CREDITS page 2 table of contents / INDEX of artists page 3 94 ---pp 4, 10, 15, insert 186 Bowery Angelo Ippolito 269 Bowery Elizabeth Murray---pp 17, 19 Stanley Crouch Sam Cady Ethelyn Honig---insert Joe Overstreet---p 13, insert Fernand Léger---p 15 Ralph Grant Archie Shepp LORETTA DUNKELMAN Brenda Goodman Gilda Pervin---insert 187 Bowery John Opper---p 4 276 Bowery 30 Cooper Square Mitch Epstein Ronnie Landfield---cover Ann Wilson---insert Roberta Degnore ---p 15, insert ---p 4 ---p 4, insert Inka Essenhigh---pp 16-17 Peter Young 135 Bowery 188 Bowery Lynn Umlauf---p 8 295 Bowery 35 Cooper Square Dorothy Gallagher

Published by 98 Bowery Ray Donarski 223 Bowery Michael Bakaty Claude Brown Sandy Gellis Peter Boynton Jane (Miller) Doyle---pp 10 Peter Dean Malcolm Morley Sophie Keir Diane di Prima William Giles Curt Hoppe---p 23 Tom Doyle---pp 10-11, 15, insert 229 Bowery Kate Millett---p 23 Billy Name ---insert ---insert newmuseum.org Maya Lin Alan Finkel Charles Eisenmann Harvey Quaytman Stan Sobossek Gail Goldsmith Editor: Ethan Swan Christopher Lucas Ethelyn Honig---insert Will Insley 231 Bowery 300 Bowery Other Bowery Residents Keith Haring---pp 21, 22, insert Designed by: Omnivore Marc Miller---p 23 Richard Smith Dinah Maxwell Smith Francis Barth Roger Laux Nelson Andrew Bolotowsky Hilary Harkness Printed in ---insert ---insert Cover: Ronnie Landfield moving out Alan Moore Grace Bakst Wapner 189 Bowery David Diao 302 Bowery Dominick Capobianco Caspar Henselmann of his studio at 94 Bowery, October/ ---p 23 ---insert ---insert ---p 22, insert November 1969. Photo: Melissa Shock Bettie Ringma 136 Bowery Bruce Boice Max Gimblett Hilo Chen Quentin Crisp Michael Holman Bowery façade photos Eve Sonneman Roberta Handler Bruce Breckenridge---insert Charles Hinman Joanne Klein Scott Ewalt---pp 16-17, 22, 23 © Isabel Asha Penzlien 2008 ---insert ---insert ---insert ---pp 4, 15, 20-21 © 2008 New Museum of Contemporary Art Darcy Spitz Ethelyn Honig John Coplans Will Insley 304 Bowery Dorothy Gallagher Sol LeWitt All rights reserved. No part of this Paul Tschinkel 137 Bowery Tom Doyle---pp 10-11, 15, insert Harvey Quaytman ---p 16 Hans Haacke---p 20 Jane Logemann publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted Bob Yucikas---insert Max Neuhaus---insert Jan Groover---insert ---insert 306 Bowery Al Hansen ---p 17 in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording ---insert ---p 4, insert or otherwise, without the prior permission 99 Bowery Michael Oruch Ethelyn Honig Tom Wesselmann Ken Kobland Willie Heeks Steve Mumford of the publisher. Douglas Leichter 142 Bowery Ahza Cohen Moore 246 Bowery 307 Bowery ---p 21 Louise Nevelson The Bowery Artist Tribute is made possible by an endowment Clayton Patterson Paula Tavins John Vincent Moore Ethelyn Honig---insert Fumio Yoshimura Valerie Jordan Doug Olsen from Hermine and David Heller. Sponsored by 100 Bowery 156 Bowery 190 Bowery Alice Adams 330 Bowery William Katz Pat Passeloff Medrie MacPhee Douglas Leichter Adolph GottLieb---insert Robert Slutzky David Becker Barry Malloy Adrian Piper---pp 17, 20-21 Libby Seaberg David Wander Roy 255 Bowery Gerald Laing Nancy Malloy Mor Pipman Sara Wells 163 Bowery LichtensteiN--pp 4, 10, 17, insert Robert Fosdick Robert Watts Camille Norman Richard Pitts Carrie Yamaoka Gloria (Greenberg) Jay Maisel---insert Gerald Jackson Tom Wesselmann---p 4, insert Amos Poe---p 18 103 Bowery Bressler Albert & 261 Bowery 342 Bowery Anne Russinof Richard Prince Virginia Buchan Martin Bressler David Maysles---insert Tony Jannetti Stephanie Chernikowski Angelo Savelli Alan Uglow Carter Jones 193 Bowery 262 Bowery 350 Bowery Elfi Schuselka Ruth Reichl 105 Bowery Lucy Lippard---p 20, insert Will Ryman Al Loving---pp 17-18, insert Béla Bartók---insert Ellen Sellenraad Milton Resnick Billy Sullivan ---p 20, insert 215 Bowery Wyn Loving---pp 17-18, insert 354 Bowery Johann Sellenraad Bill Rice Brice Marden---p 4 Sylvia Plimack Lawrence Calcagno Alicia Loving- Peter Dudek Dash Snow ---p 20 107 Bowery Mangold---p 20, insert 217 Bowery Cortes---pp 17-18 356 Bowery Glen Steigelman Winston Roeth Jake Berthot Robert Ryman---p 20, insert Vito Acconci---pp 6-7, 17, insert ---insert ---insert John Willenbecher Brian Rose 110 Bowery Carol Steen---insert Nicholas Sperakis Richard Van Buren---insert Howard Kanowitz---insert David Weinrib---p 10 Susan Smith John Vincent Moore Frank Lincoln Viner---insert 222 Bowery Batya Zamir---insert Doris Licht---p 23, insert William T. Williams George Sugarman 111 Bowery 184 Bowery Lynda Benglis---pp 8-9, insert 264 Bowery Cy Twombly---p 15, insert Adjacent to the Bowery Nick Taylor---p 22 Mark Mastroianni Sara Driver William Fred Gutzeit 357 Bowery PAT CARYI PAUL THEK Calvin Reid Robert Frank---p 4, insert Burroughs---pp 8, 19, insert 266 Bowery Andrew Lord Jean-Michel David Wonder 119 Bowery June Leaf---insert Ro Lohin 27 Cooper Square BasquiaT---pp 12, 21, 22 Kes Zapkus Les Levine---insert Annette Morriss Wynn Chamberlain Kevin Wixted ---p 15 David Becker The Bowery Artist Tribute is an ongoing project. The New Museum ---p 5, insert ---pp 4, 15, insert Jimmy Wright 185 Bowery Mark Dagley 268 Bowery Hettie Jones Tom Bronk welcomes additional information 134 Bowery Joan Gardner John Giorno-pp 8, 15, 16, 17, insert Carmen Cicero Kellie Jones---p 19 Tom Buddas about artists who have lived or worked on the Bowery. Please Frank Gardner Michael Goldberg---p 8 Martha Diamond Lisa Jones Ping Chong refer to the back cover for Tom Doyle---pp 10-11, 15, insert George Mingo Chuck Close more information. PROJECT INTRODUCTION page 4 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 5 The Bowery Timeline The Bowery, which started its life as a cow path over 400 years ago, began its The Bowery Artist Tribute, an initiative of the Education 1653 Dutch found New long descent downward in the nineteenth century when it was a street filled and Public Programs staff of the New Museum, records Amsterdam. Peter with popular theaters, burlesque joints, and vaudeville shows. The erection of and preserves this history, chronicling the artists who have Stuyvesant settles the 3rd Avenue El in 1878 hastened the Bowery’s decline into a dark, noisy, and lived and worked on or near the Bowery over the past fifty his residence bouwerij unpleasant street with shadier characters and establishments lingering in the years. It is a Web site, an archive, a series of public programs, (17th-century Dutch shadows beneath the train tracks. and a presentation in our Resource Center that continues to for “farm”) along Native grow as we record more oral histories and more and more American path, which A turnaround in the Bowery’s fortunes came in the 1950s, when the elevated information and material comes to light. develops into Bowery Lane. tracks were taken down, restoring the Bowery to a wide and light-filled boule- vard. As might be predicted, artists were among the first to rediscover its We are indebted to American Express for 1654 New Amsterdam becomes potential. They appreciated the murky zone of the Bowery—including its decay funding the research, development, and New York. and neglect. While a heavy residue of the past remained—homeless shelters, presentation of this archive, and to David 1655 First Bowery tavern men’s homes, cheap hotels, and bars—there were also loft spaces with ample and Hermine Heller for providing endow- founded. square footage and plenty of light. By 1965, more than 100 artists were living on ment funds for its future. We are also the Bowery including Sol Lewitt, Eva Hesse, , Brice Marden, grateful to a number of individuals who 1798 Park Theater opens at the Robert Frank, Hettie Jones, and John Opper. These were not only painters and have been instrumental in the research and southernmost point of the sculptors, but photographers, poets, musicians, and filmmakers. coordination of these efforts over the past two years, especially Bowery, New York’s most Eungie Joo, , Ethan Swan, NYU fellows Matthew elegant street. Artists are frequently the first to pioneer under-recognized or neglected areas Israel and Jovana Stokic, Travis Chamberlain, and Rya Conrad- of the city. Artists are the first wave; a sure precedent to gentrification. Cultural 1826 Great Bowery Theater Bradshaw. Finally, we owe many thanks to the artists, relatives, institutions and commercial establishments follow… And so this is the way it opens, initiating the and friends who have shared their studios, photographs and has gone on the Bowery in its renaissance. As a relatively new establishment Bowery’s short reign as memories of the Bowery. on the Bowery, the New Museum felt it was important to recognize not only the New York’s main theater history of the storied boulevard, but also the role that artists have played in the Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director district. formation of this history and the evolution of the surrounding neighborhoods.

CAPTIONS 2—View from 262 Bowery. Courtesy 4­—1978 letter from the Department of 1—Tom Wesselmann in his studio at 231 Anne and Alicia Loving Cultural Affairs certifying James (Jimmy) Bowery. The building had no buzzer, and Wright as an artist, a necessary step the artist kept a front door key on a 3—Artist in Residence sign at 161 Bowery, in establishing a live/work loft in New fishing pole, which he lowered down to 2008. These signs were required by the York City. Courtesy Jimmy Wright visitors so they could let themselves in. city of New York for legal artist lofts to Courtesy the Estate of Tom Wesselmann alert emergency services that buildings were occupied. Photo: Ethan Swan PROJECT INTRODUCTION

2 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

1 3 4 VITO ACCONCI page 6 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 7 The Bowery Timeline 217 Bowery (1965–1966) 131 Chrystie Street (1972–1979) 1830s Bowery Boy myth of tough, streetwise youth develops. The Bowery Working in such diverse fields as his career in the 1960s as a writer, we moved into a loft. It was $60 a becomes battleground performance, video art, architec- first in fiction at the Iowa Writer’s month. The Bowery was obviously between nativist gangs and ture, and poetry, Vito Acconci (b. Workshop, then turning to poetry different then. My memory tells me new European immigrants, 1940) has helped redefine the role of after his return to New York in it was a mix of lighting stores and flop- further chasing away the viewer and increase the range 1964. Alongside , house hotels, cheap bars, and people middle- and upper-class of strategies that inform creative Acconci produced the literary walking very, very slowly. VITO ACCONCI residents. To cater to newly artistic production. Acconci began magazine 0 to 9, which ran for six People whose whole day seemed to immigrant local populations issues between 1967 and 1969, be going from Spring and Bowery to to be nostalgic about this. The and workers, the Bowery and included contributions from Prince and Bowery. But they had noth- Bowery never felt that dangerous Theater replaces its program poets, musicians, and visual artists. ing much else to do. I remember once to me. It just felt, not exactly sad, of Greek theater and In the 1970s, Acconci executed a when Terry Fox came to New York, he but at least semi-hopeless. Semi- opera with melodramas and series of installations that radically was very fascinated about how very hopeless, but at the same time sideshows, and lowers shifted the role of the gallery visitor slowly people moved and walked. there was such a notion of change. ticket prices. from spectator to participant. His 1833 James Allaire builds ’s first tenement building on Water Street. 1836 Bowery Savings Bank moves into iconic building at 130 Bowery. 4

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performances were at the forefront This was a time when a lot of New of the Conceptual art movement York poets got jobs with ARTnews. that removed the object from art We would write reviews for like $4 a and replaced it with interaction. review. I wrote some reviews then. I In the 1980s, he founded Acconci would hope I got twelve each month, Studio, a group of architects who so I could make at least $50. But at design projects for public spaces, that time, rent was very cheap. At that CAPTIONS 1—Vito Acconci interviewed at treating architecture as an occa- time, you could get a lot of spaces Acconci Studio, August 17, 2007 sion for activity. for $60 a month, I remember it had --- 2, 3—Vito Acconci, Double Bubble, some problems. I don’t think there 1966, pages 12-13. Double Bubble was Excerpt from the Bowery Artist was heat; it was very, very dark. But Acconci’s first poetry chapbook, Tribute interview August 17, 2007 that didn’t seem so bad then… issued during his time at 217 available at boweryartisttribute.org Bowery. Courtesy Vito Acconci --- [The Bowery] seemed to be 4,5,6—Vito Acconci, The Red Tapes, When I came back to New York transient, not a place that people 1976-77, video still, dimensions in 1964, I still thought of myself as stay. For me that felt very invigorat- variable. Shot in the artist’s loft at 131 Chrystie Street. Courtesy Vito Acconci a writer. I had a very large loft on ing. Transient was what I always the Bowery; it was this amazingly thought New York was. I probably 7—Vito Acconci, My Word, 1974, Super 8 film still, dimensions variable. Filmed in cavernous space. I was married to have a particular fear of home and the artist’s loft at 131 Chrystie Street. someone who thought of herself safety, so the notion of transient Courtesy Vito Acconci 1 as a painter, which was the reason feels very healthy. You don’t have 7 LYNDA BENGLIS page 8 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 9 The Bowery Timeline 222 Bowery (1972–present) 1843 The Virginia Minstrels perform the first all- blackface program to The agile of Lynda Benglis When I would go up and down the sold-out crowd at the (b. 1941) exists at a unique intersec- hallway he would hug one side of the Bowery Amphitheatre tion between artistic practice and hallway and I would hug the other at 37-39 Bowery. feminist discourse. By employing because we were equally afraid of 1845 City Council spends a wide range of materials, includ- one another. He was shy and I was $116,000 to build Union ing wax, latex, polyurethane foam, shy. Burroughs is now LYNDA BENGLIS Square, named for the and metal, Benglis has undertaken union of Bowery, , an examination of materiality and and 14th Street. form, a practice that both mirrors and critiques the societal examina- 1847 Astor Place Theater is built tion of the female body. Upon her to present Italian opera, arrival in New York in the 1960s, currently in vogue. New Benglis set her work in opposition York’s theater district begins to the overtly masculine discipline to move uptown. of with her process-ori- 1848 The Bowery between Union ented, sculptural work. At the same Square and Cooper Square time, she began creating videos that is renamed 4th Avenue. expanded her exploration of female 1 sexuality and identity, with humor, 1852 National Theater at 104 self-examination, and aggression. Bowery hosts the first Since the 1960s, Benglis has shown stage production of Uncle nationally and internationally, Tom’s Cabin. 1858 Chinese-American tobacconist Ah Ken sets up the first downtown Chinese-owned business on Park Row.

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3 including solo exhibitions in and New Zealand, and her work is included in many public collections, including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; the Hokkaido Museum of in , Japan; and the in 4 and maybe you had a toilet New York. --- outside in the hall. It was Excerpt from the Bowery Artist very much an informal situ- Tribute interview October 11, 2007 ation. It was only until we available at boweryartisttribute.org bought this space, maybe --- ten years ago, that we put in CAPTIONS 1—Lynda Benglis with gold-leaf I had very close friends, Mike a functional kind of bath- sculpture in her studio at 222 Bowery, Goldberg and Lynn Umlauf, [who] room here. It was very infor- 1981. Courtesy Lynda Benglis lived in this building, and I acquired mal, and very creative. It 2—Lynda Benglis interviewed in her this room when I found out that a still is, Mike still paints next studio at 222 Bowery, October 11, 2007 friend of [Mike’s] was moving out. door, Lynn has her studio, 3—Lynda Benglis with a fan from her He lived here and worked here John paints here. I did a lot Peacock series in her studio at 222 and in Washington, where he was 5 of work here. I did a lot of Bowery, 1979. Courtesy Lynda Benglis Jackie Kennedy’s best friend. He gone, but John Giorno is here. John gold leafing here, and I was sleep- 4—Lynda Benglis, Contraband, 1969, was a fellow that would come in at was always here, and Mike was ing with all this plaster, sleeping poured latex, 405 by 109 in (1,028.7 x 276.9 cm). Courtesy Lynda Benglis night in a tuxedo and then go back always here before I was here. It’s with all this gold leaf, in this same out in leather to the West Side: a kind of, in a way, like a dormitory. bed. This same pull-out bed I’ve had 5—Lynda Benglis with torso pieces in her studio at 222 Bowery, 1974. great guy who had artistic aspira- John has had the Buddhist meetings since I got here. Nothing’s changed. Courtesy Lynda Benglis 7 tions. So I got his space. I’ve lived here. We would all use the same I’ve just gathered more furniture. 6—Doorway to Lynda Benglis here for over thirty years. It’s one bathroom, at one point—it was his Studio, 2007 of my favorite places, because [of] private bathroom upstairs. So you 7—Lynda Benglis, Chimera, 1988, cast different people who have lived can imagine living here and having bronze fountain, 55 by 96 by 52 in (139.7 x 2 here. William Burroughs was here. to go upstairs to take a shower, 243.8 x 132.1 cm). Courtesy Lynda Benglis TOM DOYLE page 10 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 11 The Bowery Timeline Grand Street off Bowery (1958–1959) 134 Bowery (1963–1967) 1864 Stephen Foster, known 135 Bowery (1963–1970) as the “father of American 189 Bowery (1970–1976) music” and songwriter minutes.” They were Day,” when the guys got paid, of “Oh! Susanna” and like doormen. I would they got their checks. And then “Camptown Races,” dies give them a quarter. hawks would come in, and then in a Bowery flophouse I knew them all, and rob them if they were drunk on the at age 37. they were all nice streets. They were called hawks, 1870s Stock Market crash, guys. A lot of them you know, gangsters. TOM DOYLE economic depression were old soldiers and follows. Hundreds of retail they didn’t have a shops close on the Bowery, home, and they were replaced by cheap saloons, on pensions, and shooting galleries, and they would drink a bit dance halls. when they could get it. But they weren’t 1870 The Slide, New York’s bad guys. I never had first gay bar opens at any problem with 157 . 1 anybody. The only Tom Doyle (b. 1928) moved from his time when you could have trouble native Ohio to New York in 1957, would be around the first of the where he became a key figure in month, what’s called “Mother’s the first generation of Abstract Expressionist sculptors. Combining his childhood experience in a black- smith’s shop, his studies with Roy Lichtenstein at Ohio State University, and an admiration for the monu- mental structure and emotional intensity of and , Doyle developed a unique sculptural vocabulary. In 1961, Doyle met and married Eva Hesse, and the couple began a four-year partnership in which their individual practices and interests informed each other’s work. In 1964, the couple embarked on a fifteen- month residency in Germany, where Doyle moved away from stone sculp- ture, instead working in assemblage, casting, and steel. As his mediums expanded, he remained focused on 3 4 the tactility of his work and preserv- David Weinrib, the sculptor, he used ing each sculpture’s handmade origin. to have these parties. One time Doyle’s work has been exhibited we had this great party, it was a internationally. In 1994, Doyle was communal dinner. We’d have soup in awarded a lifetime achievement one place, and then we’d walk to the award from the American Academy next studio, and we’d have appetiz- of Arts and Letters. He lives and ers. And we’d just move from one works in Western Connecticut with studio to another, and each person his wife Jane, also an artist. They would make a dish. The night we recently opened a joint exhibition at had it was a blizzard and it was so La Motta Fine Art in Hartford. fantastic. We could walk through --- the streets, it was like living in the Excerpt from the Bowery Artist country. There was nothing on Tribute interview May 8, 2008 the streets. There was no traffic. available at boweryartisttribute.org Every street and every avenue --- was white. It was marvelous. Everybody always talks about how dangerous the Bowery was. The CAPTIONS Bowery was never dangerous. I 1—Tom Doyle, 2008. Courtesy Tom Doyle never had any one mess with me, no 2—Tom Doyle interviewed at the one. One time, a bum threw a bottle New Museum, May 8, 2008 and it went in front of me and my 3—Tom Doyle, Innishkeen, 2003, sassafras, girlfriend, and he apologized, “Oh, oak and cherry, 76 by 101 by 130 in (193 x 256.5 x 330.2 cm). Courtesy Tom Doyle I’m sorry, sorry.” At 189, Jane would go to Little Italy to shop, and these 4—Tom Doyle, Ballysheen, 1991, bronze from wood, 10 by 15 by 20 in (25.4 x guys would be sitting on the door- 38.1 x 50.8 cm). Courtesy Tom Doyle stop, and they would say, “Your wife 5­­—Tom Doyle, Lunesa, 2006, oak and went out, she’ll be back in twenty cherry, 132 by 108 by 228 in (335.3 x 2 274.3 x 579.1 cm). Courtesy Tom Doyle 5 AMOS POE page 12 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 13 The Bowery Timeline 47 E. 3rd Street (1977–1981) 591 Broadway (1981–1983) 1875 Samuel F. O’Reilly invents 31 (1983–2005) the electric tattoo machine and opens a shop at 11 The career of Amos Poe (b. 1950) is access television show hosted by Chatham Square. inextricably linked with the birth of Glenn O’Brien and Chris Stein (of American punk, the No Wave move- Blondie) that featured appearances 1876 George B. Bunnell opens ment, and the downtown New York and contributions from a variety the New American Museum art scene. In 1975, he co-directed of downtown artists, musicians, at 103 Bowery; P.T. Barnum Blank Generation: The Birth of and performers, including Fab Five AMOS POE is a silent partner. Punk with Ivan Kral, producing the Freddy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1878 Elevated train opens at first document of the burgeoning and David Walter McDermott. bleak situation around the Bowery’s third-story New York punk/new wave scene, us, the economic situa- He recently completed Empire II, an level, darkening the street, with performances by Blondie, tion of the city. The city’s homage to the 1964 showering pedestrians , the , and infrastructure was a mess. film Empire. with debris, and chasing more. His 1978 film, The Foreigner --- The city was basically middle-class patrons and defined the no wave genre though Excerpt from the Bowery Artist bankrupt for a few years. businesses to Broadway its celebration of B-movie textures, Tribute interview May 12, 2008 We were aware of that and parallel avenues. avant-garde tactics, and the auteur- available at boweryartisttribute.org on some level, but at the ism of the French New Wave. --- same time it was like a 1878–1879 I guess I’ve lived along the edges of playground of ideas. Electric lights installed on Throughout this era, Poe acted the Bowery since 1972, when I first the Bowery. as director of TV Party, a public I still can’t quite figure came to New York. It’s been a major out how it happened, 1879 The Bowery Mission opens artery just where I’ve been. Plus but on any given night, at 36 Bowery. Responding CBGBs. I spent a lot of time there. 3 all the people would go to the growing immigrant Everything was cheap in the ’70s; I think the energy was that we were from one place to the other. It was population, the Bowery New York was a wasteland. My first living extremely in the moment. We like the drumbeat in the jungle. The Theater, now renamed the apartment was $60 a month, and then weren’t really looking back, except basic day or night (twenty-four-hour Thalia, offers German and I went up to $92. Then I had this huge for some artistic inspirations, and period) was: you got up late, you Yiddish theater and Italian loft, about 5,000 square feet, and that we all had a very bohemian sensi- went out to like Binibon or one of and Chinese vaudeville. was really expensive: $140 a month. bility. I think we were aware of the the other inexpensive places where 1892 The Bowery is the you could get breakfast for like ¢89. target of a popular song And then, did whatever you had by Charles M. Hoyt: to do, and then sometime, by like seven or eight, you knew where you “The Bowery, the Bowery! had to be that night. And when you They say such things and went there, whatever place that was they do such things supposed to be, the other 400 people On the Bowery, the Bowery! that were in that scene were also I’ll never go there any more!” there. It might’ve been a phone call, it 1893–1898 might’ve been just passing someone Worst depression in U.S. on the street. It just went like that. history. Over half the I mean it was what it was. I certainly saloons and pawnshops don’t look back about it romantically. south of 14th Street are Well, maybe I do. But I don’t look located on the Bowery. about it nostalgically, and I’m not one 1900s 25,000 men lodge nightly of those people who say “Oh it was on the Bowery in flophouses so great then and so terrible now.” and SROs (single room Definitely I don’t look back on it with occupancy buildings). nostalgia and I don’t think it was great. We just survived, we did what 1903 Williamsburg Bridge opens. we did. 1909 Manhattan Bridge opens. The Bowery Mission moves to 227-229 Bowery, where it remains today. 1919 18th Amendment prohibits the sale and consumption of alcohol, forcing many establishments on the Bowery to close.

CAPTIONS 1—Amos Poe interviewed at the New Museum, May 12, 2008 2—Top: Eric Mitchell and Amos Poe (right) on the set of The Foreigner, final day of filming, 1978. Bottom: Amos Poe, film still from The Foreigner CAPTION (1978). Courtesy Amos Poe Hugh Wyatt’s 1967 New York Daily News article, “Influx of Artists is Changing Gray, 3—Amos Poe, 1977. Courtesy Amos Poe Sad Face of the Bowery.” © New York 1 2 Daily News, L.P. used with permission INKA ESSENHIGH page 14 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 15 The Bowery Timeline Suffolk & Rivington (1992–present) 1920s The Bowery’s reputation for squalor, unemployment, and its large population between fifty and 100 artists in the to be. I always wanted to be in of alcoholics lead it to be building. The attraction [of the Manhattan; I had this dream of being referred to as New York Bowery] was to be in Manhattan. able to walk anywhere and walk City’s “Skid Row.” People were already moving to down the street and just run into 1940s Restaurant equipment DUMBO and to Williamsburg, and people—and I always run into people stores open on the Bowery. that was when Williamsburg I know as I walk down INKA ESSENHIGH The term “Bowery Bums” first became really huge, between the streets of Manhattan. I guess have such a generic space to make emerges to describe the 1991–95, was when it really this is not interesting though. It my paintings in. The aesthetic of the alcoholics and homeless exploded as the new artist’s place seemed easier just in terms of trying clean white box is a kind of recent people inhabiting and make a career in the art world. thing, and it doesn’t have to be that frequenting the area. The whole idea was if you could way, and I’m glad I don’t have to be invite someone back to your studio in a cold white box either. If I go, one 1941 Fernand Léger moves into the thinking was it was actually thing that I would like for this space 222 Bowery. easier to get them to come to a place is that at least I would be able to give 1954 Sol LeWitt establishes his that was actually close as opposed it to another artist, as opposed to studio at Hester and Bowery. to Williamsburg or DUMBO. having it turn into another condo. 1 1955 Elevated train on the It was a rough neighborhood I really believe that art needs a Bowery is torn down, Inka Essenhigh (b. 1969) emerged when we first moved here, when certain amount of cheap living for in the 1990s as a painter of energetic, returning daylight to the you walked down the street people to have some play in their street. intricate, and superbly proficient you got a lot of offers, this corner work, so it’s not all this boring works. Balancing a vast range of was really known for heroin. professionalism and people can take 1957 The Five Spot opens at influences—Arabic miniatures, 5 Cooper Square, host to cartoons, Art Nouveau—her paint- Billie Holiday, Thelonious ings effect a perfectly credible Monk, and John Coltrane, yet exotic world. Barrooms, malls, among others. Mark Rothko subway platforms, and other banal establishes residence and locations are populated with green- studio at 222 Bowery. skinned creatures and twisted-limb grotesques, revealing their strange 1960s Cy Twombly resides at underbellies. Whimsical as often as 356 Bowery. sinister, the fluidly deformed charac- 1962 Amiri Baraka and ters of Essenhigh’s paintings coyly Hettie Jones move into reveal an understanding of the world 27 Cooper Square that inspired them. As Essenhigh explained, “I think about them as 4 1963 Eva Hesse moves to being about America: fake, fun, pop, 134 Bowery with her violent, but also quite attractive.” husband Tom Doyle. Recently, Essenhigh has begun a process of transforming her subject matter. Having always made paint- ings “about the world that I live in,” Essenhigh explains, “now I’m making a conscious effort to paint the world that I want to live in.” Since her first solo exhibition at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo in 1999, Essenhigh has exhibited widely across the and Europe. Her work has been featured 3 in several defining group exhibi- In 1995, Giuliani really decided to chances. And this studio that I’ve tions including “Greater New York: crack down, and clean up the Lower had has always been really cheap New Art in New York Now” (2000) at East Side. And there were daily and I have taken risks and I’ve never P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New busts, and before you know it, there done something because I have a York; “Hybrids” (2001) at the Tate are nicer places to get lunch. market for it. I really have just come to the studio and done what I’ve Liverpool; and the touring exhibition I’ve been here for like fifteen years wanted, and that’s because of “My Reality: Contemporary Art and and I kind of take it for granted. cheap rent. the Culture of Japanese Animation” And one thing that I might take for (2001). granted is that it’s not a white hue. --- CAPTIONS It’s not a clean white box that I have 1—Inka Essenhigh. Courtesy Inka Essenhigh Excerpt from the Bowery Artist a studio in that’s going to be like Tribute interview September 30, 2007 2—Inka Essenhigh interviewed at the galleries that I show in. A lot of her studio, September 30, 2007 available at boweryartisttribute.org times when I’m making a painting, --- 3—Inka Essenhigh, Power Party, 2003, I don’t like to make something that We’re in an old schoolhouse build- oil on , 76 by 80 in (193 x 203.2 5 ing—an old P.S.1 building on the big, something that gigantic.I want it cm). Courtesy Inka Essenhigh corner of Rivington and Suffolk— to be much more human scale, even 4—Interior of Inka Essenhigh’s where I’ve been since ’94 and where if it doesn’t fit into the New York art studio. Photo: Joe Fig there’s now probably anywhere world with the gigantic spaces. I’ve 5­—Interior of Inka Essenhigh’s studio. 2 always been thankful that I didn’t Photo: Joe Fig SCOTT EWALT page 16 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 17 The Bowery Timeline Bowery at Street (1994–present) 1965 New York Times article “The Bowery: Arty and Avant-Garde” (January The devilish, supremely vivid work Square with singer/writer Marc I didn’t even know anything about the 2, 1965) claims over 100 of Scott Ewalt (b. 1965) has appeared Almond. As a DJ, Ewalt has a unique geography, it just seemed like every artists live on the Bowery on record covers, in the galleries identity, playing striptease music for book I read as a teenager that really for the cheap lofts, Deitch Projects and Feature Inc., and both downtown dance crowds and made an impression, the [author] large studio spaces, and in public institutions. His striking for the legends of the Burlesque Hall lived on the Bowery. And so before natural light. Vito Acconci imagery conjures up both the power of Fame. I even knew where it was, I had this SCOTT EWALT moves to 217 Bowery; of mythological figures and the --- fixation in my mind that Roy Lichtenstein moves to naughtiness of burlesque. Working Excerpt from the Bowery Artist I was going to move to New York and then closed in when they built the 190 Bowery. Tribute interview January 29, 2008 exclusively in a digital format since live on the Bowery and have a loft Avalon Chrystie building, that was 1966 John Giorno moves 1987, Ewalt has collaborated with a available at boweryartisttribute.org and be an artist. When I first moved kind of the end of the old-time Bowery. --- to 222 Bowery and remarkable variety of artists, includ- in a lot of those people from the They tore down the original Suicide I moved here in 1994. I’d always establishes the Dial-a- ing Kembra Pfahler, Matthew Barney, books were still here. One of the first Bar, which was across the street, wanted to live here because I had Poem offices in the building. days I moved in, I was sitting on the and it was disappointing because all read about it, and like most people of fire escape and I looked down and it of a sudden parking was an issue, 1967 Elizabeth Murray moves my generation, I had grown up with was John Giorno and he was talk- and we had SUVs everywhere. to 27 Cooper Square. Andy Warhol’s POPism and reading ing to Uta Hagen, and I just thought, the Beat poets and stuff like that. I [The Bowery] was very inspiring to 1968 Al Loving moves to the “Wow this is really the cosmopolitan had always wanted to live here, and me on a daily level. I tried to take Bowery; Adrian Piper moves place I wanted to be.” And I had I got the opportunity under the pictures of all the buildings and docu- to Hester and Bowery. already lived [in New York] eleven worst circumstances. My best friend ment all the old-time stuff before it years by then, but the Bowery was 1972 A famous drag club, 82 moved into this apartment, and got torn down. And at the same time really where I wanted to end up. Club, opens at 82 East 4th the first day that she moved here she it was during the Giuliani regime, and Street, just off the Bowery. so he was taking a lot of the older Robert Mapplethorpe neighborhoods and converting them moves to 24 Bond Street. to more viable real estate. I found it frustrating, but I think my therapy was 1973 Hilly Kristal opens CBGB to document it and to save as many OMFUG at 315 Bowery. things as I could that I appreciated. Green Guerillas establish the Liz Christy Community Garden at Bowery and Houston, one of the first 4 community gardens in 3 the U.S.

2 died of a mysterious illness. One Even when I moved in here in the of those terrible New York stories. ’90s, it was kind of the people in the Mission and the artists who were For me the most wonderful thing left over, and so anyone that wasn’t was that Lenny Kaye from the Patti kind of destitute was actually CAPTIONS Smith Group lived next door. I grew 1—Scott Ewalt interviewed at his someone I was dying to meet. And up in an environment that had a ’60s Bowery studio, January 29, 2008 one of the first people I approached revival scene and the kind of holy 2—Scott Ewalt, 2008. Photo: Jeff Gardner on the street was Gerard Malanga bible of the ’60s revival scene was from Andy Warhol’s Factory and a 3—Scott Ewalt, Exotic World, 2006, this album called Nuggets that he digital print, 24 by 36 in (61 x 91.4 member of the Velvet Underground compiled, and so I knew who he was cm). Courtesy Scott Ewalt and stuff. It just seemed like every since I was like fourteen years old. 4­—Scott Ewalt, Some Women Are More 1 couple of days there’d be someone And it just so happened that about Alive Than Others, 1996, digital print, 18 by who I had read about and idolized. 24 in (45.7 x 61 cm). Courtesy Scott Ewalt and Genesis P-Orridge. In 2000, he the time that I moved in our phone And so it was really kind of magical. redesigned the constellation figures lines got crossed, and so it was kind 5­—Scott Ewalt, True Love Part 1, 2006, digital print, 36 by 48 in for the Rose Center for Earth and of this magic moment when I would Kind of all the gentrification (91.4 x 121.9 cm). Courtesy Scott Ewalt Space at the Museum of Natural pick up the phone and Patti Smith closed in and this was kind of the 6­—Scott Ewalt, True Love Part 2, History in New York City, and in 2001 and Lenny Kaye would be having a last three or four square blocks. 2006, digital print, 36 by 48 in illustrated a book on adult-era Times conversation on the phone together. And it really just surrounded us and (91.4 x 121.9 cm). Courtesy Scott Ewalt 5 6 ALICIA LOVING-CORTES page 18 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 19 The Bowery Timeline Al Loving Wyn Loving 1974 Talking Heads move into 262 Bowery a loft at 195 Chrystie; (1968–1975) William Burroughs moves Wyn Loving worked in design, creating Olympic of continuity and cultural into 222 Bowery, which Wyn Loving (1937–1992, born Riser) posters in collaboration with Andy fusion.” Loving’s work is he renames “The Bunker.” was part of a generation that chal- Warhol, and designing books, includ- included in the perma- 1979 Callahan v. Carey, filed lenged the United States to live up to ing I Need More by Iggy Pop and nent collections of the by six homeless men, its promise of equality and justice. Ann Wehrer. In the 1970s, Loving Detroit Museum of Art, results in a consent decree moved to Newfoundland where the Whitney Museum ALICIA LOVING-CORTES requiring New York City she developed the Bonne Bay Craft of American Art, the Empire State to provide clean and safe Cooperative, which worked to revive Plaza Collection, and many other shelter for all homeless traditional crafts and invigorate local public and private collections. men in the city. Cases of communities, continuing her life’s Alicia Loving-Cortes severe hypothermia work of creative cultural activism. Alicia Loving-Cortes is the daughter and death among the Al Loving of Wyn and Al Loving. She moved to homeless drop dramatically The forty-year career of Al Loving the Bowery at the age of eight, along after the decree. Great (1935–2005) explored a variety with her sister Anne, who was four AL LOVING Gildersleeves opens at of abstract modes—geometric years old. Today, Loving-Cortes still 331 Bowery; in its four-year complexity, , Abstract lives in New York where she works in existence, the club hosts —always demon- sound for independent feature films. Black Flag, Public Image strating a significant, personal --- Ltd., Elvis Costello, and presence. His artistic pursuit through Excerpt from the Bowery Artist Sonic Youth. materiality and technique took Tribute interview January 14, 2008 on an almost-sacred quality, as available at boweryartisttribute.org --- Loving once stated, “I believe that I arrived in New York in 1968. My art represents needs that have family moved from Michigan and they WYN LOVING 5 not been met.” 1 moved here because they wanted to loft. It was really pretty scary for the She acted as the anchor of a very live- In the 1960s, Loving worked with be a part of the art world. We ended first bit of time because it was just a ly community of artists and political massive geometric forms, precise, up on the Bowery, which was pretty completely different world. We ended activists, and gave her energy to such angular shapes painted in color. It spectacular having come from Ann up on the Bowery because there groundbreaking projects as Learning was these works that brought him Arbor, with a backyard and places was great space, but also because to Read Through the Arts (based at the attention of the Whitney Museum to ride your bike. We moved into 262 it was affordable. It was kind of like the Guggenheim Museum) and the of American Art, who gave Loving Bowery, into a 4,000-square-foot a new frontier. But my parents made Ninth Avenue International Fair. a solo show in 1969. This break- it really wonderful for us, a huge through exhibition offered a variety open space with white walls. They Upon receiving her MFA from the of opportunities to Loving in galleries hung up swing sets in the house and University of Michigan, Wyn Riser nationally and internationally. During ladders, and we were allowed to ride began teaching at Eastern Michigan this time Loving also undertook our bikes through the house. I was State University in 1966, alongside a number of public commissions, about eight years old at that time, and artist Al Loving. When their friendship including pieces for the Metropolitan that was my entry into the Bowery. developed into a serious relation- Transit Authority in New York City, ship, Al Loving, an African American, The reason that my parents ended up Wayne State University, and the was fired from the college, and leaving Michigan is that Al was fired Sacramento Convention Center. Riser publicly resigned in protest. from Eastern Michigan University for By the close of the 1970s, Loving having a relationship with my mother After the couple’s subsequent began looking for ways to break and my mother resigned as a result. relocation to New York, Wyn Loving’s from his geometric work, and began At that time, for me, kids weren’t paintings moved to the nonobjective working in collage. Following a allowed over at my house because large works that draped and tumbled 1985 trip to participate in the of Al. People weren’t allowed to 6 out of their frames, marked by overall Biennial, Loving abandoned the come and play. We were living near 4 patterns of controlled color. As this brush completely and began work- Detroit, and it was a very charged riots. Moving here was amazing community school. Elizabeth Murray practice led to meticulous paint- ing exclusively with the spiral as an time, during the era of the Detroit for all of us, because the level of was our art teacher there. ings of natural objects, Loving also icon, which he defined as “a symbol acceptance was so much more. CAPTIONS It was just a different time in New York. 1—Wyn Loving, 1970. Courtesy Anne and The first day of school there were Alicia Loving Tour buses used to come down and go kids of every nationality, and there 2—Al Loving at the opening of his solo exhi- slowly down the Bowery because they were kids with divorced parents, bition at the Whitney Museum of American wanted to look and see. My sister and Art, 1969. Courtesy Anne and Alicia Loving and kids of every ethnic background. I used to pull up our shirts and show To come here for all of us was 3—Alicia Loving-Cortes interviewed off our stomachs and do all kinds of at her home, January 14, 2008 really wonderful. crazy things, because we just thought 4­—Wyn and Al Loving’s studio at 262 Bowery. We were allowed out , we walked it was so weird. Why would they want Their daughters, Alicia and Ann, sit atop an “elephant” sculpture the children made out of the everywhere. We went to school on to come and look at these poor guys? leftover tape Al Loving used in the production of our own. We would walk across the Yeah, there was a certain amount of his paintings. Courtesy Anne and Alicia Loving street, and would take the 3rd Avenue adventure about living down there at 5­—Al Loving, Time Trip Part 2 #10, 2003, rag bus up. Actually that’s where I first that particular time. For me, I continue paper collage with acrylic paint medium on gator- met Kellie Jones, the downtown board backing. Collection of Mara Kearny Loving to like to live in that certain way. 6—Wyn Loving, The Last Summer, 1972, acrylic and pencil on paper, 26 by 40 in (66 x 101.6 cm). Courtesy Anne and Alicia Loving 7—Alicia Loving and Kellie Jones at 262 Bowery. Courtesy Anne and Alicia Loving 2 3 7 ADRIAN PIPER page 20 BOWERY ARTIST TRIBUTE page 21 The Bowery Timeline 117 Hester Street (1968–1974) 1980s Drug abuse on the Bowery reaches epidemic; 41 percent of all drug arrests The following is an excerpt from Both Virgos, both lovers of Bach and Rosemary Castoro, Bob and Sylvia Bach recordings, and watched so Conceptual art exhibitions that were between Houston and 14th Adrian Piper’s tribute to Sol LeWitt Beckett, we bonded right away, while Mangold, Bob Smithson and Nancy many old movies on his TV that in then taking place in Europe, and Streets give the 3rd Street written upon his death in April bickering about whether or not Bach’s Holt, Mel Bochner and Dorothea desperation he bought me one for unsolicited visits from gallerists, Shelter (at Bowery) as of 2007. choral works (Sol’s preference) were Rockburne, Hans Haacke, Don Judd, my twentieth birthday, and brought critics, and curators from all over the their address. --- superior to his orchestral works Hanne Darboven, a chair upstairs for me to sit in so I world who knew him. Sometimes he 1980 Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch Rosalind Krauss wrote a long, (my preference at the time). Actually and Christine Koslov, ADRIAN PIPER could watch it. I also would have such a person to lunch or unenthusiastic review of [Sol’s] I didn’t know Bach’s choral works and , Jan Nicholas Logsdail, and others. Sol and fed his cat, Puss, while he was away, dinner downstairs, and urge them to moves to the Bowery. groundbreaking show, [46 Variations that well—I owe my love of them to Dibbets, Larry and Susan Wiener, I had quickly realized that we were and executed some of his drawings. drop upstairs to see my work while 1982 New York’s Chinatown on Three Different Kinds of Cubes] Sol; but felt pleased that he pulled Doug Huebler, John Weber, Virginia almost exactly twenty years apart in In return for being a pest and feeding they were there. In large part I owe surpasses ’s in Artforum. I didn’t have the nerve no punches in defending them and Dwan, Konrad Fischer, Kaspar König, age, so he held several joint birthday his cat, and without my knowledge, my easy admission into the art world, Chinatown as largest to just call him up and console him; promised to reconsider The Art of dinners in his loft during the years he chatted up my work to all of and my early success, to him. community of Chinese I knew who he was, but we’d never Fugue, if I would reread the works of we both lived at Hester Street. I was his friends in the art world. I have From “Sol, 1928–2007,” April 18, 2007. immigrants in the Western met. But I did write him a letter of Beckett I’d failed to fully appreciate, a bad cook, but sometimes helped no idea how many doors he opened hemisphere. Keith Haring consolation about how much I’d liked which were most of them. Sol was with the dishes. I also borrowed all for me. But I received invitations adrianpiper.com/art/sol.shtml paints his first major the show and how important I thought not as verbose as I’m making him of his books by Beckett and all of his to show my work in all of the outdoor project, a mural it was. I suggested that he ignore the sound. He was shy, and sparing with over an abandoned review. He wrote back, thanking me words, which he used plainly and handball court, at the and remarking that he didn’t mind if to great effect. He asked for nothing corner of Houston Street and the Bowery. 1983 Jean-Michel Basquiat rents studio and living space from Andy Warhol at 57 Great Jones Street. 1993 Al’s Bar, the last of the Bowery dive bars, shuts down after fifty years of operation.

3 1 the review was negative, as long as but my friendship, and I asked for it was lengthy. He also enclosed two nothing but his. working drawings from the series, Actually that is not true. I became and suggested that we meet at the a complete pest after he got me Bykert Gallery and go for a beer. We a loft in his building at 117 Hester both arrived around the same time. CAPTIONS Street. He and his partner, Mary 1—Adrian Piper in her studio at 117 Hester Apparently he’d been expecting a Peacock (and later Mimi Wheeler), Street, 1969. Courtesy Adrian Piper man, because when I walked up to enjoyed having friends over, so 2—Interior of Adrian Piper’s studio at 117 him, he did a double take and asked, I became a frequent guest at his Hester Street, 1969. Courtesy Adrian Piper “You’re Adrian Piper?” I assured him dinners, which also included Bob 3—Interior of Adrian Piper’s studio at 117 that I was, and we went for our beer. Ryman, Lucy Lippard, and Hester Street. Polaroid photos: Adrian Piper 2 INDEX OF BOWERY FACADE IMAGES page 22 INDEX OF BOWERY FACADE IMAGES page 23 The Bowery Timeline 1997 Bowery Ballroom opens its doors as a music venue in a former shoe store at Bowery and Delancey. 2002 establishes the Bowery Poetry Club at 308 Bowery. Common Ground Community, a nonprofit housing orga- nization, purchases the Andres Hotel at 197 Bowery to continue providing flophouse-type residence to current Bowery hotel tenants. 2004 After a six-year battle with the city, Kate Millett is relocated from her loft at 295 Bowery. The building is demolished to clear space for Avalon Bowery Place, a 600+ unit luxury 1 apartment complex. Millett had resided at 295 Bowery since 1973. 2006 CBGB closes its doors with a performance by 6 Patti Smith. 2007 The Bowery Hotel opens at 335 Bowery. Avalon Bowery Place, Whole Foods, and the YMCA open at Houston and Bowery. New Museum opens at 235 Bowery.

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CAPTIONS 3 1—Keith Haring, Houston Street Mural, 1982. Photo: Tseng Kwong Chi, © 1982 Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc., New York. Keith Haring artwork © Estate of Keith Haring 2—Empty bottle of benzine found between the walls of Scott Ewalt’s Bowery loft. Courtesy Scott Ewalt 7 8 3—Jean-Michael Basquiat, show poster for Gray and DNA at CBGB, March 22, 1980. At the time of the concert, Gray’s members were Basquiat, Wayne Clifford, Shannon Dawson, Michael Holman, and Nick Taylor. Courtesy Nick Taylor 4—Sign for Cap Makers business at 306 Bowery, date unknown. Courtesy Scott Ewalt 8— Bowery Gallery opening, 5—Artist in Residence sign at 190 1970. Super 8 footage courtesy Bowery, 2008. Photo: Ethan Swan Barbara Grossman 6—Curt Hoppe in his studio at 98 Bowery, 9—Signs from the Gotham Hotel, with his painting Bettie and the Ramones found in the backyard of 356 Bowery at CBGBs, 1978. Photo: Miller/Ringma by Doris Licht. Courtesy Doris Licht 7—Poster announcing Bowery 10—Various objects found between Gallery’s first show, 1969. Courtesy the walls of Scott Ewalt’s Bowery 2 4 Barbara Grossman loft. Courtesy Scott Ewalt 9 10