After a successful opening, artist Donald Hershman’s latest collection of original pieces, titled Donald and Victor: Under The Influence, and inspired by the late Victor Arimondi, has been extended until June 18, 2021 during PRIDE Month. The inventive artist’s successful show embodies his visceral need to pursue interests and creative expressions as he pays loving tribute to his former partner who succumbed to AIDS in 2001.
On May 22, 2021, guest speaker Adam Stoltman, former New York Times Magazine and daily newspaper picture editor, held a panel discussion at the gallery that reflected on the legacy of Arimondi. The buzz of the show has since continued to grow throughout the New York City art scene.
Arimondi was a famed Italian American model and art photographer whose unique eye and sensuous style captivated the world. At the time of his death a vast collection of portraits was bequeathed to Hershman.
“During our 17 years together Victor steadfastly guided and molded me, and after his sudden death in 2001 I became solidly dedicated to my art, his presence more powerful than ever – a driving force to create something that is no longer a choice for me, but a necessity,” says Hershman. “Today, I’m an active part of the art community in San Francisco, a patron of ART SPAN and mission artists. This show at the Salomon Gallery brings mine and Victor’s work full circle with 20 new selected paintings from 2019 to 2021, along with a carefully curated selection of 38 photographs, taken between 1972 and 2001, four of which I interpreted into my own paintings, called the D & V Series.”
The exhibit serves as a love letter to a luminary who graced the pages of fashion magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, and appeared on the runway in several Valentino runway shows. Arimondi’s past desire to turn the camera lens from his face onto the world he saw before him led to famously shooting the likes of Grace Jones, as well as several portraits of male nudes in New York and San Francisco captured during the pre-AIDS culture of the early 1980s. He also notably focused imagery of the plight of the homeless of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood suffering during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
In his words, “Since I posed in front of the camera for so many years, my experience with talented photographers made me realize a way to express my inner world.”
“I first met Don around 2005 or 2006, a few years after Victor’s passing. One of the things which struck me the most was the degree to which Don was motivated, as if carrying a sacred trust, to preserve Victor’s work and legacy, a challenge for any surviving spouse of an artist, and also how tender the wound still was from losing a companion, life partner, and creative force,” states Stoltman. “It is fitting that Don and Victor are showing their work together through this exhibit. United as artists, continuing to hold that space, special energy and love.”
The exhibit features the artistic narrative influence Arimondi had on his partner and has been years in the making.
“It derived directly from some of Victor’s old photography negatives,” says Hershman about some of the collection. “I’ve curated the show to connect in many different ways.”
Titles in the collection will display photographs: Male Nude, Archival Print, 12”x9”; Still Life, Archival Print, 8”x8″; Male Nude, Archival Print, 12”x9″; and Self Portrait, Archival Print, 12”x9”.
Paintings will include: Red Vase with Flower – Quarantine Series, Acrylic and Pencil on Wood Panel, 30”x24″; Quarantine – Quarantine Series, Acrylic and Pencil on Wood Panel, 30”x24″; Tulips – Quarantine Series, Acrylic and Pencil on Wood Panel, 30”x24″; and Epidemiology – Quarantine Series, Acrylic and Pencil on Wood Panel, 30”x24”.
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