RESPLENDENT in a straw boater and a natty pinstriped seersucker suit, artist David McDermott was by the far the most exotic guest at Martina Galvin's exhibition opening at the Temple Bar Gallery on Thursday night. David, who is shortly to move into one of the Gallery's studios for three months, is an American artist who works in collaboration with fellow American Peter McGough under the rather genteel name Messrs McDermott and McGough.
A longtime friend of Andy Warhol he got to play himself and sing and dance on several tables in Basquiat, the new film about Warhol directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. David Bowie plays Warhol and is, difficult as it might be to believe and according to McDermott (and he should know), extraordinarily like him. The artist, who always dresses somewhat eccentrically, came here, he said,"following a romantic dream.
There's also, he admitted, the little matter of income tax - apparently the tax people in America are starting to really clampdown on artists.