Durgs and The Shiney Apple: Two Big Tall Tales
1.
It was about one year, exactly eleven months, before Phil
Durgan (Durgs was my name for him) would slip into The Good Light that I headed
into Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea in the Shiney Apple to spend time in the retrospective
of the work of Basquiat. It was March of 2013. Happily, I was with sketchbook, and
my dirty assortment of pencils and the Gag was not crowded.
There was room to really float in front of the work
unhindered by any jostling. There was an extreme extra troop of security
guards in the gallery. Because I was there so long they began to come over to
see my sketches – one guard called over her colleague to see the latest, smudgy
drawing.
I sat on the floor before some of the fifty pieces, for some
I stood – and made drawings for hours. At some point I posted that I was there
and Durgs replied nearly immediately. Knowing how much he absolutely loved and revered
the work of Basquiat I felt a sense of responsibility to not only pay better
attention to the details, but to share the experience that I was now having for
two.
Reportage on the pieces in the show, some of the highlights,
small details of some of my drawings were shuttled off to Buffalo. Admittedly,
I had a little guilt that Durgs was the bigger Basquiat fan, he would have,
undoubtedly, enjoyed it even more than I. The show was unforgettable, I had
seen another Basquiat round-up in Rome a dozen or so years ago but this one was
more delicious: in my revered Shiney Apple in the wide open white space of the
Gagosian, and sharing the visions with his ardent and inspired fan, Phil.
2.
This past winter (so the end of the Basquiat-at-Gagosian
year cited above) I happened to overlap time in the Shiney Apple when Durgs and
his beloved Ev were there. I realized this as I was trolling the internet when
I was there, we hadn’t discussed any traveling plans so this was a
serendipitous finding.
As they were obviously on a honeymoon of sorts, the absolute
Joy of being together in such an amazing city, I didn’t connect to them and try
to rendezvous anywhere. I’ve got strong Shiney Apple needs and have an ongoing
Love of that city where I’ve been going since I was nineteen: it’s where I
learn, hear my thoughts better in my head, where I got my Masters degree, where
I’ve loved, and mourned the passing of my mentor this Spring. It’s where I have touchstone
experiences at places and visiting certain arts and public spaces. I did not
want to impose any of that on the loving couple.
Instead, I enjoyed seeing what they were doing, looking at,
and posting. There was, as with all that Phil expressed, reverence, humility,
and happiness. I realized in his posts that we had different agendas for our
trips: he was heading into some jazz clubs, I was spending most of my time just
walking and thinking and drawing.
One afternoon I happened to be walking up Lafayette Street and
they were pretty close in a casual pizza and beer restaurant. Durgs and Ev posted about
that, and I thought I’d breeze by and surprise them if they were still in
there. I arrived at the corner place and peered in: they were gone on to
another adventure but I smiled thinking of them hugging and loving each other
in that gleaming joint.
