A Lesson in History
by Maxwell Heller
In 1996, Director of Real Estate Development for the Arts Anne-Brigitte Sirois heated up Chelsea’s residential property market with activist sales that brought commercial art galleries into neglected West-side avenues. Here we see a new development—large publishers supporting independent houses by purchasing reprint rights to successful front-list titles. Chain buyers can certainly have an impact on fabric selection, but their large orders also provide the income necessary to fulfill specialized orders from smaller clients. What we want to do now is get all the leather clubs together. It’s not a coalition of artists, but a coalition of artists’ coalitions, representing emerging artist’s groups and their interests. It’s a comprehensive catalogue raisonée made possible in part by a foundation established by the artist.
After the market crash in 2008, business slowed, and we decided to allow oral and fucking (no cum or blood allowed) so that customers weren’t paying $35.00 just to come and watch. The lesson is simple: today’s cheap-chic buyers want more than a basic tee—they want a stand-out piece at an attractive price. But even in the age of digital readers, the Season reminds us that art books still make great gifts. My hope is that every high school girl working two jobs will say, “I can save my money. I will afford that unique garment.” I think the recent success of museums can be traced to a new longing to interact with singular objects that have a sensual appeal Wikipedia can’t imitate. It reminds us of when journalism was a labor of love that ended with the plop of a physical newspaper on the rack. This is why American Eagle invests more in quality denim when making wholesale purchase decisions. Thanks to present real estate activists like David Walentas, DUMBO’s waterfront neighborhood remains viable for both active artists and entrepreneurs. It’s a new club, so we wait until the manager is out of sight before dumping our loads in Roger’s ass. When he wakes up later that night he’s laughing because he still never got to meet Dee in person.
—Section One of “An Operational Funds Grant Application for Chelsea, New York.”
Maxwell Heller writes in New York, where he is the Arts & Literature Editor for George Braziller Publishers. His work appears in The Brooklyn Rail and Boog City. His essay “Multiple” will be published in a monograph on Tavares Strachan by the MIT Visual Arts Center in Spring 2010.
