In 1984, the artist and editor (and John Baldessari protégée) Kim Hastreiter co-founded Paper Magazine with her friend David Hershkovits, to document the cultural explosion in downtown New York City at the time. What began as a D.I.Y. operation in her TriBeCa loft would run for 33 years as one of the most respected independent fashion and arts publications ever.
Hastreiter, now 73, has worn many hats over the years — artist, journalist, curator — but her passion for collecting has remained a constant. Now she has immortalized all her favorite objects, friends and stories in STUFF: A New York Life of Cultural Chaos (Damiani, $75).
“More than a memoir,” she writes, this book collects everything from a $12,000 sweater to a Jeff Koons dinner plate, stickers, jewelry and just about every category of art you can think of, resulting in a “big chaotic archive” of a half-century’s worth of New York culture.
