The Art of Art

It was an evening of superlatives. Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, the youngest of Carine Roitfeld’s progeny, and his longtime friend, Andy Valmorbida, presented the RETNA The Hallelujah World Tour in New York on February 10, 2011. The artistic showplace for this, the first solo presentation of Roitfeld and Valmorbida, was a warehouse located in the insider section of the Meatpacking District. Art and fashion connoisseurs gathered on the artistic scene, there were fashion photographer Inez Van Lamsweerde, Carine Roitfeld, Stella Schnabel and Mario Testino among others. “prepare yourself” Zip Magazine was also there for the party and met Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld for an interview.

Interview by Katja Schmolka

K.S: You hold a Degree from the University of Southern California Film School, and worked as Assistant Producer for Paramount Pictures after graduation. Why the change from film to the world of art?

V.R: Art has always interested me. For me, film and art are inseparable – they simply belong together. The art scene in California has developed quite a bit in the past few years so I got the idea, together with my friend Andy Valmorbida, to present talented artists.

K.S: What does the selection criteria look like for the artists you present?

V.R: It takes time of course. We work on a very limited basis with just a few artists. RETNA is a fixture on the Los Angeles art scene and has also already done over 30 international exhibitions-that got our vote for him.

K.S: Where will the next exhibition of the RETNA Hallelujah World World Tour be held?

V.R: The exhibition will also appear in Milan and Paris. Then in April of 2011 we’ll see a sampling as part of a project! We are working together with Bombardier Business Aircraft and VistaJet on this project. RETNA is transforming the back section of VistaJet’s Global Express XRS using his artistic lettering. This exclusive jet will be a work of art within a work of art so to say and will fly New York to Moscow or London to Mumbai non-stop. It’s art at over 50,000 feet!

K.S: Thank you for the interview.
SOURCE: http://www.zip-magazine.com/2011/03/interview-vladimir-restoin-roitfeld-presents-the-retna-hallelujah-world-tour-in-new-york/

An inscrutable message in powerful white letters is scrawled in the center of a square canvas, leaping out from a dark, cross-hatched background of Arabic-style writing. A gallery floor is covered with white dots, circles, and checks, while massive black vertical and diagonal banners cleave the walls into a chaotic series of geometric shapes. An abandoned house is spray painted with a seemingly infinite series of X’s and boxes, making it look as if it’s caged in wire mesh. Writing is more than just words on a page to Los Angeles-based artist Retna. The curves and angles of letters represent another medium for the 31-year-old graffiti virtuoso, who covers small canvases and enormous warehouses alike with intricate designs based on Asian calligraphy, Incan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, Hebrew and Arabic script, and the Old English style of gang tagging. “The Hallelujah World Tour,” Retna’s first New York solo presentation, opens at 560 Washington Street on Friday, February 11.

Retna, whose real name is Marquis Lewis, began incorporating writing-influenced design patterns into his work in the mid- to late-’90s, as a steady stream of news about tension in the Middle East exposed him to the beauty of Arabic and Hebrew writing. His early works featured patterns based on both languages, often surrounding stylized portraits. Over time, he incorporated Asian calligraphy and South American and Egyptian glyphs, transforming the written languages of ancient cultures into an intriguing new form of contemporary art.

This show, which is presented by Andy Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld and sponsored by Bombardier Business Aircraft and VistaJet, features more than 30 of Retna’s pieces, many of which deal with death and the lives of people he’s been inspired by. In a telephone interview last week, Retna discussed his influences, goals, and the true meaning of Hallelujah.

BlackBook: How did you start using foreign writing in your paintings?
Retna: I’m a graffiti writer, so I’m a fan of writing and I find it very beautiful. A lot of my earlier work had to do with what was happening in the news about the Middle East, so the Arabic and Hebrew writing found its way into my work.

What kind of work can people expect at 560 Washington Street?
It’s a collection of paintings I brought with me. A lot of what I write has to do with death and waiting for that time, and for people who have passed away. They’re reminders, conversations that I have with myself. They’re not meant to scare people, but at the same time they’re not meant for too many people to understand. I acknowledge things that have happened.

This is the first stop on your world tour. Will other cities get the same collection of paintings?
Each city gets their own batch of paintings. I think New York is a strong city so I give you the stronger shit, the stuff that means the most to me. It has to do with death, pain, and struggle. Friends of mine who have been killed or killed themselves. I give New York what I expect New York to give me back.

Your work shows influences from many different cultures, often in the same piece. Where does your own culture come in?
I’ve been influenced by the world, really, but I never completely fit in anywhere myself. I want people to take away something from their own culture in my work.

This collection doesn’t feature any portraits, but I was wondering how you decide who to feature and how to paint them.
It’s kind of hard for me to answer that. They’re spiritual, they’re strong. There’s a little bit of vulnerability but not too much. A lot of them deal with women who are powerful and elegant. I’m influenced by Art Nouveau and Gustav Klimpt, and what I do is a stylized version of that. I’ll also paint homeless people or gangsters because I’m just attracted to people in general. If something about them fascinates me I’ll paint a portrait or a mural.

So there’s a lot of pain in this collection?
It’s text-based conversations about death, yeah. You can tell New York I apologize for that. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but it’s something that means a lot to me, something I’m working through, a meditation process where I tell these people I won’t ever forget what they meant to me and the impact they’ve had on my life. I don’t expect my pain to be someone else’s burden, but I can’t help if people take it that way.

Do you believe in an afterlife?
No one really has the answer, but I want to think that there’s an afterlife, and I do. I plan on getting back with a couple of friends. We have some things to attend to. Maybe if I believe it strongly enough, I’ll actually get it.

Where did the name come from? What does Hallelujah mean to you?
I actually didn’t come up with it, it’s from the show organizers. The “Hallelujah World Tour” sounded strange to me at first because the world tour part was weird. But hallelujah means joy and thanks, and I have taken a lot from this world and this culture, so it was time I acknowledged it. You can’t take take take all the time. At some point you have to give back.  And maybe it was to make people happy. Hallelujah. It’s a good word and I didn’t want to do it a disservice. If I can be honest in the work I can have the good fortune to use that word as the title of the show.

What have you been doing in New York besides working on this installation?
I went to the George Condo show at the New Museum, which was good. And other than that I’ve been absorbing all the great arts and culture that the city has to offer. And I did go to the Rose Bar & Jade Bar the other night at the Gramercy Park Hotel which was cool, with Basquiats and Hirsts on the walls. I like lounges because they’re mellow. I’m so tired by the end of the day I just want to have a drink and chill.

Source: http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/graffiti-artist-retnas-world-of-words/24759

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld and business partner Andy Valmorbida once again bridged the gap between art and fashion at last night’s opening for Los Angeles street artist RETNA’s Hallelujah world tour, drawing a sea of socialites, downtown types and general pretty people.

Notables including Bryanboy, Stavros Niarchos, Jamie Johnson, Irina Lazareanu, Olivier Zahm and Nur Khan and the impeccably chic Carine Restoin-Roitfeld flocked to the warehouse-style gallery housed in the former Bloomberg building on Washington Street to see RETNA’s newest project, a series of black and white paintings inspired by global typography as well as a monumental sculpture installation dealing with similar themes. The works featured influences ranging from Old English graffiti to east Asian calligraphy and even Incan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the show, curated by fellow Californian and founder of the popular lifestyle brand RVCA PM Tenore, undoubtedly blurs the increasingly obscured lines between street culture and high art.

Hallelujah marks the second show this pair have hosted during New York Fashion week, following retrospective for Richard Hambleton, the so-called “godfather of street art,” during the height of the Spring 2009 shows. “I have a fascination with street art, but I haven’t only been looking for street artists,” notes Restoin-Roitfeld. “We mostly try to follow our instincts and what we like when we see the works of different artists, so of course there is going to be some continuation between them, but I think street art is becoming very big right now, and [Retna] is one of the most talented artists I’ve ever seen… I wanted to give art lovers in New York a chance to see his work, and I think this is going to make a lot of noise for him.” As to the title of the show, a seemingly loaded word, Vlad remains in the dark: “He’s always kept [the meaning] very secret. He’s never even told us about it.”

SOURCE: http://www.papermag.com/2011/02/retna.php

AT FIRST glance, the work of the artist Retna looks like an undiscovered ancient script: a series of hypnotic symbols—complex, beautiful and captivating. But Retna has created an original alphabet, fusing together influences from ancient Incan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, Arabic, Hebrew, Asian calligraphy, and graffiti. Each piece carries meaning, conveying an event or dialogue that the artist experienced.

As a youth of African-American, El Salvadorian and Cherokee descent growing up in Los Angeles, Retna (real name Marquis Lewis) was mesmerized by the gang graffiti that surrounded him. He began practicing the art form, and adopted the name Retna from a Wu-Tang Clan song. In the mid-nineties he began making murals on walls, trains and freeway overpasses throughout the city.

Retna has transformed from a street artist to a break-out star in the contemporary art world. He has garnered attention from Usher, an R&B artist, who commissioned the artist to create a portrait of Marvin Gaye, and MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch, who wrote in the September 2010 issue of Juxtapoz “one of the most exciting exhibitions…this year, anywhere, was Retna’s exhibition at New Image Art.” This spring, MOCA will feature Retna’s work in the “Art in the Streets” exhibit.

On February 10th, Retna opened his first solo show in New York, “The Hallelujah World Tour”, presented by Andy Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, in conjunction with New York City’s Fashion Week. The tour will continue with exhibitions in London and Venice. Retna spoke with More Intelligent Life about his script, growing up in L.A. and graffiti.

How did growing up in Los Angeles affect your work?

The people that I met, the neighborhood guys, the fascination with graffiti and things that weren’t always seen as a good thing. It was illegal for the most part, what it was that we were doing. It’s influenced in my work. Everything represents a very strong L.A. influence.

Were you ever in a gang?

I think I had asked to join the neighborhood guys, and they were like ‘Marquis there’s nothing here for you, you can come hang out with us, we’ll let you paint on our walls but you don’t have to be a part of us’. And I owe them a lot for that for letting me pursue my own dream.

Do you still write on the streets?

I haven’t been as active as I want to be. I’ve done murals, but I haven’t been active in that area. It’s been a while, maybe like two years, but I’ve been really busy.

How and when did you decide to take traditional gang graffiti and turn it into your own script?

I was influenced by Old English since I was eight or nine-years-old. It was very popular amongst street gangs and they were writing Old English, which was really taken more from the LA Times and the New York Times and I just really enjoyed the way the letters were formed. They just had such an elegance to them. Then I went into a phase where I was just writing in the traditional graffiti style and I believe somewhere in 1997 or 1998 I started combining the two, where the Old English style, the graffiti style and I was very highly influenced by Asian calligraphy. I was really fascinated with ancient cultures and writing, and then became interested in Hebrew and Arabic writing after September 11th because they became more prevalent in the news and started to find their way within my work. I’m not copying any of those letters, but I think the influences are from that.

How did your art go from the streets to the more highbrow establishments that they’re in now?

These artists Chaz and Mear were curating a show in L.A. and they invited me to be a part of it. That was the first show I had every done. That was in 1997 I want to say.

And after that I think I kind of got the bug and I thought that it would be fun to do this. It was a way of being a legitimate artist but I also felt like I could make my mom proud, I could do it the right way. You gotta love where you came from too because if I hadn’t come from the street or been a graffiti writer, I wouldn’t be where I am now. And there might be guys who don’t like people like us, [because we are]  inside the galleries, they go, “oh, it’s not real”. I don’t really care. I know who I am and what I’ve done and there’s people from that movement that just love seeing it inside places, and they’re happy because they do it too.

I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for all the graffiti artists and writers that came before me. And this is my way of saying thank you.

Where did you come across the various writings (Arabic, Hebrew, Hieroglyphics, etc.) that inspire your script?

Just books, looking at stuff, researching. Obviously I can’t read any of that stuff—I just liked it. I’d look at it or want to study about it or learn more about it. I gravitated towards that because that’s what I’ve been doing—I’ve been writing and I wanted to make this text that was influenced by the world and I wanted everyone to be able to relate to it. I was mixed [race], so I never really felt like I fit in, or I was either one or this or that, so I just started to say I was down with everybody and I wanted my work to reflect that. That

How and when did you decide to take traditional gang graffiti and turn it into your own script?

I was influenced by Old English since I was eight or nine-years-old. It was very popular amongst street gangs and they were writing Old English, which was really taken more from the LA Times and the New York Times and I just really enjoyed the way the letters were formed. They just had such an elegance to them. Then I went into a phase where I was just writing in the traditional graffiti style and I believe somewhere in 1997 or 1998 I started combining the two, where the Old English style, the graffiti style and I was very highly influenced by Asian calligraphy. I was really fascinated with ancient cultures and writing, and then became interested in Hebrew and Arabic writing after September 11th because they became more prevalent in the news and started to find their way within my work. I’m not copying any of those letters, but I think the influences are from that.

How did your art go from the streets to the more highbrow establishments that they’re in now?

These artists Chaz and Mear were curating a show in L.A. and they invited me to be a part of it. That was the first show I had every done. That was in 1997 I want to say.

And after that I think I kind of got the bug and I thought that it would be fun to do this. It was a way of being a legitimate artist but I also felt like I could make my mom proud, I could do it the right way. You gotta love where you came from too because if I hadn’t come from the street or been a graffiti writer, I wouldn’t be where I am now. And there might be guys who don’t like people like us, [because we are]  inside the galleries, they go, “oh, it’s not real”. I don’t really care. I know who I am and what I’ve done and there’s people from that movement that just love seeing it inside places, and they’re happy because they do it too.

I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for all the graffiti artists and writers that came before me. And this is my way of saying thank you.

Where did you come across the various writings (Arabic, Hebrew, Hieroglyphics, etc.) that inspire your script?

Just books, looking at stuff, researching. Obviously I can’t read any of that stuff—I just liked it. I’d look at it or want to study about it or learn more about it. I gravitated towards that because that’s what I’ve been doing—I’ve been writing and I wanted to make this text that was influenced by the world and I wanted everyone to be able to relate to it. I was mixed [race], so I never really felt like I fit in, or I was either one or this or that, so I just started to say I was down with everybody and I wanted my work to reflect that. That was the idea I was after.

Is there a verbal element to it, or is it just visual?

There’s a verbal element. It could be a poem, it could be just stuff that I’m thinking about, for me it’s just a very meditative process; I’m just having a conversation with myself. Sometimes I allow the music to influence what I’m writing. A lot of them are names my mom would call me when I was growing up, and some are things I’m talking about, friends who have passed away—they’re interactions with what’s going on with people that I just meet, or a conversation I just had. I hear a word or a phrase or a dialogue, and then that becomes my response. They all say something.

Would you ever make a translation?

I’ve been asked. I want people to try and figure it out. I think I give them what it says, but I like the interaction part. That reminds me of when I’m looking at like Hebrew or calligraphy, or anything like that—I don’t know what it says. But if I try to do my homework, or look into it, I’ll find a meaning and try to find why it’s like that, or maybe I won’t, but at least you give it that attempt of trying to see it.

That’s really interesting to me. It makes more sense now, because as someone observing your art, how do I know it’s not just a bunch of nonsensical symbols?

Right, no definitely. I think once people are more familiar with my work, they can understand it. The more you familiarize yourself with, you start to see, ‘okay there’s the ‘S’, there’s an ‘E’, there’s a ‘V’. I’ve ran into a couple of people that are really able to read the stuff, and it always surprises me.

What artists inspire you?

I love art nouveau, Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, Monet, Basquiat, Haring. There’s a whole list of graffiti artists—Lee Quinones, Chaz Bojorquez. I love Degas’s ballerinas. I have a pretty wide range of art that I like. There’s this artist here in New York I believe he just had a show—Folkert de Jong. Oh my God, his work is beautiful. And I love sculpture, I love architecture, I love ancient buildings, Masonic buildings, cathedrals, churches, synagogues, mosques—I just love the way they look they just have a really elegant kind of thing to them. I love Asian temples. I like a lot of cultures and things.

Do you think there’s a difference between street art and graffiti?

To me it’s interesting because a lot of street artist people, they call themselves graffiti writers. They’re two different things. A graffiti writer is someone that writes their name on the wall, but they’ve blurred the lines. But, I think it’s a great movement. I’m glad to be associated with it. There are a lot of great artists in that in that, and there are a lot of people that aren’t so good—that’s like anything. There are guys who are really talented at graffiti and there are guys whose stuff you just don’t like, but that’s the nature of it. I can’t say anything bad about them. Without the people who have become popular with street art, I probably wouldn’t be here now. I’d like to think I would have got to my goal anyway, but I’m sure I owe them some kind of gratitude and I’m alright with that.

“The Hallelujah World Tour” is at 560 Washington Street in New York through Feb. 21st.