Christopher Walken played him in the movie Basquiat, but the creative life of Marc H. Miller transcends that singular moment via his website, 98 Bowery.
Landing a loft on NYC’s infamous Bowery in the late ’60s, Miller blossomed as an artist, curator, journalist, and publisher. After organizing the very first punk art exhibition in 1978, he migrated to Amsterdam and shot Polaroid portraits in the red-light district, before returning to the Bowery to make videos about artists, write a column for the East Village Eye, and organize museum shows — a lifestyle that’s now amusingly and thoroughly documented online.
Explore the 98 Bowery site, watch videos of Miller selling Polaroids in Amsterdam’s red-light district bars, check out the making of a paparazzi portrait of Screw magazine publisher Al Goldstein from the artist’s Vimeo archive, and read an article about his controversial video interview with Jean-Michel Basquiat in Interview magazine.
Click through below for a gallery of historical images from the site.
The Door at 98 Bowery (photo by Curt Hoppe), Courtesy 98Bowery.com
From “Write a Word,” 1972 (poet Billy Collins in a conceptual art piece by Marc H. Miller), Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Draw a Penis and Vagina, 1976-1976, Courtesy 98Bowery.com
American Air Strike in Vietnam, from “Unforgettable Moments Drawn by Real Life People” by Marc H. Miller and Bettie Ringma, c. 1980. Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Marc Miller with composer John Cage, (from the series “Paparazzi Self-Portraits”), 1975. Courtesy 98Bowery.com
The Ramones autograph Curt Hoppe’s painting Bettie & the Ramones, 1978 (a multi-media Paparazzi Self- Portrait by Miller, Ringma & Hoppe)
Washington Project for the Arts director Alice Denny in a publicity still for the exhibition Punk Art, 1978, Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Punk Art, catalogue published by Washington Project for the Arts, 1978 (cover design by Miller, Ringma & Hoppe). Courtesy 98Bowery.com
X Motion Picture Magazine, February 1978, a publication by Collaborative Projects Inc (Colab), (from Punk Art, Washington Projects for the Arts, 1978), Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Bettie & Ko from “Amsterdam Prive," 1980 (Part of a collection of pictures assembled during the year Marc H. Miller and Bettie Ringma sold Polaroid portraits in the Bars and Cafes of Amsterdam, Holland), Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Outside ABC No Rio (photo by Bobby G), from Alan Moore & Marc H. Miller (editors), ABC No Rio Dinero; the Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery, 1985. Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Real Estate Show, poster by Becky Howland, 1980, from Alan Moore & Marc H. Miller (editors), ABC No Rio Dinero; the Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery, 1985. Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Voices from 98 Bowery, Telephone Answering Machine Messages, 1982-87, Courtesy 98Bowery.com
Jean-Michel Basquiat interviewed by Marc H. Miller, 1982 from ART/new york, A Video Magazine on Art (produced by Paul Tschinkel), Courtesy 98Bowery.com