Installation view of Brigid Berlin: The Heaviest, curated by Alison M. Gingeras; Photo by Argenis Apolinario; Courtesy Vito Schnabel Gallery. Works by Brigid Berlin (© Vincent Fremont/Vincent Fremont Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved) and Larry Rivers (© 2023 Larry Rivers Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY)
From a never-before-seen side of Paul McCartney to work by the self-proclaimed inventor of the selfie, there's a lot to see midsummer.
Brigid Berlin: The Heaviest at Vito Schnabel Gallery
For Vito Schnabel, noted curator Alison M. Gingeras has assembled a comprehensive—and long overdue—look back at the life and work of Brigid Berlin. The singular bohemian had enormous influence on Andy Warhol, down to his use of the Polaroid camera and tape recorder. But as the exhibition (on view through August 18) makes clear, Berlin is a figure worth examining in her own right. The daughter of the CEO of Hearst and a New York City socialite could have easily embraced glamour; instead, she hung out with the downtown crowd and had a habit of using her breasts as a paintbrush. She was ahead of her time in asserting body positivity and sexual agency—and in taking selfies. In fact, Berlin (who died in 2020) claimed to have invented them.