Patti Astor
Encyclopedia
Patti Astor is a performer who was a key actress in New York City
underground film
s of the 1970, and the East Village
art scene of the 1980s, and involved in the early popularising of hip-hop.
where she was a charter member of the Cincinnati Civic Ballet
. Her adventurous spirit however took her to New York City
at the age of eighteen (in 1968) to Barnard College
but she soon dropped out to take a leadership role in the anti-Vietnam war group SDS (Students for a Democratic Society
). She spent two and a half years as a young revolutionary. At the end of that war she traveled the United States and Europe with her dance act, A Diamond As Big As The Ritz.
, from punk rock at CBGB
's, the New Wave
at the Mudd Club
and independent films with directors such as Jim Jarmusch
and Eric Mitchell.
underground "Unmade Beds" (1976), a black and white 16mm remake of Godard
’s Breathless which she acted in alongside filmmaker Eric Mitchell, Blondie
singer Debbie Harry
, and artist Duncan Hannah. She also appeared in such low-budget and low-audience films as Rome '78, The Long Island Four, and Snakewoman. Perhaps the most rememberd of these was Eric Mitchell's Underground U.S.A (1980), which she starred in alongside poet Rene Ricard
, but none of these films were commercially successful. Her best known roles was as Virginia, the roving reporter, in Charles Ahearn's legendary hip-hop epic, Wild Style
. Virginia in Wild Style is a white bombshell who encounters the rap and graffiti culture uptown, and introduces it to the downtown art world, a role Patti went on to perform in real life.
These films are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art
, the Whitney Museum, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
. (Wild Style was voted "one of the ten best rock and roll movies of all time".)
(Quinones), Zephyr
, Dondi
, Lady Pink
, and Futura 2000
. It also gave important shows to Kenny Scharf
(in 1981), Jean Michel Basquiat (November 1982), and Keith Haring
(February, 1983), artists with a street background who showed elsewhere. For a while the mix of worlds was unique, with the FUN crew of downtown artists and hipsters, beat-boys, rock, movie and rap stars mixing with both neighborhood kids and the official art world: museum directors, art historians and uptown collectors in their mink coats and limos. The gallery closed in 1985, by which time many other East Village galleries had opened, the interest in graffiti painters in the art world has subsided, and rents in the East Village were rising dramatically.
in one of his first movie roles and the crowd pleaser Assault of The Killer Bimbos awarded by People
magazine "Trash Pick of The Week".
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
underground film
Underground film
An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre, or financing.-Definition and history:The first use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, "Underground Films." Farber uses it to refer to the work of...
s of the 1970, and the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
art scene of the 1980s, and involved in the early popularising of hip-hop.
Biography
Patti Astor grew up in Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
where she was a charter member of the Cincinnati Civic Ballet
Cincinnati Ballet
The Cincinnati Ballet is a professional ballet company founded in 1958 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The current artistic director is Victoria Morgan.-Founding:...
. Her adventurous spirit however took her to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the age of eighteen (in 1968) to Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
but she soon dropped out to take a leadership role in the anti-Vietnam war group SDS (Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
). She spent two and a half years as a young revolutionary. At the end of that war she traveled the United States and Europe with her dance act, A Diamond As Big As The Ritz.
Music
Returning to New York in 1975 Astor was in the midst of the storm in New York's legendary East VillageEast Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
, from punk rock at CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
's, the New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
at the Mudd Club
Mudd Club
The Mudd Club was a TriBeCa nightclub that was opened in October 1978 by Steve Mass, art curator Diego Cortez and Anya Phillips, a figure in the downtown punk scene...
and independent films with directors such as Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
and Eric Mitchell.
Actress
Astor had studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute. A queen of the downtown scene, she appeared in over a dozen experimental and low-budget films. Her entry into this genre was Amos Poe’sAmos Poe
Amos Poe is a New York City director and screenwriter, described by The New York Times as a "pioneering indie filmmaker."-Career:Amos Poe is one of the first punk filmmakers and his film The Blank Generation —co-directed with Ivan Kral— is one of the earliest punk films...
underground "Unmade Beds" (1976), a black and white 16mm remake of Godard
Godard
-People:* Agnès Godard, French cinematographer* André Godard , French Iranologist* Benjamin Godard , French composer best known for his opera Jocelyn and salon music* Christian Godard , French comic artist...
’s Breathless which she acted in alongside filmmaker Eric Mitchell, Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
singer Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
, and artist Duncan Hannah. She also appeared in such low-budget and low-audience films as Rome '78, The Long Island Four, and Snakewoman. Perhaps the most rememberd of these was Eric Mitchell's Underground U.S.A (1980), which she starred in alongside poet Rene Ricard
René Ricard
René Ricard is an American poet, art critic and painter.Ricard grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts. As a young teenager he ran away to Boston and assimilated into the literary scene of the city. By age eighteen he’d moved to New York City, where he became a protege of Andy Warhol...
, but none of these films were commercially successful. Her best known roles was as Virginia, the roving reporter, in Charles Ahearn's legendary hip-hop epic, Wild Style
Wild Style
Wild Style is a 1983 hip hop film produced by Charlie Ahearn. Released theatrically in 1983 by First Run Features and later re-released for home video by Rhino Home Video, it is regarded as the first hip hop motion picture...
. Virginia in Wild Style is a white bombshell who encounters the rap and graffiti culture uptown, and introduces it to the downtown art world, a role Patti went on to perform in real life.
These films are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, the Whitney Museum, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
. (Wild Style was voted "one of the ten best rock and roll movies of all time".)
Gallery owner
Astor went on to co-found the FUN Gallery in early 1981 with partner Bill Stelling. This tenement storefront gallery, was the first of the 1980s East Village galleries, and specialised in showing graffiti artists, like Fab 5 Freddy, LEELee Quinones
George Lee Quiñones is an American artist and actor. He is one of the several artists rising from the New York City Subway graffiti movement....
(Quinones), Zephyr
Zephyr (graffiti artist)
ZEPHYR, born Andrew Witten, is a graffiti artist, lecturer and author from New York City. He began creating graffiti in 1975 and first signed using the name "Zephyr" in 1977...
, Dondi
Dondi (artist)
Donald Joseph White, "DONDI" is considered one of the most influential graffiti artists in the history of the movement.-Early life:...
, Lady Pink
Lady Pink
Lady Pink is a graffiti artist. She was raised in Queens, New York, and started her graffiti writing career in 1979 following the loss of a boyfriend who had been sent to live in Puerto Rico after he had been arrested. She exorcised her grief by tagging her boyfriend's name across the city...
, and Futura 2000
Futura 2000
Futura 2000 is a graffiti artist. He started to paint illegally on New York's subway in the early seventies, working with other artists such as ALI. In the early eighties he showed with Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery, along with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf...
. It also gave important shows to Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf's works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds...
(in 1981), Jean Michel Basquiat (November 1982), and Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
(February, 1983), artists with a street background who showed elsewhere. For a while the mix of worlds was unique, with the FUN crew of downtown artists and hipsters, beat-boys, rock, movie and rap stars mixing with both neighborhood kids and the official art world: museum directors, art historians and uptown collectors in their mink coats and limos. The gallery closed in 1985, by which time many other East Village galleries had opened, the interest in graffiti painters in the art world has subsided, and rents in the East Village were rising dramatically.
Current
After closing FUN, Patti then moved to Hollywood where she acted in, wrote and produced Get Tux'd starring Ice-TICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
in one of his first movie roles and the crowd pleaser Assault of The Killer Bimbos awarded by People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine "Trash Pick of The Week".