|
|
|
LA
Times
By Forrest Lee
Artist's generosity is the heart of the matter
While
many kids his age played stickball and pursued other typical youthful
passions, 8-year-old Steve Kaufman was painting. Eventually, Kaufman's
childhood fancy turned into a lifelong obsession. At 19, the native
New Yorker got the break of a lifetime, although he didn't realize
it at the time. He landed a job as a studio assistant for famed
"pop" artist Andy Warhol. Despite Kaufman's interest
in art, however, the teenager had never heard of Warhol.
"I didn't know who he was for six months," Kaufman recalled
recently. "All I knew was he wasn't paying me. He'd leave
every Friday and head for the Hamptons. After a while I'd say,
"Hey where's my money?" If the job with Warhol didn't
pay much in the way of a steady salary, his year-and-a-half experience
with the late artist paid dividends in other ways.
Following in Warhol's footsteps, Kaufman has produced an extensive
collection of celebrity portraits of his own that feature such
luminaries as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Frank Sinatra, John Travolta,
Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, among others.
Kaufman, a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York,
was the first American artist to be asked to paint a Van Gogh
portrait for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. He's received a
"Picasso Ring" from The Picasso Academy of Fine Arts,
an award given annually to the artist that best exhibits the spirit
of the legendary painter. And, he's produced works for AIDS Awareness,
Woodstock, Campbell Soup's 100-th anniversary and murals promoting
racial harmony.
So what's this guy's claim to fame with the Love Ride? Kaufman,
40, as he has done for several years, is donating one of his silk-screen
oil works for an auction during the Love Ride. The money will
be donated to charity. His handouts for which he is famous-for,
folks who know Kaufman say he's literally taken one of his colorful
leather coats off his back given it away-are frequent occurrences.
But Kaufman's contributions aren't limited to charity. Besides
supporting more than 170 charities, Kaufman hires ex-gang members
and troubled youths to work at his studio. Since 1995, he's hired
more than 600.
"One day I went to look at this building to rent and this
guy wouldn't rent it because there were gang members holed up
in there," Kaufman said. He said "You don't understand,
this is where they hang out.' I didn't care. The price was right,
so I ended up buying the place. So when I went in there to clean
up, there is like 18 or 20 kids there. We started giving them
brooms.
Oh, we got some resistance. But I’m from New York, so……..After
they finished, we paid them. They kept coming back." That
was in 1993. Since then, Kaufman has made of those young men the
focal point of his operation. |
|
| 
All images are copyright from 1993 to 2008, and Trademark, all images are licensed, 151 licensed by photos and estates, CMG, Marilyn Monroe estate, James Dean estate, Frank Sinatra, Elivs estate, Corbis, Warner Brothers, Disney, Coca Cola, Marvel comics, Mickey Mantle, Old Movie poster Inc, Exotic cars Inc, MTV, VH -1, Jimmy Hendrix voda, Pespi, Apple, Muhammad Ali, M Benz, Ferrari, BMW & Nascar.
|
|
|
