The
Art Scene in the East Village
The burgeoning East
Village art scene of the 1980s invented new forms of
cultural and economic linkages between the avant
garde and urban space. As artist and contributing
editor of Art in America, Walter Robinson,
claimed that the East Village art scene was "about
making an ‘art movement’ seem more real by
anchoring it to a concrete physical area." The
commercial art scene that developed in the East
Village was short lived, lasting roughly from 1980 to
1984. In the late 1970s the East Village’s
profusion of underground subcultures offered an
environment where artists could exhibit work that was
experimental, untried and, consequently, ill-suited
for the established corporate art market centered
uptown and in SoHo. The first galleries were
makeshift exhibition spaces started by artists or
their friends in apartments and eventually in
storefronts. By 1984, however, the East Village art
scene was fully entrenched within the workings of the
New York art world with over 70 commercial galleries
located in the space of fourteen blocks. All but a
few of these galleries closed by the late 1980s. This
rapid growth and decline may be accounted for by the
international wave of art speculation and investment
that was fueled largely by the profits from the
finance and producer services growth sector.
In 1979, the painter
Kenny Scharf organized a single night art exhibition
at the nightclub Club 57 on St. Marks Place; in 1980,
Keith Haring followed suit. One-night shows were held
at the Pyramid Club on Avenue A. The Fun Gallery
opened in the fall of 1981 in an unheated commercial
space on East 10th Street, holding "minifestivals
of the slum arts, featuring rap music and break-dancing,
along with the graffiti paintings exhibited on its
walls." Other galleries included Gallery 51X on
St. Mark’s Place, East 10th Street’s
Nature Morte, Civilian Warfare on East 11th
Street, New Math on East 12th Street and
Gracie Mansion’s gallery on East 10th
Street and Avenue B. Along with the galleries
appeared new art bars (most notably the Red Bar and
the Pyramid) that conspicuously promoted the mix of
fashion, music, performance, video and painting.
East Village clubs and
galleries functioned as a means for artists to
promote their work and themselves. Artists like
Basquiat spent their days of obscurity enmeshed in
the downtown subculture, hanging out in the clubs and
social spaces of the East Village. Basquiat was
socialized in the downtown scene before his
recognition by uptown and SoHo dealers. Basquiat,
although perhaps the most renowned, was not the only
self-promoting artist. AVANT, a group that performed/painted
to accompanying music at Club 57, plastered SoHo and
the East Village with flyers that blended "self-advertisement
and graffiti."
The increasing
national and international media spotlight on East
Village subculture presented the public with new ways
of perceiving the landscape of dilapidated tenements
and trash-littered sidewalks and streets. While the
images and symbols of urban decay remained the same,
their representations and attached meanings shifted
from fear and repulsion to curiosity and desire. Real
estate developers were quick to capitalize on the
interest in the cultural scene, issuing in an arts-driven
phase of redevelopment.
Links (click to follow)
Click here to learn about the neighborhood known
as SoHo.
Click here to read about the SoHo art scene today.
Here is a list of links to avant-garde art
sites.
Visit this site to learn about East Village
Expressionism.
Click here to read about Gracie Mansion gallery.
Click here for a short biography of Jean-Michel
Basquiat.
Click here for information on and art by Basquiat.
More by Basquiat.
Click here to read about the film Basquiat.
Click here to read about Ed Eisenberg, a SoHo
artist.
Click here to read the history of ABC No Rio.
Click here to read about subway graffiti art.
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The book upon which this
web site is based,
Selling
the Lower East Side,
is available
directly through 
or order through 
Site design © 2000:
Kurt
Reymers and Dan
Webb.
(University at Buffalo, Department of
Sociology)
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