Inventing downtown
Subtitle: artist-run galleries in New York City, 1952-1965
By: Melissa Rachleff ; introduction by Lynn Gumpert ; interviews by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin
Contributors: Gumpert, Lynn, writer of introduction; Klüver, Billy, 1927-2004, interviewer; Martin, Julie, 1938- interviewer; Grey Art Gallery; Kunstmuseum Luzern
Publisher: Prestel Publishing; Prestel
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9783791355580
Subjects: American Art; Artist-run galleries; Exhibitions; Green Gallery (New York, N.Y. : 1960-1965); Intellectual life
Description: This enlightening and thought-provoking look at New York City's postwar art scene focuses on the galleries and the artists that helped transform American art. While the achievements of New York City's most renowned postwar artists (de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Franz Kline) have been studied in depth, a large cadre of lesser-known but influential artists came of age between 1952 and 1965. Also understudied are the early, experimental works by more well- known figures such as Mark di Suvero, Jim Dine, Dan Flavin, and Claes Oldenburg. Focusing on innovative artist-run galleries, this book invites readers to reevaluate the period uncovering its diversity, creativity, and nuances, and tracing the spaces influence during the decades that followed. Inventing Downtown charts the development of artist-run galleries in Lower Manhattan from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, showing how the area's multicultural spirit played a major role in shaping the artworks exhibited there. The book explores 14 key spaces in which styles such as Pop, Minimalism, and performance and installation art thrived. Excerpts from 33 revealing interviews with artists, critics, and dealers, conducted by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin, offer unique personal insight into the eras creative milieu. Taken together, the books essays and interviews provide a distinctly new assessment of how downtown New York's fertile environment nurtured an innovative art scene. -- publisher's statement.
Notes: Published in conjunction with the exhibition held at Grey Art Gallery, New York University, Jan 10, 2017 to Dec 8, 2017 ; and Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland, Sept 28 to Nov 25, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword ; Introduction / Lynn Gumpert; title: Preface; title: Leaving Midtown; title: City as muse; title: Space and time; title: Politics as practice; title: Defining Downtown; title: Afterword; title: Interviews with artists, critics, and dealers / Billy Klüver and Julie Martin.; title: Galleries and artists in the exhibition : Tanager Gallery (51 East Fourth Street (May 1952 - March 1953) and 90 East Tenth Street (April 1953 - June 1962)): Louise Bourgeois, Charles Cajori, Lois Dodd, Perle Fine, Jean Follett, Mary Frank, Sidney Geist, Gloria Graves, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Angelo Ippolito, Al Jensen, Alex Katz, William "Bill" King, Fred Mitchell, Louise Nevelson, George Ortman, Philip Pearlstein; title: Hansa Gallery (70 East Twelfth Street (November 1952 - November 1954) and 210 Central Park South (December 1954 - June 1959)): Robert Beauchamp, Jacques Beckwith, Lily Brody, John Chamberlain, Jean Follett, Miles Forst, Wolf Kahn, Allan Kaprow, Fay Lansner, Alfred Leslie, Dody Müller, Jan Müller, Felix Pasilis, Vaughan Rachel, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, Richard Stankiewicz, Myron Stout, Robert Whitman, Jane Wilson; title: Brata Gallery (89 East Tenth Street (October 1957 - April 1962)): Ronald Bladen, Ed Clark, Al Held, Robert Kobayashi, Nicholas Krushenick, Yayoi Kusama, Nanae Momiyama, Sal Romano, George Sugarman; title: City Gallery (735 Sixth Avenue (November 1958 - May 1959)): Robert Beauchamp, Gandy Brodie, Sari Dienes, Jackie Ferrara, Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, Joan Herbst, Budd Hopkins, Lester Johnson, Emily Mason, Jay Milder, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Passuntino, George Nelson Preston, Bob Thompson, Michaela Weisselberg (now Mica Nava); title: Reuben Gallery (61 Fourth Avenue (October 1959 - June 1960) and 44 East Third Street (November 1960 - April 1961)): Yvonne Andersen, Jim Dine, Rosalyn Drexler, John Cohen, Martha Edelheit, Red Grooms, Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, I. C. Rapoport, Robert Rauschenberg, Renée Rubin, Lucas Samaras, Robert Whitman; title: Delancey Street Museum (148 Delancey Street (October 1959 - May 1960)): John Cohen, Emilio Cruz, Lester Johnson, Marcia Marcus, Jay Milder, Bob Thompson; title: Judson Gallery (239 Thompson Street (February 1959 - January 1962)): Dorothea Baer, Jim Dine, Martha Edelheit, Dan Flavin, Martha Holmes, Claes Oldenburg, Marcus Ratliff, Richard Tyler, Stan VanDerBeek, Tom Wesselmann, Phyllis Yampolsky; title: 112 Chambers Street (December 1960 - June 1961): Simone Forti, Robert Morris, Minoru Niizuma, Yoko Ono; title: 79 Park Place (November 1963 - March 1964): Mark di Suvero, Dean Fleming, Peter Forakis, Danny Lyon, Anthony Magar, Tamara Melcher, Forrest Myers, Edwin Ruda, Leo Valledor; title: March Group (1960 - 1962):Stanley Fisher, Sam Goodman, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Boris Lurie, Kenneth van Sickle; title: Hall of Issues at Judson Memorial Church (December 1961 - January 1963): Dave Heath, Peter Moore, Steven Schapiro, Peter Schumann, Phyllis Yampolsky; title: The Center (1962-1965): Ben Morea, Aldo Tambellini; title: Spiral Group (1963 - 1965): Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Reginald Gammon, Norman Lewis, William Majors, Hale Woodruff, James Yeargans; title: Green Gallery (15 West Fifty-seventh Street (October 1960 - June 1965)):Richard Bellamy, Ronald Bladen, Rudy Burckhardt, Geoffrey Clements, Mark di Suvero, Dan Flavin, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Joan Jacobs, Donald Judd, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Lee Lozano, Robert McElroy, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Pat Passlof, Larry Poons, James Rosenquist, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, Richard Smith, Tom Wesselmann