Jim Bassler, Ikat
50" x 50" wool,
silk, synthetic
dyes; 1975
T
he now-famous art dealer Larry Gagosian owned
a modest poster, print and frame shop on Gayley Avenue in Westwood Village. I worked at a wonderful small
bookstore next door, sitting at night on a high stool behind the cash register. I was an off-the-books and off the
hook emancipated minor, sharing my own Westwood
apartment, above an optician's shop, with another castoff of crazy parents, in her case, psychoanalysts.
I remember my childhood as suburban; the affluent
houses I visited were in "good taste," oftentimes the deft
handiwork of decorators, but devoid of art. In my teens
this would change. My friend Margie Leserman, daughter of the Hollywood agent and attorney, Paul Leserman
and the late maitresse de cuisine, Ruth Leserman, lived
at that time in a modest house on Lindbrook Avenue in
Westwood, filled with art nouveau, nineteenth century
English furniture and assorted finds from the Porte de
Clignancourt flea market, all spiked with art by Ed Ruscha, the L.A. printmaker. From a blue and white Chinese
tureen, Ruth served me my first bowl of bouillabaisse,
accompanied by her rouille sauce on French bread. I
hadn't known such food existed.
HYLAND
