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Suzanne Mallouk

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Suzanne Mallouk
Born (1960-09-10) September 10, 1960 (age 63)
Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
EducationHunter College
St. George's University School of Medicine
William Alanson White Institute
Occupation(s)Psychiatrist
Psychoanalyst
Painter

Suzanne Mallouk (born September 10, 1960) is a Canadian-born painter, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, based in New York City. She is best known for her role within a core of East Village creatives in the 1980s and for her relationship with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, much of which her friend Jennifer Clement chronicled in Widow Basquiat: A Memoir. In 2015, Vogue magazine listed Basquiat and Mallouk among "The 21 Most Stylish Art World Couples of All Time."[1]

Mallouk was also involved in the pursuit of justice for the death of Michael Stewart, a boyfriend of hers and a fatality of police brutality in 1983. In 1985, Mallouk had a one-woman show at the Vox Populi Gallery in the East Village. She also had a brief music career as singer and songwriter, performing under the stage name Ruby Desire. From 1990 to 2005, she pursued higher education and became a Doctor of Medicine with a specialty in psychiatry.

Life and career

Mallouk was born in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, on September 10, 1960. Her Palestinian father and British mother, a naval officer, met and married in Beirut before moving to Canada.[2] As a teenager, Suzanne became involved with the 1970s Punk movement. Taken with Iggy Pop, in particular, and inspired by the book Rene Ricard: 1979–1980, she moved to New York City to become an artist, following art school at H.B. Beal in London, Ontario.[3][4]

Mallouk arrived in Manhattan on Valentine's Day in 1980 and spent the night at the Seville Hotel before relocating to the Martha Washington Hotel.[5] Upon her arrival, she developed an anonymous phone relationship with poet Rene Ricard, whose number she had found in the phone book.[6] Mallouk worked as a waitress at Max's Kansas City, then as a cigarette girl at the Ritz.[7]

While tending bar at Night Birds, in the East Village, she met Jean-Michel Basquiat.[8] From 1981 to 1983, they had an on-again, off-again relationship, remaining friends until his death, in 1988.[8][9] He had moved into her apartment in 1981, and she supported him financially while he focused on painting.[10] In 1982, she and Basquiat moved into a loft provided by gallerist Annina Nosei in SoHo.[8] Mallouk witnessed his transition from penniless artist to millionaire.[8] Basquiat referred to her as "Venus" in his paintings, as, for example, in A Panel of Experts (1982), which depicts a fight between Mallouk and Madonna, his girlfriend at the time.[11] "Venus" is also labelled in the drawing Cheese Popcorn (1982);[12] and Mallouk is depicted in the drawings Self Portrait with Suzanne (1982) and Big Shoes (1983).[13]

Mallouk was dating aspiring artist and model Michael Stewart at the time of his death from police brutality in 1983.[10][14][15] Stewart, an African-American man, had been detained by the New York City Transit Police for writing graffiti in the subway and was brought to Bellevue Hospital battered.[16][17] Mallouk went to the hospital with Stewart's family; she took photos of him as he lay in a coma and gave them to the press.[18] Stewart died from his injuries on September 28, 1983, 13 days after his arrest, at age 25.[19] Mallouk helped organize the Michael Stewart Justice Committee. "I hired his legal team, raising money from the arts community," she said.[20] "I went to every gallery that was showing graffiti art and asked for donations. I also got a large donation from Keith Haring, who gave the money from a sale of one of his paintings. Madonna did a show at Danceteria and donated all the proceeds."[20] The officers arrested in connection with Stewart's death were acquitted of all charges in November 1985.[19]

Mallouk worked for designer Maripol at Fiorucci.[21] She posed for the Italian painter Francesco Clemente, and three of the paintings were shown at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich for Collaborations: Basquiat, Clemente, Warhol in 1984.[22][23] She was also photographed by Andy Warhol and these photographs are in the Andy Warhol Museum Archive. From February 9 – March 7, 1985, Mallouk had a solo exhibition at Colin de Land's Vox Populi Gallery on East 6th Street in the East Village.[24][25] Later that year, she participated in the 92nd Street Y's "Artists' Hospitality Tour," where she discussed the development of her work with tourists in her studio.[26] Her work is now held in private collections internationally and at the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection in Hokuto, Japan.[27]

In the late 1980s, Mallouk performed under the name Ruby Desire at nightclubs such as Area, Madam Rosa's, and Palladium.[6] She was signed to Les Disques Du Crépuscule and released a cover of Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" in 1987.[28] Mallouk co-wrote the song "Like This Like That" by Madagascar, which was released on Capitol Records in 1988. With Capitol Records, she toured Europe as the song climbed the British dance charts. After the tour, she decided to leave the music business, to go to school, as she worked as a bartender as the Tunnel nightclub.[29]

The death of Basquiat in August 1988 and the AIDS epidemic were catalysts for Mallouk to leave the East Village.[30] She went on to receive a bachelor's degree in psychology and chemistry from Hunter College in New York.[31] In 2001, she graduated from St. George's University School of Medicine in Grenada, British West Indies.[32] She completed her internship in internal medicine and residency in general psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and became a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association after completing psychoanalytic training at the William Alanson White Institute, in New York City. Mallouk continues to paint, and has a private practice in New York City as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.[33]

Claire Forlani as Gina Cardinale in the Julian Schnabel film Basquiat (1996) is a composite of Basquiat's girlfriends, including Mallouk.[34]

Widow Basquiat

In 2000, Mallouk's close friend Jennifer Clement published Widow Basquiat: A Memoir, a poetic memoir about Mallouk's relationship with Basquiat—told from Mallouk's perspective.[6][4] The book was "inspired by" Mallouk's own writings and stories.[35] "Widow Basquiat" was a nickname Rene Ricard gave to Mallouk years before Basquiat's death.[30] The first American edition was released as Widow Basquiat: A Love Story in 2014.[36]

Discography

  • 1987: Ruby Desire – "Bad Girls" (Interior Music IM002)
  • 1989: Madagascar – "Like This Like That" from the compilation Black Havana (Capitol CDP 7 90923 2) (credited as Desire)

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Borrelli-Persson, Laird (May 15, 2015). "The 21 Most Stylish Art World Couples of All Time: From Frida and Diego to Basquiat and Suzanne Mallouk". Vogue. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  2. ^ Clement 2014, p. 8
  3. ^ Clement 2014, p. 19
  4. ^ a b Reynolds, Mark (February 23, 2015). "The Woman Who Had the Front-Row Seat to the Height of Basquiat's Career". Pop Matters. Retrieved 2021-01-02. Originally published in England in 2000, Widow Basquiat begins as the life story of Canadian-born Suzanne Mallouk. Her mother was a nursery school teacher who took in troubled children and draft dodgers. Her father was a self-made man who beat Suzanne and her siblings. At some point, she became enamored of Iggy Pop, and for that reason chose New York as the place she bolted to in 1980 once she decided to leave home.
  5. ^ Clement 2014, p. 21
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Miles Marshall (July 17, 2001). "Portrait of the Artist's Girlfriend". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2021-01-01. Both Jean-Michel and Suzanne left home at 15.
  7. ^ Clement 2014, p. 24
  8. ^ a b c d "The Jean-Michel Basquiat I knew…". the Guardian. September 3, 2017. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  9. ^ "Opinion | The Sale of a Basquiat". The New York Times. May 19, 2017. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  10. ^ a b Haden-Guest, Anthony (November 1988). "Burning Out". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  11. ^ Clement 2014, p. 106
  12. ^ "Spotlight: Jean-Michel in Black and White". Gagosian Quarterly. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  13. ^ Hoban, Phoebe (1998). Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art. New York: Viking. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-670-85477-6.
  14. ^ McClinton, Dream (June 28, 2019). "Defacement: the tragic story of Basquiat's most personal painting". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  15. ^ Fretz, Eric (2010). Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography. ABC-CLIO. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-313-38056-3.
  16. ^ Nielson, Erik (September 16, 2013). "'It Could Have Been Me': The 1983 Death Of A NYC Graffiti Artist". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  17. ^ Roberts, Sam (September 29, 1983). "Death Stirs Police Brutality Charges". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  18. ^ Clement 2014, p. 118
  19. ^ a b "The Case of Michael Stewart, the New York Artist Some Say Was Sentenced to Death for Drawing on Subway Tile". Inside Edition. December 19, 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  20. ^ a b Barker, Matt (July 15, 2019). "The brutal death that politicised New York's art world". BBC. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  21. ^ Clement 2014, p. 117
  22. ^ Clement 2014, p. 146
  23. ^ Willett, Edward (2010). Andy Warhol: Everyone Will be Famous for 15 Minutes. Enslow Publishing, LLC. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-7660-3385-6.
  24. ^ Raynor, Vivien; Grundberg, Andy (February 15, 1985). "The Downtown Scene: A Aample of What's New and Still Fresh South of 14th Street". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  25. ^ "Vox Populi, Suzanne Mallouk, Folded Card, 1985". Gallery 98. 2018-05-16. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  26. ^ Bennetts, Leslie (September 27, 1985). "Weekend Guide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  27. ^ "スザンヌ・マルーク Suzanne Mallouk 作品展示 ｜ お知らせ/イベント ｜ 小淵沢アート＆ウェルネス" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  28. ^ Clement 2014, p. 166
  29. ^ Clement 2014, p. 174
  30. ^ a b Clement, Jennifer (2014). Widow Basquiat: a love story (First American ed.). New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 978-0-553-41991-7. OCLC 881824199.
  31. ^ "The Mudd Club Reunion: Suzanne Mallouk and Rodrigo Salomon". Robert Carrithers. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  32. ^ "Dr. Suzanne Mallouk, MD | New York, NY | Healthgrades". www.healthgrades.com. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  33. ^ Clement 2014, p. 179
  34. ^ Berger, Doris (2014). Projected Art History: Biopics, Celebrity Culture, and the Popularizing of American Art. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 285. ISBN 978-1-62356-032-4.
  35. ^ Walker, Rebecca (February 9, 2014). "From Muse To Outcast, A Woman Comes Of Age In 'Widow Basquiat'". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2021-01-01. She chronicles her close friend Suzanne Mallouk's love affair with Basquiat in elegant, spare, riveting prose, and constructs a textured narrative Mallouk describes as "inspired by" her own writings and stories. Drawing from Mallouk's memories Clement takes us from innocent crush to live-in-lover, from muse and confidant to outcast: collateral damage of Basquiat's drug habit and suffocating paranoia.
  36. ^ "What It Was Like to Be Basquiat's Lover". Vulture. December 15, 2014. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
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