“In the Backroom of the Club” (Acrylic on canvas, 140cm x 180cm, Dirk Marwig 1981) Commissioned painting
In 1982 Dirk Marwig finally moved to New York City on a student visa to take courses at the Art Students League on 57th street. Neither the drab, run down conservative school nor the “old guys who were so into themselves” teaching there excited him, so he took the risk and dove right into the heart of the “Great Hard School of Life” called “Living in New York City’, taking on odd jobs even working as a bicycle messenger for more than a year, which enabled him to get to know the city very well. It was a time of contemplation and learning. Visiting the MOMA, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan and the Soho galleries on a regular basis, he did his own course in art history. He read the biographies of the artists that interested him and analyzed their work first hand in the museums. This was excellent schooling for him as he did the research on his own time, without pressure and with extreme interest and dedication. He was happy like this on his own or just being alongside his beautiful Wellesley alum girlfriend, so he steered clear of the so-called “New York Art World” with creepy Andy Warhol at the helm who by the way, tried to ‘pick him up’ in Central Park. Dirk Marwig was and is not a follower. He preferred solitude as apposed to being with people he did not care for. For him the politics and mannerisms of the New York Art Social scene were an instant “turn off”. Quote Dirk Marwig: “People like Leo Castelli, Mary Boone, Julian Schnabel or Eric Fischl were emblematic of the Status Quo of the art scene that I so despise, where the love of money, deceit and ‘sucking up’ to the powerful one was the norm.” Since then, unfortunately, nothing has changed or evolved, it’s just a new set of clowns running the show. Living in the Big Apple in his early twenties during the 1980’s was an exiting time. It was the moment of the famous “Art Boom” where art prices skyrocketed and mediocre artists became well known and were then converted into millionaire celebrities! A rebel by nature, Dirk Marwig did not want to take part in this Gold rush, this circus of hype and frenzy because that would entail ‘brownnosing’ the “system”. Taking orders’ from someone in charge would go directly against his personality, which despised any kind of power play, authority or hierarchy. Sleeping an average of 4 hours a night Dirk Marwig worked the humble odd job during the day, the evenings or nights were reserved and dedicated to his art, playing basketball in Tompkins Square Park or simply enjoying the city’s delights with his girlfriend. Stubbornly living this way for a few years Dirk Marwig tried to maintain an uncomplicated lifestyle in a state of innocence and purity gathering information that would later help him become a great artist, in a city that was everything