Foreword by Amanda McDonald Crowley

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Rafael Ferrer, Three Leaf Pieces, 1968. Photos by Ron Miyashiro. © 2020 Rafael Ferrer/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NYGoff

With two other students, Hovagimyan joined Ferrer in a truck from Philadelphia carrying large bags filled with leaves. They went to Leo Castelli’s galleries on 108th Street, 57th Street, and 77th Street and emptied the bags in the elevator, on the gallery floor, and in the stairwell. Castelli was at the time the most important gallerist in New York, representing Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly, among other famous artists.

Rafael was invited by Robert Morris to be involved in the Castelli Warehouse show, which was a seminal show for Art Povera/process art that had people like Eva Hesse, Bill Bollinger, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Alan Saret. He invited me and two other students to come with him, loaded up these big garbage bags with leaves in the truck, and we essentially filled the staircase in the Castelli Gallery with leaves. It was a seminal process art show, and that was literally after my first year in art school. I was introduced to the avantgarde art scene.3

The occasion for Three Leaf Pieces was Nine at Castelli, a show of nine post-minimalist artists organized by Robert Morris at Castelli’s 108th Street warehouse. Though they appeared to be ad hoc, the temporary Ferrer leaf installations were organized with the knowledge and blessings of Morris. It became a portal into the hippest quotient of the downtown scene.

We went to the gallerist Barbara Rose’s apartment for cocktails after the opening, and Keith Sonnier was there and Richard Serra and everybody, and I met them all. Then we went to Max’s Kansas City, which is kind of interesting, because Frosty Myers is here in Abrahamsville, Pennsylvania, and he was actually a fixture at Max’s. Mickey Ruskin was his patron, and Frosty designed and built every single one of Max’s bar and restaurants.4

Max’s was a famous hangout scene for artists, and Warhol dominated the back room during the period, with his Factory located around the corner on Union Square. It became a legendary venue for the glam bands that were formative for the emergence of punk. Later, Hovagimyan would play shows at Goff

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Top: Colab meeting on the second floor of 597 Broadway in Peter Fend’s loft, 1983. Photo: Albert DiMartino Above: Poster and banner ad, Scott and Beth B., The Offenders, 1979 Opposite: Colab member list, May 22, 1977. Courtesy of Alan Moore Goff

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