Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, Edward Brezinski… One of these artists is not like the others, though they all rubbed shoulders in the East Village in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Brezinski was a talented artist and did not lack for ambition. For years he was on the scene, attending multiple openings, invariably handing out cards promoting his latest show at the tiny sixth floor gallery where he also lived, opposite a homeless shelter on East 3rd Ave. He lived for his art and spent his meagre income on paints and brushes, but the big break he always wanted never came. When he died, destitute, in France in 2007, he was remembered as a footnote, if at all — yet one of his paintings showed at MOMA shortly afterwards.
Brezinski may not be the next Vincent van Gogh, but Brian Vincent’s engaging documentary unearths reams of home video footage from those halcyon days when the art world bridged squalor and decadence, and fame was so close you felt you could take a bite out of it.
Remarkably loving and deeply empathetic.
Carlo McCormick, ARTFORUM
Compelling, haunting look at lost bohemia.
James Wolcott, Airmail
Brian Vincent
Edward Brezinski, Kenny Scharf, Richard Hambleton, Eric Bogosian, Marguerite von Cook, David McDermott
USA
2021
English
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Credits
Producer
Brian Vincent, Heather Spore
Co-Producer
Francesco Plazza
Screenwriter
Brian Vincent, Heather Spore
Cinematography
Eugene McVeigh, John Sawyer, Calen Cooper
Editor
Brian Vincent
Original Music
Jeremiah Bornfield
Art Director
Julie Jo Fehrle
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