Bruce Kalberg is Dead

 
Bruce Kalberg is dead, but we’re not gonna forget about him. Hell no. The eccentric artist most known for the NO MAG fanzine, his photography and his novel Sub-Hollywood, passed away a couple weeks ago, and today the world feels a little less unique.

Bruce made quite an impression on me 28 years before I met him. As a 14 year old punk rock enthusiast I came across an issue of NO MAG. I skimmed through the pages when I came across a Raymond Pettibon sketch of a policeman offering a lollipop out the window of his police car to a young boy walking down the street, while the cop had a boner popping out of his pants. It was absurdly foreign to me. I didn’t realize this type of art or magazine could exist. I couldn’t get my head around what the magazine was about, especially at that age. But that’s why it left an indelible mark in my memory I can never forget.

Fast forward 28 years. I meet Bruce and his sweet girlfriend of over 30 years, Ewa, and I thought, wow, it’s great to see these types of creative esoteric people could exist beyond teenage years. I had the pleasure to get to know Bruce and anthropologically learn about the development of the mag and his life through his outrageous stories.

I would see Bruce and I would never know what kind of mood he’d be in. It was always exciting to hear what he had to say.
One thing I’ve learned as I’ve grown older is that humans are complicated. We all have our tribulations, fears, personality complications, demons, addictions, and so on. Bruce had his. We all have ours in some form or another. I didn’t know Bruce all that long in the grand scheme of his or my life. But he had a profound influence on me.

Yes, Bruce is gone, but I’ve got a feeling that more people are gonna discover his work and his life even if he’s not around to tell them the amazing stories in his own words.

Here’s a bio from an exhibition we did of his photographs last year.

Bruce Kalberg

From 1979-1984 Bruce Kalberg photographed virtually every band and personality against the backdrop of the first rush of Punk Rock in Los Angeles and Hollywood. As publisher and chief creative force behind NO MAGAZINE (NOMAG) Bruce photographed both the music and art scene nightly in his studio in Echo Park creating a portrait of fashion and underground culture like no one else. This was the real culture made up of outsiders, losers, immigrants, Punk Rockers from generation one (‘76-’82) living in Hollywood thirty years ago, more crudely wrought lives outside of the sparkle and spotlights than the Entertainment Industry would have you imagine. The obverse of the coin of the world presented nightly on shows such as Entertainment Tonight, this was the heart of Hollywood.

Each photograph is a unique work of art incorporating a backdrop that was custom built for those that stood in front of it. The backgrounds were constructed from pieces of outdoor advertising, carpet parts and other street remnants. They were painted over with geometric shapes organic repetitions and a pop art sensibility that reflected the world of underground Hollywood culture. The backgrounds enveloped the subject and flattened the space so that subject and background where one. These portraits are evidence of a unique time in Hollywood and also the art of a multidimensional artist. The interaction between the various bands and Bruce Kalberg, publisher and photographer, are funny, intimate and real. The images are both reflection of the scene and after their publication in NOMAG were responsible for giving a visual identity to the culture and our memory of it. NOMAG provided a voice and look for many generations and is currently as relevant as when it was created. It was new, dangerous and exciting 30 years ago and still is today.

An artist and photographer, Bruce Kalberg studied fine art in London at the Croydon College of Art (1970-1974) and in Los Angeles at Otis Art Institute (1976-1978). He created NOMAG as an extension of his art studies.

In 2005 Bruce Kalberg under the name of Bruce Caen, published SUB-HOLLYWOOD. The story of a 1980’s publisher of a counter culture magazine. The novel is the story of an underground music magazine publisher in his 20s finding his way through the Los Angeles art world and the raucous tough Punk music scene. This is the same Art community and environment that Gary Panter, at that time an L.A. resident, and Raymond Pettibon gave visual definition to and the same environment that inspired their early work. The novel continues the vision of NOMAG and of Bruce Kalberg/Bruce Caen as an integral part of Hollywood culture.

Digitized version of NO MAG #1

Interview with Bruce from 2010