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Articles by Tosh Berman
The Artist’s Child
How much time one can spend in art galleries, reading poems, watching films—especially Western ones—and see so few renderings of something quite simple. The artist’s child. Let alone the artist’s family. In the 17th century, Rembrandt painted his wife, Saskia, in The Prodigal Son in the Tavern, but it was not until 1789 that we saw a painting quite like Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun’s Self-Portrait with Julie.
Excerpt: ‘Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman’s World’
My grandmother Anna got the house and property at 1548 Crater Lane in Beverly Glen—a canyon area between Coldwater on the Valley side, and Sunset Boulevard on the other side—through a subscription to a magazine. The house was an additional gift if one subscribed to that particular publication. Eventually, she just signed the house over to my mom, because Wallace refused to have anything in his name.
Why Tosh Berman Writes-and What Grounds His Memoir
Whenever I open my laptop and see an empty Pages document, I feel a mix of fear and excitement. I’m not sure if this is healthy or not, but only when I’m writing do I feel a sense of connection. Otherwise, I feel like I’m floating in the world, barely touching the ground. I sense that something is happening, or I have an emotional pull in a certain direction, but it’s only when I sit down and start writing that these feelings begin to make sense.
The Case for Reading Tosh Berman’s Memoir About Wallace Berman
Wallace Berman has long been one of my cultural heroes—both for the visionary brilliance of his art making and for his ability to balance the domestic and the avant-garde. By emphasizing family as a complement, rather than an impediment, to the creative life, Berman challenged the status quo from the ground up, approaching parenthood through the lens of play, of the imagination, rather than that of patriarchy.
A Few Personal Messages by Pierre Clémenti (Small Press)
I have a difficulty concerning what seems to be damaged dandies. It wasn’t sexual with me, but more of a rock n’ roll image of the dandy in trouble. Or cinematic characters and figures from literature fed my imagination of those who chose or had no choice but to be outsiders of the established world. And if, like Oscar Wilde, they are sent to prison, better yet! The late Pierre Clémenti was an actor who was in the right place and time until he was sent to an Italian prison for drugs in 1972.
No. 13: Tosh Recommends...
I discovered Stephanie LaCava when I found out my friend, the filmmaker and author Anna Biller, will be interviewing LaCava at Skylight Books. I couldn’t make it to the event, but I was intrigued by the author because she had published two books, one by Semiotext(e) and the other, most recent, by Verso. Two of my favorite presses meant that LaCava must be a writer of some worth or talent. The Superrationals (Semiotext<e>) takes place in the cold art world of New York, with a touch of Paris.
RON AND RUSSELL MAEL: STILL SQUEEZING OUT SPARKS
After 50 years and 25 albums and collaborations with a who’s who of rock ‘n’ roll, pop and cinema, you’d think Sparks would be better known. Well, this year might change that. Not only has famed director Edgar “Shaun of the Dead” Wright just released a documentary about Sparks, but Ron and Russell Mael’s screenplay and music grace Annette, a film to be released later this year starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.
GOIN’ HOME WITH THE ROLLING STONES
Mick at home, Harley House, Marylebone Road Thinking about moving into your first home away from the family? Well, there was a time when even the members of the Rolling Stones had to go through that rite of passage. A new collection of photographs by Gered Mankowitz, of the band’s various members in their various residences back in 1966, offers some clues to their personalities and perhaps even some household tips for home buyers in 2020. Tosh Berman gives us a tour.
REMEMBERING CAMERON AND THE LATE BOHEMIAN WORLD OF L.A.
Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995)—better known as ‘Cameron’—was a renegade even by the standards of L.A.’s various bohemian subcultures. An artist and occultist, she possessed a magnetic presence that drew people like Kenneth Anger, Anais Nin and Samson de Brier to her. She also befriended Tosh Berman’s parents. Wallace Berman (1926-1976), Tosh’s father, was a driving force in LA’s art world who once spent a few days in jail because of one of Cameron’s ‘obscene’ drawings.
REMEMBERING MICHAEL MCCLURE: THE REAL LIZARD KING
The late poet Michael McClure (1932-2020) was always associated with the original Beat circle of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Snyder, Ferlinghetti but he was so much more than that to Tosh Berman, who saw him as the rightful heir to Jim Morrison. Tosh’s father, Wallace, was a major postwar cultural figure, known as the “father of assemblage art” and the center of a vibrant circle of artists, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers of the 1960s.
MEEKSVILLE UK: JOE MEEK, ARCHITECT OF STARDOM
The legendary record producer and sound engineer Joe Meek (1929-1967) was a Freakbeat pioneer, an influence on everyone from Eno and Pink Floyd to any number of movie soundtrack composers. His greatest legacy, the other-worldly sound he achieved on his artists’ hit records, is undeniable. However, his own personal problems, paranoia, and gay persecution ultimately led to a tragic ending. Tosh Berman examines the enigma of Meek.
An Excerpt from Tosh Berman's New Book about his Famous Father
Tosh Berman has made a name for himself in Los Angeles as a writer, poet and artist, and as a publisher (TamTam Books). Reading his new memoir, Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World, it’s difficult to imagine him working, creating or living his life any other way. Using imagery and words as avant-garde forms of expression is in his blood, his brain and his being. The writer’s icon father, Wallace Berman, was a counterculture pioneer best known as the father of assemblage art.
Don't You Dare Call Me a Beatnik
Compared with the shack in Beverly Glen, our residence in San Francisco, at 707 Scott Street, appeared to be a mansion. We had the bottom floor and various interesting people rented the upstairs. My parents became the managers of the residence and were responsible for collecting the rent and taking care of the premises. I have no real recollection being upstairs at all, mostly due to my fear of staircases. At least we had our bathroom on the first floor.
TOSH BERMAN discusses his memoir TOSH with JASON SCHWARTZMAN
Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World (City Lights Publishers) The triumphs and tragedies of growing up as the son of a famous Beat artist. TOSH is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of hippie counterculture.
Publishing Provocateur Adam Parfrey Has Died, But His Feral Works Live On
When someone passes away, it is usually the end of a narrative, but when it comes to active, expressive personalities — artists, writers or publishers — the work lives on. Feral House Press announced via Facebook that Adam Parfrey, its founder and publisher, passed away Thursday at the age of 61. But what he left behind in the alternative publishing world won't be forgotten; it will continue to provoke and inspire. I didn't know Parfrey that well, except we were both in publishing.
Why Did Google Delete Author Dennis Cooper’s Literary Blog?
Over two weeks ago, Dennis Cooper’s longstanding blog, The Weaklings, disappeared into thin air. One would want to visualize it as disappearing into the mist, or smoke. The truth is he opened up his computer and simply couldn’t access his account on Google. His Gmail and blog on Google’s Blogger platform were totally gone. All he (or we) could see is the sentence: Like it never existed.
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