One night in November, a procession of young artists, critics and curators climbed the creaky stairs of a building in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan to attend an opening at a buzzy little gallery, Ulrik. The show, “Bettina: New York 1965–86,” was made up of rarely seen photographs and sculptures by an enigmatic artist who lived for five decades at the fabled Chelsea Hotel, where she created her works in a cluttered fifth-floor apartment until her death in 2021.
Writers for Artforum and Frieze pushed through the crowd to get glimpses of the black-and-white street photography. Students from Pratt Institute drank cans of Budweiser as they studied the wavelike wood sculptures. A Museum of Modern Art curator watched grainy footage of the artist in 1976 while she filmed herself taking the very photos of Manhattan skyscrapers now displayed in the exhibit.
The show’s gallerists, Anya Komar, 37, and Alex Fleming, 39, sold three pieces right out of the gate. A few of Bettina’s old Chelsea Hotel neighbors showed up, including her longtime caretaker, Rachel Cohen, a jewelry and eyewear designer who has lived in the building since the 1970s.
“Everyone at the Chelsea Hotel knew Bettina’s art needed to be appreciated, but for some reason, it didn’t happen for her,” Ms. Cohen, 74, said after the opening. “So that night at the gallery seemed impossible to me. Everyone was so young and different. I was happy to see her art appreciated. Bettina wasn’t an easy person. She was rarely delighted by anything, but I think she would have loved it.”
“I think most who came that night didn’t know much about her life,” she continued, “so they were just seeing her art itself, and they couldn’t judge it by her life at the Chelsea Hotel.”
