artform
The Art Store GEORGE SCHULMAN, NEW YORK PAINTER & COLLAGIST REMEMBERS ANDY WARHOL & JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT BY GEORGE SCHULMAN
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s an emerging artist, to support myself in 1976 to 1981, I became manager of Jamie Canvas on Spring Street in SoHo. After it moved across the street into a bigger store, they bought a color Xerox machine and added toys to our mix of art supplies. No ordinary art supply store, Jamie Canvas became a hub for creatives. Everyone knew each other and everyone was excited about each other’s work. Andy Warhol was mesmerized by Jamie Canvas, he would come into the store with his little red dachshund under his arm, always polite and impeccably dressed inquiring about the various toys, posters and handmade paper that we sold. Warhol bought a lot of toy boxes, Russian and Eastern European toys, and did a series of small paintings from them and hung them at children’s height. On one visit Warhol asked about a Mont Blanc drawing pen, which was very expensive. With black pen, ink and paper in hand, Warhol asked to see my latest journal drawings done during daily subway rides from the Bronx to Jamie Canvas, which became the forerunner of my Bronx Series. Warhol saying “your drawings are like mine, all very personal.” Talking about the art going on, Warhol asked me if I considered using things that I found in the street to incorporate in my work. Warhol also knew that my mentor Knox Martin was storing Robert Rauschenberg in his 23rd Street Studio and knowing Bob, there was a synergy, Andy saying “You’re one of us.” At that same time Jean Michel Basquiat was being romanced by Annina Nosei, her Gallery was just 4 blocks from Jamie Canvas. After a sellout show of 6 of Basquiat’s paintings on masonite, Nosei gave Basquiat her basement to work in where he started a series of large paintings for a show. Jean Michel Basquiat would be at Jamie Canvas at least three times a week to make photocopies of his drawings. A Collagist since age 4, I shared archival gluing techniques learned from my teachers including Joan Miro and Marc Chagall, advice on how to repeat his images and work large on the canvases he bought or that I threw into a bag or brought to Nosei’s basement. Before sales from Annina Nosei, to support himself, Basquiat made drawings and postcards he would sell in the street or trade. Basquiat asked me if he could sell them at our front counter where we had other manufactured postcards and novelty. Basquiat’s were raw frayed, urban and gritty, unique and I put them in a cigar box on my counter by the register selling for $3- $5. Visiting the store, Andy Warhol leafed through them buying a whole bunch. And shortly thereafter Warhol met Basquiat. Together they would visit Julian Schnabel with great regularity, also noting that Warhol was friends with Keith Haring who had his own store in SoHo.
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