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Letter from the Hotel Chelsea Back of Page 2
Letter from the Hotel Chelsea Back of Page 2
Letter from the Hotel Chelsea Back of Page 2

Letter from the Hotel Chelsea Back of Page 2

Artist (American, born 1940)
Printer (American, 1938 - 2007)
Date1979
Mediumphotoscreenprints
ClassificationsGraphic
Credit LineGift of Betty Hahn, 2015
Object number2015.2.18
DescriptionPrint of handwritten letter on Chelsea Hotel stationery against blue background.
Text Entries

The prints in this portfolio are five-color (blue, grey, black, tan, and orange) printed on Arches 88 paper, bon a tirer, in an edition of seven, each including 7 photo silkscreens, a portfolio case, a T-shirt (unlimited edition), and a print of a blank sheet of Hotel Chelsea stationery (edition of 10). The edition was printed by Jim Kraft at Unified Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico. See “Betty Hahn, Photography or Maybe Not,” (UNM Press, 1995), p. 188.

 

The text in the images are from a letter written from the Chelsea Hotel in New York City by Diane Luppi, a former student of Betty Hahn’s at the University of New Mexico.

 

This image shows a blue background with an image of a handwritten letter on the verso of Hotel Chelsea letterhead, to Betty Hahn from Diane Luppi.

Text on this page of the letter reads:

“Enclosed you will find a book/which I have no doubt that/you have already read. It/reminded me of you so/I’m sending it just in/case you  haven’t. [large crossed-out area]/[large crossed-out area]/Would you like to be/an Academic Referee 1. for me?/I was sent a form inviting/me to apply [small crossed-out area] for a/Rhodes Scholarship and I/must have an academic referee/or two. I have no idea what/one is and the forms are/not very enlightening because/they are written in British/and I can’t speak it well./The forms are so very very/stuffy pompous and proper/that I feel that a vocational/school [large crossed-out area] in/[large crossed-out area] New Jersey might be/more my speed. Perhaps/being an academic referee/[string of horizontal lines separating text of letter from text of footnote]/1. Oxford application form, paragraph 3” in handwriting of Diane Luppi.
Using a letter she received from a former student, Diane Luppi, as a starting point, Betty Hahn created prints that reproduce each handwritten page and the envelope in which the letter was mailed. Each sheet bears the prominent logo of the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, the historic home of many well-known artists, actors, writers, and musicians -- and thus a pilgrimage site for their fans and admirers. The letter offers a vivid verbal snapshot of Luppi’s visit to New York in the late 1970s.
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