ABOUT ARTABOLIC ARTS MANAGEMENT
Heinrich von Kesseler
Je suis le Ténébreux, – le Veuf, – l’Inconsolé
Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la Tour abolie
Gérard de Nerval
Call me by my social name Heinrich von Kesseler, aka Harry Kaplan, owner of Artabolic Arts Management.
In 2020 I decided to step away from the last in a series of rewarding careers in order to fully devote my time to the preservation and promotion of LGBTQ art, opera, film and literature.
Artabolic Arts Management specializes in curating and promoting legacy LGBTQ artworks, from the powerful AIDS-era paintings of Richard Hofmann to the Symbolist Snow White chamber opera of the Belgian poet Jacques Izoard and scored by the renowned Montreal composer Marc Patch, to the homoerotic poetry of 15th Century Parisian gay-for-pay poet and jailbird François Villon.
Book Me for a Speaking Engagement : “An East Village Artist Before the Cocktail”
My aspiration is to provide a powerful narrative that captures the heartbreak and resilience of a community of LGBTQ artists which was forever changed by the AIDS epidemic.
The centerpiece of the talk includes screenings of the Hofmann bio documentaries along with a direct audience question-and-answer style discussion.
In light of today’s renewed challenges to LGBTQ+ rights, including the battle over gay marriage, I also share my own personal journey preserving my late partner’s artistic legacy in the face of a prolonged and costly probate fight.
For a glimpse into the lighter moments of this story, here is a clip from the artist bio documentary telling what it was like in 1989 meeting the redoubtable East Village painter for the first time.
Brief clip from the award-winning artist documentary "Fear and Desire: The Life and Death of Richard Hofmann"
RELATED RESOURCES
You will find four of Richard Hofmann paintings in the just published LGBTQ art history “About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art". I highly recommend this authoritative volume. If you'd like to purchase Dr. Katz's book, please use the Buy on Amazon button which adds the Artabolic affiliate code.
Brooklyn based Atlantic Fine Arts Services handles all your art shipping, moving and transportation services. I have used them for nearly a decade and there is no substitute for experience!
New York based SquareSpace reduces the iterative chaos of web development down to a pleasure flow simple enough to be driven by a single person.
