Findlay’s first real art job was working for the Richard Feigen Gallery at 24 East 81st Street. He helped borrow works from Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Arman, Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Segal, Robert Indiana, Wesselmann, and Christo.
“I met Andy Warhol, who became a friend for over 23 years.” Findlay credits Feigen for believing in him and giving him the freedom to grow as a curator and a dealer of fine art. In writing about art, Findlay says, “I found words easily, and I learned from Feigen who never stopped talking, often on the phone, and very loudly!”
Even though Findlay had a meteoric rise less than four years after his arrival in New York City, he claims, “I didn’t have a plan, and I wasn’t ambitious.” The fact that he was very good-looking, and at 19 could have been easily identified as a red-haired version of the Beatles, Findlay fit right in with the zeitgeist of the moment.
He did some modeling and a full-page photo of a tousle-haired, self-confident young man wearing a quintessentially 1960s star emblazoned shirt and form-fitting striped pants graces the facing title page of the book, proving my point. In 1973, Findlay married Black supermodel Naomi Sims.
