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Glenn O'Brien

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Glenn O'Brien
Portrait photograph of Glenn O'Brien, a middle-aged man with light hair wearing a dark shirt and dark jacket
O'Brien in 2015
BornMarch 2, 1947
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedApril 7, 2017(2017-04-07) (aged 70)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Alma mater
Notable awardsNamed one of Top 10 Most Stylish Men in America by GQ
Spouse
  • Jude Jade
  • Barbara Egan
  • Gina Nanni (m. 1999)
Children2

Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in GQ magazine and published a book with that title. He worked as a writer and editor at a number of publications, including Rolling Stone, Playboy, Interview, High Times, Spin, and Details.[1] He also published the arts and literature magazine Bald Ego from 2003 to 2005.

Life and career

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O'Brien was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended the Jesuit St. Ignatius High School. O'Brien went to Georgetown University and edited the Georgetown Journal, which was founded by Condé Nast.[2] O'Brien later studied film at the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[3]

In his early career, O'Brien was a member of Andy Warhol's Factory. He was one of the first editors of Warhol's Interview magazine.[4] Bob Colacello, his classmate and the editor of Interview, hired him as an associate editor.[5] O'Brien significantly extended the magazine's content beyond film by including fashion and music.[5] He worked with artist Richard Bernstein to produce the elegant new Interview logo, which is still in use today.[5] From early 1972 to the summer of 1973, O'Brien took over Colacello's role as the managing editor of Interview.[6][7]

After his departure for Rolling Stone magazine, he continued to write for Interview and returned as editor several times.[6] He was a music critic for the publication in the punk era for which he penned the column "Glenn O'Brien's Beat" for 12 years.[8]

The Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers (1971) features an image photographed by Warhol of O'Brien in his underwear on the inner layer of the front cover that was revealed upon unzipping the original jacket's physical zipper.[9]

In the late 1970s, O'Brien had a band called Konelrad, which he described as a "socialist-realist rock band".[10]

From 1978 to 1982, O'Brien hosted a New York city Public-access television cable TV show called TV Party.[11][12][13] During this period, O'Brien edited several iconic downtown novels, including Kathy Acker's Blood and Guts in High School[14] and The Correct Sadist by Terence Sellers.[15]

In 1980, he wrote the screenplay (which he also co-produced with Patrick Montgomery) for a film to be called New York Beat, starring Jean-Michel Basquiat[16] It was released in 2000 as Downtown 81, with post-production managed by O'Brien and Maripol.[17] In June 1980, O'Brien's article "Graffiti '80: The State of the Outlaw Art" was published in High Times magazine. It was the first major survey of the burgeoning graffiti art scene, which featured Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy and Lee Quiñones.[18] O'Brien has a cameo appearance as an art dealer in the hip-hop film Wild Style.

After leaving TV Party, in addition to continuing his writing career, he attempted a stint as a stand-up comedian, and was a contributing editor of Allure, Harper's Bazaar, and Creative Director of advertising at Barneys New York.[19] For 10 years, he wrote a monthly column for Artforum magazine. O'Brien edited Madonna's 1992 Sex book.[19] He had been introduced to Madonna a decade prior through her relationship with Basquiat.[1][20] He also worked with her on The Girlie Show World Tour book in 1993.[21]

In January 2008, he was named editorial director of Brant Publications, which included Interview Magazine as well as Art in America and Antiques.[22] In June 2009, it was announced that he had left his position with Brant Publications.[4]

He lent his collection of early Basquiat works to various exhibitions, including Deitch Projects,[23] and co-authored a major volume on the artist.[24]

Death

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O'Brien died of complications from pneumonia in Manhattan on April 7, 2017, at the age of 70.[19][25] Following the news of his death, Madonna called O'Brien "an amazing soul and a creative genius" in a statement on Twitter.[26]

Personal life

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O'Brien's first wife, Judy, went by the name Jude Jade as a reference to the Beatles song "Hey Jude."[5] She was an intern at Interview magazine while O'Brien was an editor.[5] They had a son, Terence O'Brien Pincus.[4] His second marriage was to artist and designer Barbara Egan.[10] In 1999, O'Brien married his third wife, publicist Gina Nanni.[27][28][4] The couple had a son, Oscar Lucien O'Brien.[27]

Awards and honors

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On February 17, 2009, O'Brien was named one of Top 10 Most Stylish Men in America by GQ.[29]

Published works

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  • O'Brien, Glenn; Bertoglio, Edo (December 1, 2001). New York Beat: Jean-Michael Basquiat Downtown 81. Tokyo: Petit Grand. ISBN 978-4-939102-22-6.
  • Demarchelier, Patrick; O'Brien, Glenn (October 20, 1995). Patrick Demarchelier: Photographs. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-8212-2169-3.
  • O'Brien, Glenn (2000). The Style Guy. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-42727-4.
  • Lowit, Roxanne; O'Brien, Glenn (January 28, 2005). People. Assouline. ISBN 978-2-84323-286-2.
  • O'Brien, Glenn, ed. (September 25, 2005). Sante D'Orazio: Pam: American Icon. Jeff Koons and Richard Prince. Prestel Publishing. ISBN 978-3-8296-0187-0.
  • O'Brien, Glenn (November 30, 2010). Jean-Michel Basquiat. Jean-Louis Prat and Susanne Reichling. Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-7757-2593-4.
  • O'Brien, Glenn (2011). How to Be a Man: A Guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentleman. Rizzoli. ISBN 978-0-8478-3547-8.
  • O'Brien, Glenn, ed. (2013). The Cool School: Writing from America's Hip Underground. Library of America. ISBN 978-1-59853-256-2.
  • Snow, Dash (July 31, 2013). O'Brien, Glenn (ed.). Dash Snow: I Love You, Stupid. Mary Hansen. D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers. ISBN 978-1-938922-14-5.
  • Inez van Lamsweerde/Vinoodh Matadin. Pretty Much Everything. M/M (design). Taschen America, LLC. November 15, 2013. ISBN 978-3-8365-2793-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • O'Brien, Glenn, ed. (November 30, 2013). Eddie Martinez: Paintings. Ross Simonini; Monica Ramirez-Montagut. PictureBox. ISBN 978-1-939799-06-7.
  • Mark Grotjahn: Masks. Dakin Hart. Rizzoli. October 27, 2015. ISBN 978-0-8478-4407-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Berluti: At Their Feet. Mathias Augustyniask (illustrator); Erwan Frotin (photographer); M/M (Paris) (design). Rizzoli. 2016. ISBN 978-0-8478-4917-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Hennessy, a Toast to the World's Preeminent Spirit. Jean-Philippe Delhomme (illustrator). Rizzoli. February 14, 2017. ISBN 978-0-8478-4752-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • O'Brien, Glenn (May 23, 2017). Like Art: Glenn O'Brien on Advertising. Karma, New York. ISBN 978-1-942607-48-9.
  • Chris Martin. Dan Nadel; Nancy Princenthal; Trinie Dalton. Rizzoli. November 28, 2017. ISBN 978-88-572-3474-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

References

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  1. ^ a b Lawrence, Josh (November 14, 1996). "Glenn O'Brien: Pop-Cultural Attache". The East Hampton Star. Archived from the original on December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  2. ^ Kreps, Daniel (April 7, 2017). "Glenn O'Brien, Writer and Punk Renaissance Man, Dead at 70". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 23, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  3. ^ "Glennobrien.com". Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d Williams, Alex (April 7, 2017). "Glenn O'Brien, Writer and Editor Who Gained Fame With Warhol, Dies at 70". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e Colacello, Bob (April 10, 2017). "Remembering Glenn O'Brien, Before and After Andy Warhol". Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Colacello, Bob (December 1989). "Interview—Back To The Future?". Vanity Fair. Vol. 52, no. 12. pp. 134, 140.
  7. ^ Colacello, Bob (1990). Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up. New York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 104, 138. ISBN 978-0-8041-6986-8.
  8. ^ "Glenn O'Brien: The Book on Men and Style". IrishCentral.com. April 28, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  9. ^ Getlen, Larry (June 6, 2015). "So About That Rolling Stones' Cover: Whose Crotch Is It Anyway?". Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  10. ^ a b "Glenn O'Brien (1947–2017)". Artforum. April 7, 2017. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  11. ^ Boch, Richard (2017). The Mudd Club. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. pp. 246–247. ISBN 978-1-62731-051-2. OCLC 972429558.
  12. ^ "TV Party". Archived from the original on May 10, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
  13. ^ Curley, Mallory, A Cookie Mueller Encyclopedia (Randy Press, 2010), p. 352.
  14. ^ Walker, Sybil. "Kathy Acker" (PDF). p. 28. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2016.
  15. ^ @lordrochester (January 27, 2016). "RIP Terence Sellers. I edited her memoir, the Correct Sadist, at her dungeon. I asked to see her work. She told a bound client I was a cop" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2024 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ "New York Beat Movie (1981)". IMDb. Archived from the original on May 4, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
  17. ^ Lockwood, Lisa (April 8, 2017). "Glenn O'Brien, Who Once Wrote GQ's Style Guy Column, Dies at 70". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 9, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  18. ^ O'Brien, Glenn (June 1980). "Graffiti '80: The State of the Outlaw Art". High Times: 53–54.
  19. ^ a b c Strauss, Matthew (April 7, 2017). "Glenn O'Brien, Writer and "TV Party" Host, Dead at 70". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on April 8, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  20. ^ "Interview With Glenn O'Brien – Also Starring Madonna, Basquiat, Viva and Warhol". Flux Magazine. November 26, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  21. ^ Hoskyns, Barney (August 4, 2003). The Sound and the Fury: 40 Years of Classic Rock Journalism: A Rock's Backpages Reader. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-58234-282-5.
  22. ^ Haden-Guest, Anthony. "Anthony Haden-Guest Interviews Glenn O'Brien, the New Editor of Andy Warhol's Legendary Interview Magazine". Saatchi Online.
  23. ^ "Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1981: The Studio of the Street". Deitch Projects. May 2006. Archived from the original on November 6, 2010.
  24. ^ Deitch, Jeffrey; Cortez, Diego; O'Brien, Glenn (2007). Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981: The Studio of the Street. Milan: Charta. ISBN 978-88-8158-625-7. Archived from the original on March 5, 2010.
  25. ^ "Writer, Warhol Associate and TV Party Host Glenn O'Brien Dies Aged 70". The Guardian. April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  26. ^ @Madonna (April 7, 2017). "Say Good-bye to an Amazing Soul and a Creative Genius! 💘 God Bless You Glenn O'Brien. 🙏🏻" (Tweet). Retrieved April 7, 2017 – via Twitter.
  27. ^ a b Yablonsky, Linda (April 11, 2017). "Glenn O'Brien Could Do Everything Except Live Forever". W Magazine. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  28. ^ Rea, Naomi (January 31, 2022). "What I Buy and Why: Publicist Gina Nanni on Building a Storied Collection With the Late Glenn O'Brien and Her Volatile Tom Sachs Work". Artnet News. Archived from the original on December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  29. ^ "The 10 Most Stylish Men in America". New York Daily News. February 17, 2009. Archived from the original on April 14, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2009.
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