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ARTIST-RUN GALLERIES IN NEW YORK CITY Inventing 1952–1965 Downtown JANUARY 10–APRIL 1, 2017 Grey Gazette, Vol. 16, No. 1 · Winter 2017 · Grey Art Gallery New York University 100 Washington Square East, NYC InventingDT_Gazette_9_625x13_12_09_2016_UG.indd 1 12/13/16 2:15 PM Danny Lyon, 79 Park Place, from the series The Destruction of Lower Manhattan, 1967. Courtesy the photographer and Magnum Photos Aldo Tambellini, We Are the Primitives of a New Era, from the Manifesto series, c. 1961. JOIN THE CONVERSATION @NYUGrey InventingDowntown # Aldo Tambellini Archive, Salem, Massachusetts This issue of the Grey Gazette is funded by the Oded Halahmy Endowment for the Arts; the Boris Lurie Art Foundation; the Foundation for the Arts. Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; the Art Dealers Association Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965 is organized by the Grey Foundation; Ann Hatch; Arne and Milly Glimcher; The Cowles Art Gallery, New York University, and curated by Melissa Charitable Trust; and the Japan Foundation. The publication Rachleff. Its presentation is made possible in part by the is supported by a grant from Furthermore: a program of the generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art; the J.M. Kaplan Fund. Additional support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Grey Art Gallery’s Director’s Circle, Inter/National Council, and Visual Arts; the S. & J. Lurje Memorial Foundation; the National Friends; and the Abby Weed Grey Trust. GREY GAZETTE, VOL. 16, NO. 1, WINTER 2017 · PUBLISHED BY THE GREY ART GALLERY, NYU · 100 WASHINGTON SQUARE EAST, NYC 10003 · TEL. 212/998-6780, FAX 212/995-4024 E-MAIL: [email protected] · GREYARTGALLERY.NYU.EDU EDITOR: LUCY OAKLEY. DESIGNER: LAURA LINDGREN. PRODUCTION MANAGER: ALLY MINTZ COVER: John Cohen, Red Grooms transporting artwork to Reuben Gallery, New York, 1960 (detail). Courtesy the photographer and L. Parker Stephenson, New York. © John Cohen InventingDT_Gazette_9_625x13_12_09_2016_UG.indd 2 12/16/16 8:59 AM Introduction Between the apex of Abstract Expressionism and significant artist-run projects, 112 CHAMBERS the rise of Pop Art and Minimalism, the New York STREET and 79 PARK PLACE, which occupied art scene was transformed by artist-run galleries. different conceptual terrains, embraced a Inventing Downtown presents works from fourteen wide range of media, and shared an interest of these crucibles of experimentation, highlighting in exploring temporality and geo-spatial artists’ efforts to create new exhibition venues for dimensions. Politics as Practice includes four innovative works of art—ranging from abstract groups: MARCH GROUP, JUDSON CHURCH’S HALL and figurative painting, assemblage, sculpture, and OF ISSUES, THE CENTER, and SPIRAL GROUP, which works on paper to groundbreaking installations examined the viability of politics as a subject and performances. for art and channeled a new sense of social urgency in addressing Cold War politics, the civil rights movement, and the legacy of World War II, among other concerns. Finally, Defining Downtown looks at the GREEN GALLERY, which played a decisive role in bringing downtown uptown and fostering the rise of Pop and Minimalism. Its program, however, resulted in the narrowing of aesthetic Aldo Tambellini, We Are the Primitives of a New Era, from the Manifesto series, c. 1961. possibilities and the marginalization of Aldo Tambellini Archive, Salem, Massachusetts many artists. Inventing Downtown proposes viewing these Artist-run galleries shaped American art Endowment for the Arts; the Boris Lurie Art Foundation; the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; the Art Dealers Association fourteen galleries via five thematic groupings. irreversibly. After 1965, New York’s uptown and Foundation; Ann Hatch; Arne and Milly Glimcher; The Cowles Leaving Midtown focuses on three Tenth Street downtown art scenes increasingly diverged, Charitable Trust; and the Japan Foundation. The publication galleries which adopted a cooperative business which led to the flowering of nonprofit downtown is supported by a grant from Furthermore: a program of the structure where expenses were shared among alternative spaces. Although more than half a J.M. Kaplan Fund. Additional support is provided by the Grey Art Gallery’s Director’s Circle, Inter/National Council, and elected members: TANAGER GALLERY, HANSA GALLERY, century has passed since the era of Inventing Friends; and the Abby Weed Grey Trust. and BRATA GALLERY. City as Muse features four Downtown, many of the issues mined in the ventures that did not adopt the co-op model: CITY exhibition still resonate in today’s art world— GREY GAZETTE, VOL. 16, NO. 1, WINTER 2017 · PUBLISHED BY THE GREY ART GALLERY, NYU · 100 WASHINGTON SQUARE EAST, NYC 10003 · TEL. 212/998-6780, FAX 212/995-4024 GALLERY, REUBEN GALLERY, DELANCEY STREET MUSEUM, split as it is between the booming commercial E-MAIL: [email protected] · GREYARTGALLERY.NYU.EDU and JUDSON GALLERY. They are best known for market for contemporary art and ever more EDITOR: LUCY OAKLEY. DESIGNER: LAURA LINDGREN. PRODUCTION MANAGER: ALLY MINTZ creating dynamic installations and pioneering pluralistic models of artistic production, COVER: John Cohen, Red Grooms transporting artwork to Reuben Gallery, New York, 1960 (detail). Courtesy the photographer and L. Parker Stephenson, New York performances. Space and Time investigates two promotion, and display. 1 InventingDT_Gazette_9_625x13_12_09_2016_UG.indd 1 12/13/16 2:15 PM LEAVING MIDTOWN examines three pioneering cooperative galleries on or near East Tenth Street between Third and Fourth Avenues. Located in storefronts, these co-ops split expenses and administrative duties among elected members. Tanager Gallery, known for its strong curatorial program, presented both better-established and emerging artists. Some of Hansa Gallery’s artists tested new aesthetic paradigms—incorporating found objects into their artworks—while others continued to pursue figuration. Brata Gallery artists moved away from the emotive gestures of Abstract Expressionism toward hard-edge geometrical compositions. TANAGER GALLERY 51 East Fourth Street (May 1952–March 1953) installations. Inspired by 90 East Tenth Street (April 1953–June 1962) Post-Impressionist painter Among the first of the many artist-run galleries, Tanager maintained Pierre Bonnard, Wolf Kahn a busy schedule of group and solo exhibitions, providing a model for and Jane Wilson continued later co-ops. Originally founded in a barber shop on East Fourth Street, to paint figuratively, creating the gallery moved in spring compelling portraits as 1953 to a less expensive and well as scenes from their larger—though still small— everyday lives. storefront at 90 East Tenth Membership dues at Street. Artist Angelo Ippolito, Hansa’s initial address on a co-founder, transformed East Twelfth Street were $21 both spaces into clean, white- a month, later reduced to $15. walled galleries, designed In 1954, the gallery moved the invitations, and oversaw uptown to 210 Central Park installations with artist South and raised dues to $35 members who paid monthly a month. The new location, dues of $10. The Tanager also near commercial galleries received financial support Jane Wilson, Portrait of Jane Freilicher, 1957. on Fifty-seventh Street and Oil on canvas, 36 × 24 in. (91.4 × 61 cm). Collection from the father of member the Stable Gallery around the Estate of John Gruen. © Estate of Jane Wilson. Sally Hazelet Drummond corner on Fifty-eighth Street, Courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York in exchange for artworks. was a strategic move to attract This additional funding collectors. In 1955 Richard Bellamy, who was close to Hansa members made it possible to hire a Barbara and Miles Forst, was hired as the gallery’s director; later he gallery assistant, a position shared the position with Ivan Karp, then a writer for the Village Voice. notably held by the future The uptown Hansa ultimately operated less as a thriving business and Poster for Painters Sculptors on 10th Street, art historian and critic more as a clubhouse where artists, critics, dealers, art historians, and Tanager Gallery, New York, December 1956– Irving Sandler, who worked patrons gathered, attracted by both the adventurous art and Bellamy 1 1 January 1957. Offset print, 27 ⁄2 × 15 ⁄2 in. there for several years and Karp’s convivial personalities. (69.9 × 39.4 cm). Design: Angelo Ippolito. while a graduate student at Collection of Lois Dodd, New York Columbia University. BRATA GALLERY 89 East Tenth Street (October 1957–April 1962) Tanager artists resisted what they viewed as critics’ outworn Co-founded by the brothers John and Nicholas Krushenick, the Brata designation of downtown art as a unified “New York School.” In took its name from the word “brother” in their father’s native Russian- response, artist-curators organized shows that offered the nuanced Ukranian dialect. Having worked at the Museum of Modern Art as a mix of representational and abstract art that came to characterize the framer, Nicholas believed there was a need for this service downtown; Tenth Street scene. One ambitious landmark exhibition of October 1961, The Private Myth, organized by Sidney Geist and Philip Pearlstein, examined the use of symbols in sculpture and assemblage by twenty- eight artists. HANSA GALLERY 70 East Twelfth Street (November 1952– November 1954); 210 Central Park South (December 1954–June 1959) Most of the twelve artists who founded Hansa Gallery studied with