Hit the show last at the M+B Gallery and it was a truly mixed crowd.
First of all ,it’s a great space. The flow of the rooms is some of the best.

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Hunter S. Thompson
Self Portrait, In White Whale, Las Vegas, circa 1970s

In the front room ,you were not only able to see images from previous shows ,but there were copies of the extremely limited edition GONZO book on display. At $300 per, you want to see what you get.

Well I have to tell you, the writing alone in the book is priceless. There are classic HST lines and thoughts that will stay with you for a long time. Heck, you’ll probably quote some of them.

And in the context of the book, the images work fantastic. Congratulations to Ammo books for this huge tome.

As images on their own, there are moments of brilliance and personal revelations. The self portraits are fascinating, almost as the early examples of a romanticized persona of the Gonzo writer, as reflections of the post-Kerouac era.

However, as a full show, there were images that shifted the exhibit into a slower pace, that seemed to be included just because they had a sociological value as opposed to an imagery value.They did let you know more about Hunter Thompsons’ access into a world many of us will never know.
Don’t get me wrong. The event was well done. the music spanning the times was blasting out of Nanos and IBoxes sufficiently to set the tone.
Bill Murray, Brian Doyle Murray, Lorraine Newman, Angelica Houston , and was that Johnny Depp? all gathered to check out the event. And I’m sure there were more famous and not so famous. Hunter S. Thompson was/is quite a draw.

Now, if you are in the LA are you should go take a look. This is an awesome gallery with some of the best exhibits in LA. Get on their mailing list to to help set your calendar.

If you can’t make it, the book is a definite buy. Maybe it’s your holiday gift for yourself.

Did I tell you that an original print ,suitable for framing, is included in the purchase price? I’ll be framing and hanging mine.
Here it is:
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Hunter S. Thompson
Self-Portrait, Big Sur, 1961

Cheers!
Damon Webster

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 3rd, 2006 at 10:57 am and is filed under Galleries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.