Page 48 - Studio International - January 1971

New York

commentary:

Uptown,

Downtown,

all around the

town

The clear distinctions, sociological and econo- ually, driven the artists out. By improving the lounged on Madison Avenue whilst their
mic, that used to define uptown and down- properties and drawing new customers to the patrons kept up with the art world. There are
town psychology have vanished in New York's area, the artists feel they are making a sound costumed camp followers and pre-occupied
art world. It is no longer possible to view down- contribution to the city. Certainly they are young creators roaming the streets, and a few
town as the nursery for the future towering lining the pockets of the landlords who, since bars, recently converted from truck-drivers'
growth of New York's art, and uptown as the studio space is at a premium in New York, hangouts to artists' cafés.
real goal. With the incredibly swift develop- have quickly learned to gouge their artistic Even more remarkable is the steady stream of
ment of an artists' quarter, complete with tenants. Last week I visited a large working visitors. Those ubiquitous ladies' groups,
professional galleries, in the historic district loft building to see a young artist and in the shepherded by hungry cicerones, that used to
below Houston Street, the hegemony of upper freight elevator passed three huge empty lofts. dress to the nines to go to Sindey Janis or
Madison Avenue seems permanently chal- The artist ruefully told me that the landlord Knoedler uptown, now troop downtown in
lenged. With some coquetry, the area has been refuses to rent for less than $600 a month, and what they deem appropriate costume—bell-
dubbed SoHo (meaning South of Houston, believes he will get it. bottom slacks and heavy peace-symbol pen-
but also cocking an eye to the colourful legend The folklore of the artist 'loft rat', which goes dants. Paula Cooper, the proprietor of the
of London). It is an ideal area to make a real back to the 1930s in New York, has consider- oldest (two-and-a-half-years) gallery in SoHo,
quarter, a real legend, for it is one of the few ably altered during the past three years. For feels the visiting population has changed radi-
historically-significant sections of the city. one thing, lofts in the SoHo district are some- cally. When she first opened on Prince Street,
Most of the new galleries, and many of the times four times the size of the older East 10th only museum personnel and a few real
artists' studios are installed in what Niklaus Street district, or the original Union Square collectors made the hegira. Now the same
Pevsner once called 'a veritable museum of settlement. For another, the youngish denizens people who saunter up Madison Avenue on
cast-iron architecture'. For several blocks, the of the quarter are addicted to working in the Saturday afternoon, or who drop into the
harmonious cast-iron fronts, with their Pal- enormous scale the lofts permit—the demise of Museum of Modern Art, make their way
ladian rhythms and unifying columns, present easel painting is definitive here. It is not through the truck-clogged streets of SoHo.
one of the rare urban visual pleasures in New unusual to find an artist spraying some 100 Mrs Cooper may be considered a pioneer in
York. Few neighbourhoods are so integrally feet of a wallpainting (portable, of course, for the area. She had started in the gallery busi-
whole, so impressive in architectural harmony. the galleries in the district are mostly expressly ness at Park Place Gallery, near Washington
These old loft buildings, which still form a designed for the outsize work), or composing Square, and stubbornly stood her ground.
vigorous centre of the dry goods industry, sculpture that would have been unthinkable When she took the large double loft on Prince
house what are called blue-collar workers and in those old lofts where once the garment Street, she kept it simple—more nearly like an
artists alike — a source of constant conflict with industry crammed dozens of sewing machines. artist's studio than any of the other galleries.
the city which is desperately trying to stimu- In this thriving downtown mecca, the scene is Not a sign of any chichi. Her policy has been
late blue-collar industry and sees the infesta- always colourful. There are gigantic trucks consistently favourable to her artists, with
tion of artists in the area as a dangerous luxury. pulled up to the docks of loft buildings, some- whom she has a singular rapport. There is no
The artists and art dealers, on the other hand, times blocking passage of both motor and specific direction to her gallery, although she
see traditional values as supreme : wherever pedestrian traffic. There are also the unaccus- keeps it open to both the event-making artists,
artists have settled in Manhattan in the past, tomed sleek black limousines with their chauf- or environmentalists, and those who persist in
the real estate has always soared and, event- feurs lounging on the fender as once they making those much-maligned 'art objects',
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