~THE VIDEOS of DAN ASHER . . ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES / TUES APRIL 3 / 7:30 PM
DAN ASHER, STILL FROM: ‘SALARY MAN’, 1997. 1 min VHS-to-digital
THE VIDEOS of DAN ASHER – ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
32 SECOND AVE, NYC / LOWER EAST SIDE
TUES APRIL 3, 2018 / 7:30 PM
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: ca. 75 min.
read more: DAN ASHER SCREENING – ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVE
This program of videos is presented on the occasion of a solo show of large paintings, smaller drawings & small table-top clay sculptures . . .
‘DAN ASHER – AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS’ . . now up at MARTOS GALLERY, 41 Elizabeth St, Chinatown . . thru APRIL 22.
DAN ASHER, ‘Untitled (self-portrait)’, color photo print, 11 x 14 in.
signed & dated on the back: 1998 / Dan was always in search of . . shamans. literally.
Collection: NANCY SMITH
I was Dan’s studio assistant when he was printing up a series of photos, mostly based on his travels to Antarctica.
I got paid in cash (and well !!), sushi . . & art work !!
Dan was rolling in cash then, mid-1990s. he had just inherited something like $200,000, or was it $400,000 . . when his mom died. needless to say, it was all gone by the end of the decade.
Simon (Cerigo) actually put $100,000 of it into Apple stock in 1996, but Dan quickly converted it into penny stocks and lost it all.
Dan would have been . . a millionaire, many many times over, if he had just left it alone, but no matter how much both of us screamed at him, trying to get through his stubborn, obstinate ways . . . he would just respond: ‘It’s my money, I’ll do what I want.’
end story; he was desperately broke, and became very sick at the end.
DAN ASHER, b. 1947, Cleveland, Ohio. d. 2010 New York City.
but, I’d rather leave this following story of his stubbornness, as part of his colorful legacy.
Dan left high school, in what must have been the late 1960s, to follow & photograph . . . Bob Marley.
much against his parents wishes, of course.
the box of black & white photos, which he brought with him to New York, got lost at a party early into the 1980s. flash forward more than 25 years later, sometime in early 2000, he was at another party – when a girl he used to know, comes up to him and says . . “I just found your Bob Marley photos in my closet.”
he promptly sold the bunch to the Marley estate for $100,000 on the spot.
that was Dan.
a little bit of magic and a lot of stubborn / sometimes it set fires, and sometimes it . . flamed out.
DAN ASHER, ‘Iceberg’ color photo print.
16 x 20 in. // signed & dated 2000 on the back.
Collection: NANCY SMITH