His celebrity portraits were a revelation, although I didn't recognize some of them.
Scharf painted
Peter Brant's wife not long after they married.
He definitely ran with an artsy crowd in both the East Village and Los Angeles, his hometown.
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| "And the Winner is . . . or Ann Magnuson in Vulcan Vixen" (2001) |
For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, Scharf's kaleidoscopic take on pop culture appeals to me more now than it did at the time he was most prolific. He had a thing for
the Jetsons, that's for sure.
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| "Judy's Mandala" (1981) |
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| "Tantric Judy" (1982) |
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| "The Jungle" (1982) |
You can see glimpse this work from East 7th Street, where it hangs just inside the building's exit, looking like an hallucinogenic aquarium.
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| Untitled (1982) |
I figured the
D-Girls would embrace Scharf's bright hues and smiles but they were mostly rebuffed ("What IS that?"). Too unfamiliar and intense, I guess.
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| "Sexadansa" (1983) |
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| "The Fun's Inside" (1983) |
Now that I think about it, the "unseriousness" of Scharf's work in the 80s may have been at odds with the tenor of the times: expressions of child-like joy did nothing to help dispel the threat of a mysterious, fatal disease. Did I sense his heterosexuality unfairly protected him?
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| "Felix on a Pedestal" (1982) & "Bougalinga Palladiumo" (1985-86) |
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| "Jungle Juice" (1984) |
Not that Scharf's gay-friendliness ever was in question. Ya gotta love his self-propelling heels.
His appliance and car embellishments not so much
. . . although the view north from the Brant sets off this TV nicely
. . . and this bike photo will make an excellent addition to my collection.
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