James Allan Curtis (September 30, 1946 – June 21, 2021),[1] known professionally as Diego Cortez, was an American filmmaker and art curator closely associated with the no wave period in New York City. Cortez was the co-founder of the Mudd Club, and he curated the influential post-punk art show New York/New Wave, which brought the then aspiring artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to fame.
Early life and education
Cortez was born James Allan Curtis on September 30, 1946, in Geneva, Illinois, to Jean (née Ham) and Allan Curtis. His mother was a manicurist while his father was a warehouse manager at a steel company.[2] Curtis grew up in the nearby town of Wheaton, Illinois. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Illinois State University and received a master's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1973. He studied performance art as well as film and video production at the institute with teachers including Avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage and the Korean-American filmmaker Nam June Paik.[2]
Curtis adopted the pseudonym Diego Cortez in 1973 while moving to New York City as a tribute to the Hispanic neighborhood of Chicago where he had lived.[2]
During this period, he also performed with artists Kathy Acker and Laurie Anderson, directed music videos for rock bands Talking Heads and Blondie, and organized showings of works by the singer and songwriter Patti Smith. He also wrote the book Private Elvis, containing photographs of American singer and actor Elvis Presley during Presley's time with the army, that he found in West Germany.[6][2] Cortez was the NYC production advisor to Brian Eno on the no wave record No New York (1978) which was released by Island Records.[7]
Cortez continued to work as an art agent and curator, working with Brian Eno, and on the Luciano Benetton and Frederick Roos collections. During the latter part of his career he was unsuccessful in trying to start a museum in Puerto Rico.[2] He released an album, Traumdeutung, in 2014, which was an eclectic mix of music and sounds of his snoring.[2]
Cortez was a member of the authentication committee for the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which ceased operation in 2012.[1]
^ abHager, Steve. Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene. St. Matins Press, 1986. p. 26
^ abAlan W. Moore and Marc Miller, eds. ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects, 1985
^Boch, Richard.The Mudd Club, Feral House, 2017, p. 18
Moore, Alan W., and Marc Miller (eds.). ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery. New York: Collaborative Projects, 1985
Pearlman, Alison, Unpackaging Art of the 1980s. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2003.
Reynolds, Simon. "Contort Yourself: No Wave New York." In Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–84. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2005.
Taylor, Marvin J. (ed.). The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984, foreword by Lynn Gumpert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. ISBN0-691-12286-5