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> Virgil Young

Virgil Young was born in Sledge Mississippi and grew up in Memphis Tennessee. After high school Virgil got a job at Helen's of Memphis as a window dresser. This lasted long enough for him to earn the money he needed to move to New York City. In the late 1960's Virgil worked with artist Robert Indiana as an archivist as well as performing in a Charles Ludlam play with his band Virgil Young and The Younguns. I met Mr. Young when he moved to Hollywood in the late '70's. After moving back to Manhattan for a few years, Virgil returned to Hollywood in 1988 and moved into Ten Bungalows on Poinsettia Place above Melrose where I was living at the time. Virgil was instrumental in presenting Tim Burton's Photographic work to the Los Angeles art community and eventually worked for Tim as an archivist. He was an acknowledged authority on Haitian religious art and made numerous trips to Haiti where his relationships with various priests in Port au Prince and the surrounding countryside led him to build one of the best collections of Haitian religious art in America. He also collected contemporary art and introduced me to Beatrice Wood---both to her remarkable art pottery and to the unforgettable woman who died in 1998 at 105 years old. James Cameron based the character of "Rose' in "Titanic" on Beatrice. Virgil took me to her home in Ojai's Happy Valley in 1993. Virgil's art collection is now spread amongst his friends and The Haitian Collection was acquired by U.C.L.A. and is a part of "The Sacred Art Of Haitian Voodoo" This show was recently on display at Manhattan's Museum of Natural History after it's premiere at The Fowler Museum in L.A. In his last month in Los Angeles Virgil assisted Tim Burton on a large-format polaroid shoot in Death Valley. By 1995 Virgil was in declining health and decided to move back to his beloved "Chili Verde" (his home in the Hudson River Valley) where he died in June of that year. The shirt he is wearing in the photograph above was purchased for two dollars from a vendor on the streets of Port au Prince, Haiti in January of 1990. Virgil was listening to "Stand By Your Man" by Tammy Wynette when this picture was taken at noon on March 24th 1990. Never one to be excluded, Virgil posed for his Year 2000 Clock Photo in 1995 and that portrait is the first of the series that will be taken next year and shown in 2001.

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