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Category: Art

  • Bettina’s Institute For Noumenological Research Reestablished at the Chelsea

    Bettina had never allowed us into her apartment before, but the painter Robert Lambert described it as a bat cave, with narrow corridors winding through piles of papers and boxes that stretched almost to the ceiling.  Hotel workers couldn’t get in to repair the radiator, and so Bettina, who lacked the physical strength to move…

  • Abel Ferrara Shoots Up the Chelsea: Almost Exclusive Behind the Scenes Footage

    Back in the nineties I used to run into Abel Ferrara frequently, marveling at him as he lumbered around the hotel, a paper-bagged bottle of Bud in one hand, and usually accompanied by one or more beautiful women.  A larger than life character if there ever was one, when I talked to Abel recently he…

  • Sid the Kid, by Robert Lambert

    There must be a story behind Robert Lambert’s latest painting.  If you see him in the lobby chatting on his cell phone ask him what’s up with Sid the Kid.  Maybe next he’ll paint Dylan Thomas and his 18 whiskeys. sid the kid oil on burlap on wood 60"x48"

  • Something To Be Thankful For

    Fellow resident Lothar Troeller was warmly greeted on his return to the Chelsea after a recent hospitalization. Welcome home!

  • Chelsea Hotel Ashcan Painter Wasn’t Worried About Development

    According to an article in the City Review (Edward Short, 11/16/07), Ashcan painter John Sloan didn’t give a damn when NYU tossed him out of the old Judson Hotel at 53 Washington Square South.  He just packed up and moved to the Chelsea Hotel.  Also, according to the article, he didn’t care that the old…

  • Lothar Troeller Returns to the Big Apple

    Our fellow artist and bohemian Lothar has been moved from New Jersey to a hospital in Manhattan. His wife Linda Troeller reports, "He still has many many weeks to go and cognitive and physical therapy..so prayers are meaningfully being put to good use! He could use some visits from hotel friends to spark up his…

  • The Spiritualist Who Foretold His Own Death

    Arthur B. Davies, an artist, made "spiritual" paintings–dancing nudes, etc. (See below.) He also traveled the world, collecting both ancient and modern art.  By 1928 he had crammed into every available space of his Chelsea Hotel studio more than a dozen Picassos, five Cezannes, four Matisses, and various other valuable works too numerous to mention.…

  • Vali Myers, “Witch of Positano” Remembered in New Memoir

    Gianni Menichetti lived for 30 years with the Australian artist, witch and free-spirit Vali Myers in her mountainous retreat in Positano Italy.  While Vali painted and worked her magic in a specially designed cage with her pet fox, Foxy, Gianni roamed the town looking for food to feed their huge pack of dogs and goats…

  • Lothar Troeller Needs Our Support

    Lothar Troeller, long-time Chelsea resident and husband of Linda Troeller, is hospitalized in critical condition as a result of injuries received in a motorcycle accident late Friday.  You can write to Lothar with cards etc.LOTHAR TROELLERUniversity HospitalSICU, 150 Bergen StreetNewark, New Jersey 07103

  • Alfred Russell 1920 – 2007: Painter Who Repudiated Abstraction

    The Chelsea Hotel community was saddened by the recent passing of long-time resident Alfred Russell. A part of the early abstract expressionist movement, Russell exhibited along side such well known painters as Willem De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko in Paris and New York in the fifties.   Becoming disillusioned with abstraction, he then…