Caroyln Lanchner, Irving and Lucy Sandler and Robert Berlind with Robert Kushner (right) at DC Moore Gallery.
Thursday, February 16, 2012 was the official book launch for Amy Goldin: Art in a Hairshirt, Art Criticism 1964-1978 (Hard Press Editions). DC Moore Gallery kindly sponsored this event. Many of the contributing critics attended: Elizabeth Baker, Emna Zghal, Irving Sandler and Max Kozloff. Friends and family. And most important, a significant group of artists, both young and old, already interested in Amy Goldin's writings, and wanting to be able to read more. I enjoyed signing books, seeing them go out into the world. But I was not the author, only the vehicle for this book coming to realization. Amazing anecdote of the evening: Herb Bronstein had been a friend of Amy's since the 1940s and gave me two interviews just before he died which helped me construct her early chronology. When I visited Herb at his apartment, I had admired a rather bizarre object which he owned. That evening of the book party, remembering Herb's delight that I had recognized what it was, his executor presented this objet d'art to me: an antique Papuan koteka*. I wonder whether those exact circumstances have ever been repeated at a book launch party.
*What's a koteka? Go look it up!