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'She slept in the hallway on a lawn chair': how Bettina’s astonishing art outgrew her Chelsea Hotel room
The reclusive figure spent decades filling every surface of her apartment at the legendary New York hotel with artworks that rose in teetering piles. Some are now on display for the first time in Glasgow
TL;DR
- Artist Bettina Grossman lived in room 503 of the Chelsea Hotel for nearly 50 years, filling it with her art.
- Her work includes sculptures, Xeroxed word art, photographs, and grids of leaves, with accumulations creating 'teetering canyons'.
- After a fire destroyed her earlier work, Bettina committed to art, exploring conceptual frameworks and a 'fourth dimension'.
- She became increasingly reclusive, fearing burglary and sleeping on a lawn chair as her art took over her living space.
- Bettina died in 2021, and her work is now being recognized, with an exhibition 'Bettina: Finite Structures' in Glasgow and ongoing documentation of her archive by Yto Barrada.