KNUCKLE CARTEL

Today I went to The Hamburger Bahnhof to see the “8 Days in Tokyo” Joseph Beuys exhibition.  However, more impressive to me than the documentation of Beuys’ trip was a fantastic show by the prolific painter/mystic/autistic/utopian/architect/avid reader/hermit/weirdo/philosopher Paul Laffoley.  I was blown away by the intelligence, madness, precision, and beauty of these large paintings.  If you are in Berlin, make sure you check it out.  It is well worth it. 

Some fun facts I mined from the Internet about Mr. Laffoley: 

• His first word, spoken at six months of age, was “Constantinople”
• He started painting at age four and is totally self-taught
• He has worked out of a tiny one room apartment in Boston since 1971 which he calls “The Boston Visionary Cell, Inc.” 
• Doctors found a 3/8” metallic implant in his brain in 1992 during a routine CAT Scan.  Obviously, it was put there by aliens.
• He was dismissed from the Harvard Graduate School of Design for “conceptual subversion”.
• He had a part-time job watching television all night for Andy Warhol (while being videotaped).

This dude is crazy cool.