During one of my frequent conversations with visiting professor Lester Johnson while I was a graduate painting student at Yale University from 1970 to 1972, we discussed the New York art scene. Johnson said Gotham City had the “latest of the late syndrome,” by which he meant that the Big Apple was consumed by what was the newest and most up-to-date—or “now”—art works and/or products. This attitude had a correlative in Hollywood, with its star-struck illusions and delusions.
It wasn’t until decades later that I discovered Johnson was actually one of those artists about whom much had been written, and who has been touted as one of the important voices of modern and contemporary art. In other words, he was part of the latest of the late syndrome.