Palm Beach Daily News
January 2010
Russell Young exhibit showcases 'diamond dusted' Hollywood icons at DJT Fine Art Palm Beach
By ANGIE GIACOMAN FAJARDO
Internationally acclaimed British pop artist Russell Young brings the glamour of Hollywood to DJT Fine Art Gallery in Palm Beach with his exhibition "Icon: Diamond Dust Paintings." Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Kurt Cobain and Marlon Brando are among the iconic celebrity subjects of Young's exhibit.
These silk-screen images are sprinkled with "diamond dust."
"I like how the diamond dust sparkles and how when you walk past it, it shines," said Sam Gordon, 11, whose art-collector father, Lee, owns one of Young's Diamond Dust pieces.
"I have never seen such a striking show in Palm Beach which exhibits just one artist," Lee Gordon said. "It's something you would typically see more in New York, not here."
As dozens appreciated his works at the Jan. 15 opening of the exhibit, Young signed copies of the book Dirty Pretty Things. All proceeds from the books' sale went to the Katherine M. Taglialatella Foundation, an organization dedicated to furthering the education of minority children of single parents.
The foundation was started by DJT owner Dominic J. Taglialatella, an art collector who turned his passion into a business.
"Those who start possessing art later become possessed," he said. "Once you start collecting, it becomes a fever."
More than four decades ago, he was president of a rubber company based in Holland. "As a young man in Holland, I was amazed how much people knew about art and how little I did," he said. His frequent visits ignited a passion for art.
He began collecting CoBrA art: expressionist art from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. "I then began to spend more time learning, speaking and thinking about art than I did about my job," he said.
He sold his business and opened his first art gallery in New York City in 1981. He currently owns two fine art galleries, in New York City and Palm Beach.
The Palm Beach gallery opened about a year ago on Worth Avenue.
"Many galleries have come to Palm Beach because people have always had a discerning eye for art," said Sherry Frankel, president of the Worth Avenue Association. "DJT Fine Art, like many other galleries on the Avenue, offers something unique and interesting to all their visitors."
What Taglialatella enjoys most about having a gallery in Palm Beach is that he can get back to his passion for art.
"In New York, people are always in a rush," he said. "Friends or clients pull up and say 'I have five minutes.' Here, in Palm Beach, they are more relaxed. They come in and sit down and we can talk about art."
Taglialatella loves to educate. In December he lectured to the Palm Beach Flagler Rotary Club.
"He is very knowledgeable about art," said Brandy Stephenson, a staffer at The Society of the Four Arts who attended the Rotary lecture. "He is an approachable interactive educator and eliminates the fear of what art is." DJT is one of her favorite galleries on the Avenue because its staff are warm and welcoming, she said.
DJT Fine Art focuses on modern and contemporary masters from America and Europe with a spotlight on the pop art movement. Its price range is from $2,500 to $400,000. Young's pieces range from $2,500 to $20,000, depending on the medium.
Taglialatella said he was drawn to Young's work, "a Marilyn will always be a Marilyn. It's not the icon that's important; it's the artist's technique. Once you see one of Russell Young's pieces, no matter where you go you know who the artist is. You can feel it, you can sense it, and that is the key to greatness."
Young photographed celebrities for more than 20 years, among them George Michael, Morrissey, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. He also directed hundreds of music videos. Looking for direction at one point, Young said, he went to Tuscany, sat on a hill and thought about what he wanted to do with his life. "At age 4, I wanted to be an artist, a clown or a space man. I've been a clown most of my life and if I own enough money I can go off into space, so I thought: Let's be an artist."
He first thought he would create abstract art, but decades of looking at lights, darks, shades, negatives and silkscreen paintings of images from history and pop culture ended up shaping his style.
Young keeps his process of creating the diamond dust screen-prints secret, but revealed that his works are hand-pulled on the sister press used by Andy Warhol. "Some of the screens I used were like Warhol's old screens," he said. The diamond dust part came when he found a bag of diamond dust in his Brooklyn studio.
"We worked our magic and it worked. We don't throw the diamond dust on: Tinker Bell does it," he said. "We close the studio at night, leave it out for her, come in the morning, and there you have diamond dust paintings."