The famous Patricia Lee Smith is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called the “punk poet laureate”, Smith fused rock and poetry in her work.
On November 17, 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. The book fulfilled a promise she had made to her former long-time partner Robert Mapplethorpe. She placed 47th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Artists published in December 2010 and was also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.
Who did Patti Smith meet at the Chelsea Hotel?
From our search, Robert Mapplethorpe met with Patti Smith. In 1969, famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and punk poet Patti Smith settled in the Chelsea Hotel. Smith refers to Mapplethorne as “the artist of her life.” She and Mapplethorpe moved into the hotel’s infamously tiny Room 1017 for just $55 a week.
According to Smith, “getting there was a fantastic stroke of luck… living in this weird and terrible hotel provided a sense of security as well as a stellar education.” Mapplethorpe borrowed a Polaroid camera from the artist Sandy Daley, whose room was all white except for silver balloons, and used it to shoot his first photographs.
