{"title":"Max Blagg","description":"\u003cp\u003eMax Blagg (born 1946) is a British-born poet and writer based in New York whose work moves between performance poetry, fiction and cultural journalism. He came to prominence in the downtown Manhattan scene of the 1980s and 1990s, performing at venues including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and collaborating with artists, musicians and filmmakers across the New York underground. With Glenn O’Brien he co-founded \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e, an art and literary magazine distributed by D.A.P. that assembled visual artists, writers and musicians across the boundaries of the art world and popular culture. Blagg has also worked extensively in advertising and commercial writing.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"bald-ego-jack-spade-obrien-blagg-2004","title":"BALD EGO NO. 3 \/ JACK SPADE, Glenn O’Brien and Max Blagg, eds., 2004","description":"\u003cp\u003eSoftcover magazine with mixed-media cover: printed paper, acetate and applied real fur. Bald Ego Publishing, distributed by D.A.P., New York. 200 pp., illustrated throughout. ISBN 1-56466-120-2. Original cover price $15.00.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA particularly strong issue of \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e in which the magazine effectively gives its own identity away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFounded by Glenn O’Brien and Max Blagg, \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e occupied the unstable territory between art magazine, literary publication, fashion object and downtown New York publishing. For this issue, that instability became the cover itself. The usual \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e masthead disappears. JACK SPADE takes its place, while \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e survives only on the spine and in the coverline: “Bald Ego sells out!”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe substitution was deliberate, and D.A.P.’s own catalogue copy for the issue confirms the terms of it directly: “Jack Spade transformed the cover into a readymade.” O’Brien later described the mechanics himself — Andy Spade, founder of Jack Spade and husband of Kate Spade, had developed a running practice of placing the Jack Spade name onto businesses he did not own, including a favourite barbershop and a Houston Street bar, describing the activity as a “commercial readymade” and consciously invoking Duchamp. \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e became another site for the gesture: according to O’Brien, they simply put “Jack Spade” where their own logo normally appeared.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe joke is better than a conventional collaboration because it operates directly through authorship and ownership. Jack Spade does not merely advertise in the magazine. For the duration of the cover, the brand becomes the magazine. The publication retains its material identity while its public name is reassigned. The cover makes that exchange physical: a tuft of real fur sits beneath acetate while the Jack Spade name occupies the authoritative masthead position. Brand, magazine, advertisement and artwork begin to collapse into one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe roster inside makes the gesture land harder. Contributors include Richard Prince, Elizabeth Peyton, John Lurie, Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli, Keith Sonnier, Jack Pierson, Tom Sachs, Charline von Heyl, Don Van Vliet, McDermott \u0026amp; McGough, Gary Indiana, Elias Khoury, James Salter, Sam Matamoros, Santé D’Orazio, Jane Dickson, Jeremy Blake, Stephen Mueller, Gary Simmons, Theresa Duncan, Andrew Kleinzahler, Robert Polito, Valery Oisteanu, Gerard Milanga, Elaine Equi, Laura Letinsky, Davitt Sigerson, Hooman Majd, Barney Kulok, Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, Dike Blair, James Gilroy, and Ted Barron, whose photo-essay “Brooklyn Smackdown” documents independent lucha libre wrestling in grainy black-and-white.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRichard Prince’s contribution, “Bomb Dream Enameled,” pairs a text first copyrighted in 1975 with paintings whose surfaces are stencilled with fragments of popular culture and trivia. Derain, Braque, Léger, Duchamp-Villon, Picabia and de Chirico appear alongside references to \u003cem\u003eMad\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePlayboy\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eInterview\u003c\/em\u003e: art history and mass-media information flattened into the same circulating language. Elizabeth Peyton’s “Heroes” contributes her loose, luminous watercolour portraits of young male subjects.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA magazine already engaged with image culture, celebrity and appropriation temporarily allows a commercial brand to appropriate the magazine itself — and does so while publishing Richard Prince, whose practice has repeatedly tested precisely these boundaries of attribution, reproduction and ownership.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is an unresolved piece of New York history on the back cover: an advertisement for La Esquina, Comida Tradicional de la Capital, 106 Kenmare Street. The better-known La Esquina is associated with 114 Kenmare Street and a 2005–06 opening, so the relationship between the advertisement here and the later restaurant remains uncertain. It is worth retaining as evidence rather than forcing a conclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe object stages a transfer of identity. A commercial brand takes the position normally occupied by an editorial title. \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e remains materially present — on the spine, inside the magazine, in its editorial structure — but externally it has been renamed. The gesture recalls the readymade without reproducing it literally. Nothing new has to be fabricated. Meaning changes because the existing object is reassigned, relabelled and recirculated. And because Prince appears inside, the structure doubles back on itself: a magazine carrying an artist associated with appropriation has itself been appropriated by a brand whose founder explicitly described his practice through Duchamp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMagazine becomes support. Brand becomes author. Advertising becomes cover. Commerce becomes material. O’Brien’s own punchline remains the most economical description of the whole arrangement: “Bald Ego sells out!” Except the sell-out is not outside the work. It is the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: [pending physical inspection — describe the fur-and-acetate cover element specifically: any lifting, shedding, or adhesive show-through, plus general wrapper and page condition]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bald Ego Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54543362752850,"sku":"TNR-2026-0640","price":85.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Blagg_Max.O_Brien_Glenn.BaldEgoJackSpade03.2004.jpg?v=1788546608"},{"product_id":"bald-ego-no-2-obrien-blagg-2002","title":"BALD EGO NO. 2, Glenn O’Brien and Max Blagg, eds., 2002","description":"\u003cp\u003eSoftcover magazine, offset printed throughout. Bald Ego Publishing, New York, distributed by D.A.P. 6 × 9 in. ISBN 1-56466-114-8. Original cover price $15.00.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCover reproduces Sarah Charlesworth’s \u003cem\u003eDevil\u003c\/em\u003e, 2002, from her \u003cem\u003eNeverland\u003c\/em\u003e series.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e occupied an unstable space between art magazine, literary journal and downtown New York social object. Edited by Glenn O’Brien and Max Blagg, its structure deliberately brought together writers, artists and photographers who would not ordinarily occupy the same publication, often pairing contributors at the same page number rather than separating image and text into conventional departments. Adam McEwen and Sarah Charlesworth share p. 54; Gary Indiana and Keith Sonnier p. 126; Glenn O’Brien and Jerry Schatzberg p. 166; Richard Hell and Renate Aller p. 182.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharlesworth’s cover is particularly appropriate to that editorial logic. \u003cem\u003eDevil\u003c\/em\u003e belongs to the 2002 \u003cem\u003eNeverland\u003c\/em\u003e series, in which isolated objects appear against intensely controlled monochrome grounds. Here the image leaves the gallery context and becomes the face of a $15 magazine: reproduced, flattened and put into circulation. The work remains recognisable; its function and placement change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside, distinctions between fiction, poetry, painting and photography remain deliberately loose. Jeff Mermelstein’s photographs of women playing mah jongg appear alongside a text titled \u003cem\u003eMah Jongg\u003c\/em\u003e. O’Brien’s fiction \u003cem\u003eEd and Eddie\u003c\/em\u003e, described as a work in progress, is paired with photographs by Jerry Schatzberg. Elsewhere Cecily Brown, Larry Clark, Jack Pierson, Mary Gaitskill, Lynne Tillman and Gregory Corso pass through the same compact editorial structure without any strong hierarchy between disciplines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContributors: Henry Alcalay, Shawn Mortenson, Robert Hawkins, Emma Forrest, Mary Gaitskill, Muriel Vega, Lynne Tillman, Adam McEwen, Sarah Charlesworth, Nick Tosches, Salvador Fresno, Kate Simon, Alan Platt, Orly Cogan, Andre Martheleur, Max Blagg, Kristin Baker, John Godfrey, Jeff Mermelstein, Gary Indiana, Keith Sonnier, Christopher Hund, Alan Uglow, Marcus Leatherdale, Tim Wright, Burk Uzzle, Glenn O’Brien, Jerry Schatzberg, Richard Hell, Renate Aller, Duncan Hannah, Joe Zucker, Janos Gat, Eva Faye, Cecily Brown, Joe Andoe, Larry Clark, Loan Nguyen, Jack Pierson, Gregory Corso and Chris Selver.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe back cover carries a full-page Tanqueray No. Ten advertisement. In isolation it is entirely conventional. Its interest emerges through what happened with the following issue. When O’Brien and Blagg needed additional advertising revenue for \u003cem\u003eBald Ego\u003c\/em\u003e No. 3, Andy Spade proposed a “commercial readymade”: Jack Spade would occupy the masthead itself rather than simply purchasing an advertisement within the magazine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe two consecutive issues therefore record a small but unusually clear shift in the relationship between publishing and commerce. In No. 2, advertising funds the object. In No. 3, advertising becomes the object.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRead alone, No. 2 is a concentrated record of early-2000s New York art, photography and writing. Read beside No. 3, the otherwise ordinary Tanqueray back cover becomes evidence of the publishing system immediately before its commercial mechanism moved from the rear of the magazine to its identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: Good to very good. General rubbing and handling to wrappers, with light surface scuffing, creasing and wear along edges and corners. Minor abrasion and softening to extremities consistent with circulation and age. Spine intact. Interior appears clean and well preserved from the pages inspected.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bald Ego Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54544019489106,"sku":"TNR-2026-0641","price":85.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Blagg_Max._O_Brien_Glenn._Bald_Ego_Issue_2._2002.jpg?v=1788553133"}],"url":"https:\/\/thenewrare.com\/collections\/max-blagg.oembed","provider":"The New Rare","version":"1.0","type":"link"}