140 Thompson, NYC, 1973-1996

My life at 414 East 75^th had become impossible and dangerous. The building was full of people on drugs that came pounding at my door. Downstairs, lived the painter Castro Cid who had married a De Menil, he had money and was on all kinds of drugs. At night, much went on with his colleagues, gathering in the street below his windows, yelling his name, looking for drugs. Upstairs there was a woman, that went out to pick up men to bring home. They had to be willing to beat her up. 

I had decided to find someone willing to take up the three years of lease that I still had, while I was placing small ads in the New York Times, for such a purpose. I noticed a very small ad like mine, offering a space for sale in Soho.

Roberto, Carlo and I were leaving for Mexico, just before departure, I called a dear friend, the very distinguished photographer Aaron Rose, who owned a building in the area,  I asked him if he would please take a look at this space being offered in Soho, so that when we returned from Mexico, he could tell me something about it. 

I had met Aaron at the end of the 60s when he came to my first studio at 414 East 75^th. He had been so surprised and moved by my paper, cord, reeds installations, to suggest the he would give me a whole floor of his building if I would do an installation like that. I did the installation; he opened the space to the public and spent the whole summer lying underneath it taking photographs. I still preserve two boxes of very beautiful photos which he gave me as a gift for he said that lying underneath them had taught him so much about the light.

We had a great time in Mexico, we traveled all over and due to the unreliable situation of the air-lines and reservations, we rented a car and from Merida we drove through the Sierra Madre, all the way to Mexico City. My son and I stopped continuously, much to Roberto’s annoyance, for we wanted to take pictures and pick up stones.

When we returned to New York, I called Aaron, he told me that it was a great building, but he could not find any space for sale. 

I therefore went there myself to take a look, I discovered that the space for sale was the garage of this building, originally a paper mill. It was a great space three-four story high.

The building had been purchased by a Park Avenue architect and a business man who decided to make it into apartments. Unfortunately, they did not understand much about lofts. 

This garage being on a ground floor had huge windows on the street and it was perfect if one could open a door, on to the street so that I could bring in my sculptures without all the troubles that I had to go through at East 75^th, with freight elevators that many times were out of order. Roberto was “petrified” by my adventure.   I asked to speak with the business man. As always my problem was money, and I would have had to go to a bank for a loan. 

Who, would give a loan to an artist ? I set out to get as many letters of introduction, also from Ambassador Piero Vinci, the Italian permanent representative at United Nations, my accountant Sam Schwarz, Alva Gimbel from the Sachs 5^th Avenue Fortune. 

They described with much emphasis what reliable a person I was and also a great artist. I made an appointment with the business partner of the 140 Thompson place, and succeeded in convincing him to give me the needed loan.  

It took me almost two years to make it one of the most beautiful spaces in Soho, I was able to build a mezzanine so that I could have my bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Below, there was a small office, and a kitchen with another bathroom. The rest of the space remained open for the installation of my sculptures.

While working on the restoration of the space, I discovered some absolutely gorgeous wood and steel structures that started on the ground floor and went up through the building. 

The Park Avenue architect thinking that they were ugly, had tried to hide them behind a wall. In those days, much reconstruction of old buildings was going on in Soho so I was able to pick up unwanted strips of wood, which I placed on a beautiful brick wall and made what I called “The Wood Line”; the length was  150 feet. 

During the 23 years that I lived there, I inscribed it with sentences according to the period I was living. There were happy ones and sad ones. 

In 1984, my son had decided that he was tired of multinationals and wanted to have time to develop some of his inventions. He moved to 140 Thompson and had a great period there. However, it was not easy for he always needed a financial sponsor so that he could produce the prototype.

What he had foreseen then, is happening now. It was a great period for him, he had a lovely girlfriend: Donna. She still writes to me and comes to visit me in Tuscany all the way from New York. Her telephone calls on Sunday give me courage; she always sends me positive waves. I call her: “my angel”. Together with my son, they have researched all the latest medications and are trying to make me a cancer survivor.

I am happy that he had a chance to spend time in New York and share with me the experience of this wonderful city, while living at  140 Thompson. Carlo after a while of this adventure, decided that one artist in the family was enough. He hated this continuous search for sponsorship and preferred to have a salary. 

He decided to look for a small start up, all is better described at page 38 in Part One of the book about my life. 

Leo Castelli, who had his gallery around the corner from my studio,  frequently came to visit me and was particularly attracted by my work and the quote on The Wood Line: “ I am inside here • find me”. 

Leo had decided to have an exhibition of my work; he scheduled it for the spring of 1996. His girlfriend, a woman that only understood money, cancelled this exhibition one month before its inauguration. She was responsible for destroying Leo’s gallery. The employees left signing “undisclosure agreements”. I was very upset, to say the least, and had a terrible attack of shingles. 

I decided that after having had surgery for cancer in 1993, it was time for me to be at peace, I therefore sold my studio and retired to live and work at my Working Place • Home • Sculpture Garden in Tuscany. I was very fortunate to have a broker like Debbie Lipman. She showed my place to an Australian architect, who walked in, looked around and announced: “I am buying this place”. It was a friendly transaction; he also purchased “The Wood Line” and dedicated a small section to a photographic museum of how the space was with my work in it. He is still very happily living there and Debbie frequently calls from New York. 

It was a portion of my life, very difficult to part with; in my heart I have wonderful memories.