Gerard Malanga

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American poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator and archivist
  • Poet
  • photographer
  • filmmaker
  • actor
  • curator and archivist
Years active1962–present

Gerard Joseph Malanga (born March 20, 1943) is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator and archivist.

Early life and education

Malanga was born in the Bronx in 1943, the only child of Italian immigrant parents. In 1959, at the beginning of his senior year at the School of Industrial Art[1] in Manhattan, Malanga became a regular on Alan Freed's The Big Beat, televised on Channel 5 (WNEW) in New York City. He graduated from high school with a major in Advertising Design (1960).

He enrolled at the University of Cincinnati's College of Art & Design (1960), and dropped out at the end of the Spring semester.

In the fall of 1961, Malanga was admitted to Wagner College in Staten Island on a fellowship. At Wagner he befriended one of his English professors, Willard Maas, and his wife Marie Menken, who became his mentors.[2] In June 1963, he went to work for Andy Warhol and dropped out of Wagner College in 1964.

Career

Andy Warhol and The Factory

Malanga worked with Andy Warhol from 1963 to 1970.[3] A February 17, 1992 article in The New York Times referred to him as "Andy Warhol's most important associate."[4][5] Malanga was introduced to Warhol through Charles Henri Ford.[6]

Malanga was involved in Warhol's silkscreen painting and filmmaking. He acted in the films, including Kiss in 1963, Harlot in 1964, Soap Opera in 1964, Couch in 1964, Vinyl in 1965, Camp in 1965, Chelsea Girls in 1966, and co-produced Bufferin in 1967, in which he reads his poetry, deemed to be the longest spoken-word movie on record at 33-minutes nonstop.

Malanga played a combination of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby in Warhol's film Since (1966). Also in 1966, he choreographed the music of the Velvet Underground for Warhol's multimedia presentation, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Malanga and Warhol collaborated on the nearly 500 individual 3-minute Screen Tests, which resulted in a selection for a book of the same name, published by Kulchur Press, in 1967. Neither Warhol or Malanga were photographers at the time. In 1969, Malanga was one of the founding editors, along with Warhol and John Wilcock, of Interview magazine.[7]

In December 1970, Malanga left Warhol's studio to pursue his work in photography. Malanga's photography spans over four decades and includes portraits, nudes and the urban documentation of "New York's Changing Scene." Three of his notable portraits are of Charles Olson for the interview he made with Olson for The Paris Review in 1969, Iggy Pop nude in the penthouse apartment they shared one summer weekend in 1971, and William Burroughs in front of the corporate headquarters that bears his family name in 1975. In total, Malanga has photographed hundreds of poets and artists over the years as well as Herbert Gericke, the last farmer in Staten Island, in 1981,[2] and Jack Kerouac's typewritten roll for On the Road in 1983.

In his introduction to Malanga's first monograph, Resistance to Memory (Arena Editions, 1998), Ben Maddow, a photo historian and poet, said, "Malanga has that great essential virtue of the photographer: humility before the complex splendor of the real thing...Malanga is the photo-historian of this culture." In reviewing Malanga's book two years later, Screen Tests Portraits Nudes 1964-1996 (Steidl), Fred McDarrah remarked that "Malanga is among the elite editors and photographers who have long dazzled and propelled the New York avant garde."[citation needed]

Malanga has shot and produced 12 films. In 2024, Gerard was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Works

Poetry

Editor

Photography

Photo and written biographies

Films

Music

References

  1. ^ "Gerard Malanga - David R. Godine, Publisher"
  2. ^ a b "History of Art: History of Photography".
  3. ^ "Gerard Malanga's Journey From Andy Warhol's Stage Dancer To Factory Poet". The Huffington Post. 4 August 2010.
  4. ^ "Gerard Malanga". All Tomorrow's Parties.
  5. ^ "History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places - Smithsonian". Archived from the original on 2013-05-12. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  6. ^ Watson, Steven (1988). Introduction to "The Young and Evil" by Ford, Charles Henri and Tyler, Parker. New York: Sea Horse Press: Gay Presses of New York. pp. xxviii. ISBN 0-914017-15-2.
  7. ^ "Andy Warhol's Interview magazine with Gerard Malanga, Paul Morrissey, John Wilcock and Andy Warhol".
  8. ^ a b c "Gerard Malanga | Poetry Foundation". 3 June 2023.
  9. ^ Vallejo, César (2014). Malanga Chasing Vallejo: Selected Poems: César Vallejo: New Translations and Notes: Gerard Malanga: César Vallejo, Gerard Malanga: 9780989512572: Amazon.com: Books. Three Rooms Press. ISBN 978-0989512572.
  10. ^ "Gerard Malanga".
  11. ^ "Twice a Man 1963 Directed by Gregory J. Markopoulos". letterboxd.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.

External links

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