Rene Ricard
The Flower Beneath The Foot, 2014
Tibetan hand knotted, New Zealand wool, text in silk
72 x 108 inches
Courtesy Madeline Weinrib
Madeline Weinrib vividly recalls the day she first met the renowned poet, painter and art critic Rene Ricard, who is widely credited with putting Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, and Keith Haring on the proverbial map, in his apartment in the Hotel Chelsea. “My friend Cody Franchetti knew him and asked if I wanted to meet him. I was very aware of his art criticism and intimidated by him. I was going as a groupie, I never thought we’d be friends.” Yet they did become fast friends and, for the most part, remained so from that time (which was around 1999) until his death in 2014 at the age of 67.