“Art and Love”
Musician/Poet Patti Smith's memoir is a tribute to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, to their relationship, and to a unique time and place. Most of all, however, this is a tribute to art, and the artist’s commitment.
Smith’s Just Kids focuses on Late 60s/Early 70s NYC Art Scene, and more than a 1970s bohemian rhapsody, it’s one of the best books ever written on becoming an artist -- not the race for online celebrity and corporate sponsorship that often passes for artistic success these days, but the far more powerful, often difficult journey toward the ecstatic experience of capturing radiance of imagination on a page or stage or photographic paper. Mapplethorpe's iconic image of Smith for the cover of "Horses," her landmark 1975 album (see photo), serves as a convenient symbol of both their collaborative relationship and the separate paths they took thereafter: he as one of the last century's most heralded and controversial photographers, she as a performer whose influence still extends through poetry, contemporary music, fashion and the visual arts.
The tone is at once flinty and hilarious, which figures: she’s always been both tough and funny, two real saving graces in an artist this prone to excess. What’s sure to make her account a cornucopia for cultural historians, however, is that the atmosphere, personalities and mores of the time are so astutely observed.
The cast of characters in her book, particularly those that lived in the infamous Hotel Chelsea, reads like a guest list for the party of the decade: Janis Joplin, Bob Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lou Reed and the Andy Warhol Factory gang, and many more. Smith herself dated playwright Sam Shephard and rocker poet Jim Carroll, and includes wonderful stories about both.
Most resided in the artistic haven of the Chelsea, living the struggle that becomes a central theme of the book: a commitment to their art. Robert and Patti promised to stick with each other until they could each stand on their own, artistically and personally. It was a vow they stuck to, and Just Kids documents what it took for these kids to do so.
Smith has stated that with Just Kids, she wanted to keep the focus on her early relationship with Mapplethorpe, when both were young, struggling artists finding their way (and each other) in late 60s New York/Greenwich Village. Her story covers primarily the period from 1967-1974, from her arrival in the city and meeting Mapplethorpe, to their split, and the beginning of her fame. Of course, she also addresses the photographer’s 1989 death, which, Smith says, was the catalyst for writing this heartfelt memoir.
Readers familiar with Patti Smith’s music and poetry will not be surprised at the easy Rimbaudian beauty of her prose. She renders the most mundane details both thought-provoking and a pleasure to read: one of the more endearing aspects of Just Kids is the portrayal of a relatively innocent, teenaged Jersey girl fresh on the streets of New York City. It’s difficult to think of Patti Smith, the wild-haired punk performing "My Generation" on SNL in 1975, author of “Piss Factory” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger,” and apply the word innocent. But in these early years she was the straight one amidst her peers; she didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs. Art was her everything. Art and Mapplethorpe.
Hardback edition
This reviewer received a free of charge product for review.
