Walter Robinson, Artist, Is Feted in Basel for Upcoming Show at Vito Schnabel Gallery

Walter Robinson, the artist who in another life was the founding editor of Artnet magazine, was standing in a tan suit at Chez Donati in Basel on Thursday afternoon, fanning himself with a Japanese hand fan at a lunch in his honor. I didn’t have to ask him how he was doing, but I did, and he said he was doing pretty fantastic.

“I’m here, but I don’t have to do any work!” he said, continuing to fan himself.

Well, he was working, sort of, because the lunch was to celebrate his show that’s opening in July at Vito Schnabel Gallery in St. Moritz, Switzerland, “The Americans,” which features new paintings, freshly made pulp-addled portraits of dames, drunks, and nogoodniks. But what he meant was that he didn’t have to work, like he used to work in Basel—writing and editing and pounding the pavement chasing stories, covering everything going on.

“I would just be in the hotel working until midnight, one in the morning—there were no lunches, no dinners or parties,” he said.

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