Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965

Organized by the Grey Art Gallery, New York University

Between the apex of Abstract Expressionism and the rise of Pop Art and Minimalism, the New York art scene was transformed by artist-run galleries. Inventing Downtown presents works from fourteen of these crucibles of experimentation, highlighting artists’ efforts to create new exhibition venues for innovative works of art—ranging from abstract and figurative painting, assemblage, sculpture, and works on paper to groundbreaking installations and performances.

Inventing Downtown proposes viewing these fourteen galleries via five thematic groupings. Leaving Midtown focuses on three Tenth Street galleries which adopted a cooperative business structure where expenses were shared among elected members: Tanager Gallery, Hansa Gallery, and Brata Gallery. City as Muse features four ventures that did not adopt the co-op model: City Gallery, Reuben Gallery,  Delancey Street Museum, and Judson Gallery. They are best known for creating dynamic installations and pioneering performances. Space and Time investigates two significant artist-run projects, 112 Chambers Street and 79 Park Place, which occupied different conceptual terrains, embraced a wide range of media, and shared an interest in exploring temporality and geo-spatial dimensions. Politics as Practice includes four groups: March Group,  Judson Church’s Hall of Issues, The Center, and Spiral Group, which examined the viability of politics as a subject 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 possibilities and the marginalization of many artists.

Artist-run galleries shaped American art irreversibly. After 1965, New York’s uptown and downtown art scenes increasingly diverged, which led to the flowering of nonprofit downtown alternative spaces. Although more than half a century has passed since the era of Inventing Downtown, many of the issues mined in the exhibition still resonate in today’s art world—split as it is between the booming commercial market for contemporary art and ever more pluralistic models of artistic production, promotion, and display.

Galleries and Artists in the Exhibition

Tanager Gallery (1952–1962), 51 East Fourth Street (May 1952–March 1953), 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

 
Hansa Gallery (1952–1959), 70 East Twelfth Street (November 1952–November 1954), 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

 
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

 
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)

 
Reuben Gallery (1959–1961), 61 Fourth Avenue (October 1959–June 1960), 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

 
Delancey Street Museum, 148 Delancey Street (October 1959–May 1960)
John Cohen, Emilio Cruz, Lester Johnson, Marcia Marcus, Jay Milder, Bob Thompson

 
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

 
112 Chambers Street (December 1960–June 1961)
Simone Forti, Robert Morris, Minoru Niizuma, Yoko Ono

 
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

 
March Group (1960–62)
Stanley Fisher, Sam Goodman, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Boris Lurie, Kenneth van Sickle

 
Hall of Issues at Judson Memorial Church (December 1961–January 1963)
Dave Heath, Peter Moore, Steven Schapiro, Peter Schumann, Phyllis Yampolsky

 
The Center  (1962–65)
Ben Morea, Aldo Tambellini

 
Spiral Group (1963–65)
Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Reginald Gammon, Norman Lewis, William Majors, Hale Woodruff, James Yeargans

           
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

Curators

Inventing Downtown is curated by Melissa Rachleff, clinical associate professor in NYU’s Steinhardt School.

Tour

Inventing Downtown was on view at The Art Gallery at New York University Abu Dhabi from October 3, 2017 through January 13, 2018.