Watch young Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe living in the Chelsea Hotel
Patti Smith has long been referred to as the “punk poet laureate” due to her unique fusing of spoken word poetry and punk music, which gained her considerable attention in the 1970s after the release of her debut album Horses.
Before Smith became the punk legend we know her as today, she spent much of her time hanging out in New York with her lover Robert Mapplethorpe, brushing shoulders with artists such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol and his associates, and even her poetic hero Allen Ginsberg. Smith has described this period as a “fresh state of transformation,” which underscored her rise to become a rock ‘n’ roll icon, and Mapplethorpe’s journey to become a famed photographer.
Smith met Mapplethorpe whilst working in a bookshop, which led to an intense relationship between the two, with the musician since referring to him as “the artist of my life.” The couple moved into Hotel Chelsea, located in Manhattan, during 1969. They stayed in Room 1017 – the smallest in the hotel, which cost just $55 a week.
The Hotel Chelsea opened in 1884, with architect Philip Hubert setting out to create a utopian commune, one where tenants shared services and the settlement would meet everyone’s needs. Soon, the hotel was populated by the workers that constructed the building, as well as artists and writers. Unfortunately, the project went bankrupt, and by 1905 it was turned into a luxury hotel.
Prices rapidly decreased after World War II, which attracted countless artists and bohemians, such as Jackson Pollock and Dylan Thomas, who died shortly after his stay at the hotel. Through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the hotel’s legend enhanced. Leonard Cohen recalled the sexual acts that took place between him and Joplin in the song ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’, Nancy Spungen was stabbed in Room #100, Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey in the hotel, the list goes on…
Smith and Mapplethorpe’s time at the hotel was crucial in their developments as artists. The punk poet once described her time there by saying, “a tremendous stroke of luck to land up there… to dwell in this eccentric and damned hotel provided a sense of security as well as a stellar education.”
German artist Albert Scopin attempted to make a documentary on the Chelsea Hotel in 1970, when he was “more or less permanent resident.” He claims that budgeting issues prevented a proper documentary from being made, but a few clips exist that offer an interesting insight into an iconic era of Chelsea Hotel history.
`The clip shows images of Smith and Mapplethorpe, as well as the pieces of art that covered their walls, whilst audio of Smith reading poetry is laid over the top. We are also shown images of artist Sandy Daley’s all-white room, which was filled with giant silver balloons. Daley lent Mapplethorpe her Polaroid camera during this period, which led him to fall in love with photography.
Scopin detailed how deeply fascinated he was when he first met Smith. “She really was completely different to any other human I had ever met before. She was pure energy. Everything was an experiment and everything was to be understood. Robert, on the other hand, was a cool cynic, yet the two stood united in their fundamental aim to get to the top and I am incredibly pleased to know that they really made it!”
