acquainted with Andy Warhol and became part
of his Factory crowd. Around the same time she met Bob
Dylan, who wrote and composed “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” a
song later included in her first solo album.
Here she comes, you better watch your step
She’s going to break your heart in two, it’s true 9
In the Factory, Nico met The Velvet Underground, at that
point a rather obscure avant-garde band Andy Warhol sponsored and included on his touring multimedia events, the
Exploding Plastic Inevitable, originally known as Up-Tight.
On stage, dressed in black, Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling
Morrison and Maureen Tucker performed their songs,
experimenting with formerly unknown techniques such as
sound distortion while being accompanied by Nico’s icy
voice. Gerard Malanga, Warhol’s assistant, performed a
sadomasochist-inspired dance with a whip, while some
other members of the Factory crew gave away speed to the
crowd. The loud and hypnotic music allied with the strong
sexual movements of the dancers and Warhol’s movies that
were being continuously projected in overlays, making them
imperceptible, allowed the viewer to enter a “simulacrum
universe that encouraged individuals to live their fantasies
and overcome inhibitions.”10
Nico was eventually dropped due to internal fights for prominence. She had been imposed as the band’s chanteuse
by Andy Warhol, which is clear by the choice of their first
album’s title, The Velvet Underground & Nico, where she
performed only three songs—“All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “I’ll
be your Mirror,” and “Femme Fatale”— and backed vocals
in “Sunday Morning.”
Then, in 1967, Nico made her debut with Chelsea Girl, her
first full-length album and a clear reference to Andy Warhol
and Paul Morrissey’s movie Chelsea Girls in which she
participated. While at the Factory, Nico also participated in
several experimental films, and despite her growing ambitions as a solo singer, her cinematic adventures continued.
Friar hermit stumbles over
The cloudy borderline
Frozen warnings close to mine
Close to the frozen borderline11
Following the Factory years and after releasing The Marble
Index (1969), which was soon followed by Desertshore
(1970), Nico became romantically involved with the French
film director Philippe Garrel. At this point she was already
composing her own songs, following Jim Morrison’s advice.
These albums anticipated gothic rock by more than a decade due to their ethereally darker ambiences and disturbing sonority that suited Garrel’s movies perfectly. She would
provide these new songs for his movies and be given roles,
such as in La Cicatrice Intérieure.
The falconer is sitting on
His summersand at dawn
Unlocking flooded silvercages
And with a silverdin arise
All the lovely faces
And the lovely silvertraces erase
My empty pages12
Nico’s transition from Femme Fatale and Superstar to Empress of the Underground and Queen of the Junkies starts
around this time when she began using heroin. Despite the
proliferation of psychotropic substances at the Factory in
the 1960s, she always claimed her addiction started, in fact,
in the early 1970s.
The decline of Nico into the induced opioid abyss and the
even more erratic life that followed did not impede the release
of more albums and collaborations. By now, she was more
and more detached from her heyday, despite the help of
certain friends of that period, such as John Cale, who kept
producing some of her albums. The End… was released
four years later after her previous album, and despite its title
being a reference to Jim Morrison’s autobiographical song
with the same title, it can also be perceived as an ominous
warning of the aforementioned decline: “It was a way of life
she’d followed since she was a teenager, a life without any
of the more familiar creature comforts that people acquire
to fend off boredom and loneliness. The Chanel suits she’d
been given in her days as a Vogue model had long since
been jettisoned in favour of the more androgynous black
trousers and jacket. Her heroin addiction had, at one time,
provided some sort of psychic refuge —filling her days with
the traditional junkie routine of trying to score—the inexorable search for a good connection.”13
The hours since I saw you last
Have left me in an unknown past14
During the last decade of her life, Nico released two more
albums—Drama of Exile (1981) and Camera Obscura
(1985)—as well as collaborations with John Cale, other
musicians (Brian Eno, James Young, Kevin Ayers, Lutz
Ulbrich, Vuelo Quimico and Marc Almond) and producers
(Philippe Quilichini or Martin Hannett). Her career was now
irremediably connected to her addiction. Her return to
Europe, divided between the cities of London and Manchester, did little to improve the situation. Her European
tours were marked by concerts in small venues attended
by people who wanted to have a glimpse of the chanteuse
of legendary beauty playing her trademark harmonium.
These tours went as far as the other side of the Iron Curtain,
deep into Eastern Europe, but as James Young states while
remembering the words of a Japanese promoter, Nico was
“famous, not popular.”15
Her last performance took place in Berlin, a commissioned
double concert for the occasion of “Berlin—Kulturstadt
Europas 1988”. Two weeks later, on July 18, 1988, Nico
passed away while vacationing in Ibiza, Spain, after kicking
heroin and starting methadone replacement therapy. While
riding a bicycle she had a heart attack and hit her head as
she fell. After being taken to a hospital by a young couple
passing by, she was wrongly diagnosed as suffering from
heat exposure. It was already too late to save her and she
died from a brain hemorrhage.
1B
AUDELAIRE, C., “L’Héautontimorouménos” in Les Fleurs du Mal, Dover
Publications, 1992, p.68, 69.
2 Frank Sinatra, “Theme from New York, New York” (John Kander and Fred
Ebb), Reprise, 1980.
3 Nico, “Roses in the Snow” in The Marble Index, Elektra Records, 1969.
4 KUSPIT, D., Psychostrategies of Avant-Garde Art, Cambridge University Press,
2000, p.153.
5 Idem, Ibidem, p.157.
6 Nico, “Genghis Khan” in Drama of Exile, Aura Records, 1981.
7 YOUNG, J., Nico - the end, The Overlook Press, 1993, p.VIII.
8 Nico, “Secret Side” in The End…, Island Records, 1974.
Nico was buried in the Grunewald Forest Cemetery in Berlin,
receiving from New York “…not even a bunch of flowers or
a message.”16
Despite New York’s ragged streets, it is ironic but fair to
assert that Nico’s New York years are the ones she is mostly
remembered for, whether one is thinking of her time with
the Factory, or, as is the case in this exhibition, the preFactory modeling years that Jerry Schatzberg so beautifully
captured on camera. It is also fair to assert that these years
were the ones she would like to be remembered for, a time
when she was still the Femme Fatale. Her jaded rendition of
“New York, New York” included in Squat Theater’s Mr. Dead
and Ms. Free shockingly contrasts with Schatzberg’s candid
photography, emerging almost as a warning about the frailty
of beauty, as well as an exorcism of her own ghosts, while
paying tribute to the city that enabled the genesis of her
own myth.
Please don’t confront me with my failures,
I had not forgotten them17
André Escarameia
New York, September 2012
9 The Velvet Underground, “Femme Fatale” in The Velvet Underground & Nico,
Verve Records, 1967.
10 Superstars - Andy Warhol e os Velvet Underground, Lisboa, Assírio
& Alvim,1992, p.103.
11 Nico, “Frozen Warnings” in The Marble Index, Elektra Records, 1969.
12 Nico, “The Falconer” in Desertshore, Reprise Records, 1970.
13 YOUNG, J., Nico - the end, The Overlook Press, 1993, p.XI.
14 Nico, “The Sphinx” in Drama of Exile, Aura Records, 1981.
15 YOUNG, J., Nico - the end, The Overlook Press, 1993, p.XI.
16 Idem, Ibidem, p.204.
17 Nico, “These Days” in Chelsea Girl, Verve Records, 1967.
Untitled
1961
digital chromogenic print
40 x 40 inches
Untitled
1961
digital chromogenic print
40 x 40 inches
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1961
digital chromogenic print
40 x 40 inches
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1961
silver gelatin print
40 x 40 inches
Untitled
1961
digital chromogenic print
40 x 40 inches
Untitled
1961
digital chromogenic print
40 x 40 inches
Untitled
1962
silver gelatin print
40 x 32 inches
Untitled
1962
silver gelatin print
11 x 11 inches
Nico singing New York, New York
1982
film clip from the Squat Theater’s
“Mr. Dead and Mrs. Free”
JERRY SCHATZBERG
strated a breadth of interest and a capacity to alternate very dif-
Henri Cartier-Bresson, then to the contemporary Irving Penn
ferent moods from the car thief in “Dandy, the All American Girl”,
or Richard Avedon. Instead of the self-contained space of the
From creator of poetic images to compelling storyteller, Jerry
Jerry Schatzberg was one of the leading protagonists in the
the Politician of “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” to the country
frame he looks for the space beyond. His Photographs are nar-
Schatzberg has, over the past three decades, excelled in both
Hollywood Renaissance that struck critics and film-goers alike at
singers of “Honeysuckle Rose”, and the hooker and pimp of
rative; they tell a story. In an instant they recognize an action, a
the realms of photography and filmmaking. Published in Vogue,
the beginning of the 70’s. He did not belong to any group, not
“Street Smart.”
gesture, an emotion while at the same time they have a rigorous
McCall’s, Esquire, Glamour, and Life in the 1960’s. Schatzberg
the Italian-Americans (Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma, Cimino)
captured intimate portraits of the generations most notable
nor the wonder kids of technological efficiency (Spielberg,
“Reunion” written by Harold Pinter from Fred Ulman’s autobio-
never manifests itself ostentatiously and never encroaches the
artists, celebrities and thinkers (from Bob Dylan to Robert
Lucas). In fact he is very much of a loner, comparable in his
graphical Novella is set in Stuttgart in 1932. It tells of the friend-
fluidity of life.
Rauschenberg), and he pushed on in the 1970s to the medium
fierce independence to a Terrance Malick. This does not help to
ship of two sixteen year old boys: Hans, the son of a jewish
of film and participated in the renaissance of American cinema,
get wide recognition, the media being more attracted by groups,
doctor and Konradin, a member of an old German aristocratic
All these Qualities may be found in Schatzberg’s films. His focus
directing films such as: Puzzle of a Downfall Child, The Panic in
schools, clubs with cozy tags attached to them. Schatzberg is
family. Years later, after the war the older Hans (Jason Robards)
has always remained on human relationships which made it
Needle Park, Scarecrow. His films mark a significant time in the
also very much a New Yorker and his home-base has always
on a trip back home remembers his youth and Konradin who
more difficult for him to work in an industry devoted in the late
history of film when the importance of solid and introspective
remained Manhattan, far away from the circle of Hollywood.
betrayed his friend and chose to enter the Nazi party while Hans
seventies, the eighties and the ninties to special effects, car
narrative proved paramount. There are currently two books in
Though very American in spirit and culture he is much attracted
took the road of exile.
chases and adolescent comedies. His accute sense of people
production chronicling Jerry Schatzberg’s life and work.
to international cinema and it’s often more daring stylistic
formal pattern that expresses their meaning. The style however,
and places lend authenticity to the background in his films,
approach. Nothing shows this more than his first feature
In many ways, the cinematic world of Schatzberg shows a
as his actors work to create characters you think you know.
Born In the Bronx, New York. He attended the University of
“Puzzle of a Downfall Child” with it’s fractured narration, its
striking continuity with his photography which leads, as we have
Alan Alda has never been as good as in “The Seduction of Joe
Miami, worked as assistant to Bill Helburn (1954-1956); then
complex sound-track and its mixture of present, flashbacks
seen, to “Puzzle of a Downfall Child” but also his landscapes,
Tynan”, near-beginners like Stockard Channing in “Dandy, the All
started his career as a freelance photographer. His Fashion
and fantasy shots.
which are to be found in “Scarecrow” and “Honeysuckle Rose”,
American Girl” and Kitty Winn In “The Panic in Needle Park” did
his Street Scenes which lead up to “The Panic in Needle Park”
not find roles again of the same dimension. Faye Dunaway, Al
and “Street Smart”.
Pacino, Meryl Streep and Morgan Freeman have been at the top
photography has been published in magazines such as Vogue,
McCalls, Esquire, Glamour, Town and Country, And Life. After
The film centers on the world he knew best, fashion photogra-
directing some TV commercials, he made his debut as a film
phy and the woman who at the time was closest to him, Faye
director in 1970 with “Puzzle of a Downfall Child”, the story of a
Dunaway, who plays the lead. Based on a complex script by
It was his portrait photography that taught him how to deal with
Gene Hackman answered in Film Comment: “Scarecrow, it’s the
fashion model. Schatzberg scored with his second directorial
Adrian Joyce (Carol Eastman) it is the study of a top model
actors. He realized that most people feared the photographer’s
only film I’ve ever made in absolute continuity and I was allowed
effort, the gripping, finely acted “The Panic in Needle
who has had her glory days but is now progressively shunned.
lens. To relax them he would spend as much time with them as
me to take all kinds of chances and really build my character”.
Park”(1971), a bleak study of heroin addiction starring Al Pacino.
The story comes from a confession made to him by his favorite
possible. Not only to know them better but to see beyond the
Pacino costarred with Gene hackman in his next film, “scare-
model Anne Saint Marie. His detractors thought that the choice
surface and discover their true self, the one they hid from the
In more than forty years of photography and cinema,
crow” (1973), a moody tale of two drifters which in many ways is
of subject lacked imagination but the film was the reflection of
outside world. Most of his great portraits of the sixties - Bob
Schatzberg has achieved a delicate balance between refined
an apotheosis of 70’s alienation and confusion. Perhaps signifi-
his personal commitment and the expression of the true authorial
Dylan, Francis Coppola, Andy Warhol, Arlo Guthrie, Roman
form of mise-en-scene and the rendering of true moments. He
cantly, Schatzberg’s critical following in the United States rose
voice. His twenty years working as a photographer is reflected in
Polanski, Fidel Castro, Milos Forman, Jimi Hendrix, Frank
has a particular gift to restrain the emotions only to make their
and fell with the 70’s; after 1979’s “Seduction of Joe Tynan”, the
the dazzling visual flair of the movie, and the cinematic control
Zappa, The Rolling Stones and many more - reveal these
release more powerful and to avoid the obvious by suggesting
trend in Hollywood shifted from small introspective films to the
of frame, light and editing is exceptional for a beginner. “Puzzle
moments of truth.
rather than by underlining. He makes us feel, something that is
Spielberg/Lucas blockbuster mentality. But Jerry Schatzberg
of a Downfall Child”, with its portrayal of a cover Girl in the midst
never lost his European devotees, as witness the international
of a mental breakdown also shows Schatzberg’s sensitivity to
By not giving specific directions to his photographic models
and mature artist, dealing with adult and mature themes and
success of 1989’s “Reunion”. Schatzberg won the Golden Palm
deeply wounded characters. This is also evident in his second
Schatzberg gave them rein to find the moment. It is the
characters.
at the Cannes Film Festival with “Scarecrow”.
film with the drug addicts in “The Panic in Needle Park” and the
same way he gets actors to reach inside. In many ways his
drifters in “Scarecrow”, his third . His subsequent films demon-
photographic style is much closer to that of Andre Kertesz or
of their form in his films. Asked about his favorite performance
too often missing in contemporary American cinema: an adult
Michel Ciment
Acknowledgements
Rooster Gallery would like to give a very special thank you to Jerry Schatzberg for his generosity
which made this exhibition possible.
We would also like to thank Janos Gat, Luís Pato, Paola Mojica and Yoonsun Oh.