This September, the New Museum will present “Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery, 1969–1989,” an exhibition that takes the Bowery as subject, site, and center for creative ingenuity in the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing upon the New Museum’s Bowery Artist Tribute archive and the online archive of Marc H. Miller, 98bowery.com, this exhibition features original artwork, ephemera, and performance documentation by twenty artists who lived and worked on or near the Bowery in New York. The exhibition will be on view on the Fifth Floor from September 19, 2012–January 6, 2013, and is curated by Ethan Swan, Education Associate.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Bowery was commonly identified with the furthest extremes of metropolitan decline— municipal neglect, homelessness, and substance abuse. As landlords and civil services abandoned the neighborhood, the subsequent cheap rents and permissive atmosphere drew artists downtown. The Bowery’s lofts provided a social network where painters, photographers, performance artists, musicians, and filmmakers exchanged ideas and drew inspiration from this concentration of creative activity.
Propelled by this nourished, insurgent spirit, many artists downtown turned their attention towards the Bowery, inviting a re-examination of this neglected zone through their works: subjective, deeply personal portraits documented points of sympathy between neighbors; unsanctioned public art marked territory and adjusted the landscape; and DIY and collective practices pushed generations of institutional rigidity aside for a diversification of materials, gestures, and Arturo Vega, Photo Booth Self-Portraits, ca. 1974. Black- and-white photographs, 8 1/4 × 9 1/2 in (20.9 × 24.1 cm). Courtesy Arturo Vega voices. As this influx of artists helped shaped the Bowery, the neighborhood helped shape generations of artists.
This exhibition will include works by artists including Barbara Ess, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Keith Haring, John Holmstrom, Curt Hoppe, Colette Lumiere, Marc H. Miller, Adrian Piper, Adam Purple, Dee Dee Ramone, Joey Ramone, Marcia Resnick, Bettie Ringma, Christy Rupp, Arleen Schloss, Charles Simonds, Eve Sonneman, Billy Sullivan, Paul Tschinkel, Arturo Vega, and Martin Wong.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the New Museum will publish the third volume of the Bowery Artist Tribute publication. Both a celebration and exploration of the Museum’s neighborhood, the Bowery Artist Tribute is a vibrant resource for visitors and neighbors to tap into the history of the neighborhood, its creative residents, and their contributions to contemporary culture. Visit the online Bowery Artist Tribute: boweryartisttribute.org.
Public Programs
Thursday October 4, 7PM: Graffiti/Post Graffiti (1984, 28 min) screening and panel discussion Participants include: Patti Astor, Fab 5 Freddy, Marc H. Miller, and Paul Tschinkel This film was made at a critical moment in the history of New York graffiti—the year after the MTA introduced a new graffiti abatement program, which drove many artists from the trains to the galleries. The video captures this transition, including interviews with artists, gallerists, and collectors—such as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Tony Shafrazi—all seeking to mitigate this transition.
Friday October 5, 7PM: Alternatives in Retrospect: Artist Run Spaces in the 1970s and 1980s
Participants include Stefan Eins (3 Mercer), Coleen Fitzgibbon (5 Bleecker Street), and Becky Howland (ABC No Rio). A part of COLAB SOLO WEEKENDS.
Thursday October 18, 7PM: Arleen Schloss: an evening of Super 8 Film and Hi8 Video
Program to include How She Sees It By Her (1981/1983), Glenn Branca – Symphony #4/Physics (1983), and Windows of Chance/Change (1981).
Friday November 30, 7PM: Get Weird: Arto Lindsay
In conjunction with his forthcoming career retrospective, Lindsay (DNA, Lounge Lizards, Ambitious Lovers, etc.) will perform selections from his four-decade career.
Thursday December 6–Sunday December 9: Amos Poe’s New York: Four Films, Four Decades
A four-day event will present four films by No Wave pioneer Amos Poe, who will introduce and screen one film from each decade of his career. All four films were made within a fifteen-block radius of Houston and Bowery, conjuring a kind of cinematic portrait of his turf. Through this program, viewers will be presented with the physical, architectural, cultural, and emotional change on the Lower East Side.
Thursday December 6, 7PM: The Foreigner (1978) Friday December 7, 7PM: Alphabet City (1984) Saturday December, 3PM: Frogs For Snakes (1998) Sunday December, 3PM: Empire II (2007)
Thursday December 13: Parallel Lines: Visual Art, CBGB and Downtown Nightlife
By considering the activity and location of CBGB, this panel discussion explores the ways in which the creative outburst of American punk and New Wave music reflected and informed concurrent developments in art. Participants: John Holmstrom, Marcia Resnick, and Arturo Vega.
Exhibition Support
“Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery, 1969–1989” is presented as part of the Bowery Artist Tribute. The Bowery Artist Tribute is made possible by an endowment established by Hermine and David Heller.
Exhibition support for “Come Closer” is generously provided, in part, by the Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Fund.
