This year, the unsung heroes who carefully transport all those multi-million dollar artworks have taken a page out the FDNY’s handbook and produced a sexy pin-up calendar of New York art handlers.
“The perfect gift for your favorite art museum director or registrar!” raves one satisfied Etsy customer.
NYC Art Handlers Calendar 2016.
Photo: courtesy NYC Art Handlers.
The $15 calendar is being sold to benefit the Bowery Mission in New York and the Fund for Lamjung, part of the continued relief efforts in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake earlier this year.
The calendar, shot by Ryan Dorsett, is now in its second edition. The brainchild behind the project is Zaq Landsberg, who is featured on the cover gamely holding a drill.
“Some friends of mine were just straight bored at work,” he told artnet News of the project’s genesis in a phone interview.
NYC Art Handlers Calendar 2016.
Photo: courtesy NYC Art Handlers.
It’s a lighthearted way to poke fun of those in the profession who take their job a little too seriously. “Among the jobs that use tools, art handling is probably the wussiest,” said Landsberg.
NYC Art Handlers Calendar 2016.
Photo: courtesy NYC Art Handlers.
The models (who also double as photographers) work at museums, galleries, universities and art trucking companies around the city.
Landsberg and his friends mostly shot the images on their lunchbreaks, which made for an awkward moment when they heard the key in the door during one topless photo session.
“I was shooting and the three dudes were shirtless and we were like ‘uh oh,” recalls Landsberg. (Luckily, it was just a friend, and not their employer.)
NYC Art Handlers Calendar 2016.
Photo: courtesy NYC Art Handlers.
The other issue Landsberg ran into? “Art handlers are kind of bashful people. We spend most of the time behind the scenes,” he said. “Getting people to take their shirts off was a little harder than I thought.”
NYC Art Handlers Calendar 2016.
Photo: courtesy NYC Art Handlers.