Comments on: A Rebellious Sensuality: Jene Highstein, 1942 – 2013 https://artcritical.com/2013/05/04/jene-highstein-2/ Sun, 26 May 2013 21:33:18 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 By: Mac Adams https://artcritical.com/2013/05/04/jene-highstein-2/#comment-37903 Sun, 26 May 2013 21:33:18 +0000 https://www.artcritical.com/?p=30810#comment-37903 I met Jene back in 1978 in Milan Italy, I believe he was doing a show with salvatore Ala I was showing with Francoise Lambert. We were at some party I suddenly discovered I had no Italian money and no idea how to get back to my hotel. I had only spoken to him a few words ,discovering my plight he gave me the money for a cab. I was very touched by this generosity. Since then whenever we saw each other I always felt a close bond. I was a huge fan of his work. I say this very rarely, sometimes you come across an artist you feel this is the real deal, Jene was most certainly the real deal in every way. He will be terribly missed.

]]> By: Alain Kirili https://artcritical.com/2013/05/04/jene-highstein-2/#comment-35295 Sat, 04 May 2013 15:37:17 +0000 https://www.artcritical.com/?p=30810#comment-35295 I knew Jene for almost forty years. We have been in countless group shows together in New York as well as in Europe. In particular we were in the 1976 inaugural show of PS1 entitled “Rooms PS1.” It was a great moment where artists were creating on site and we could share the progress of the work in a raw space. There was a feeling of being part of a circuit independent of commercial and institutional forces. We kept our friendship based also on our common love for interactions in the arts. Jene loved to work for theatre, dance, and music. Ariane and I as well have been supporting for many years Free Jazz and contemporary music in dialogue with visual arts.

I was so pleased that Jene accepted to be part of our performance series and installed a sculpture in our loft on April 10, 2011 with the great musician Jon Gibson on winds. It was a success.

Recently I saw his last show “The Cape Breton Drawings” at the ArtHelix gallery in Bushwick curated by Bonnie Rychlak. Peter Hopkins, the Director of the gallery, told me how happy Jene was to show in Bushwick and be supportive of this new neighborhood art scene: this gives so much fresh energy to New York.
I saw the show with my friend Francis Greenburger who acquired two drawings. We spoke about a project Jene had in mind for an installation at Art-OMI. I sincerely wish that this project could be realized.

Later in February he came with his wife Kitty and Lily Wei to have dinner at our home. He told us immediately that he had cancer but he was sure that the chemotherapy would help considerably. He was expecting to go back to Cape Breton, which was so inspiring for him, for the summer and to spend time there with his cousin, Philip Glass. In my studio he loved my recent drawings and we decided to do an exchange. Ariane took a memorable photo, which I will of course always cherish.

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