The slip : the New York City street that changed American art forever

Title:

Author:

Peiffer, Prudence, author.

ISBN:

9780063097209

9780063097216

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xx, 411 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

General Note:

"Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman" -- Cover.

Contents:

Part I. Before. The Slip ; The French prelude -- Part II. Arrivals. Ellsworth Kelly ; Robert Indiana ; Delphine Seyrig and Jack Youngerman ; Agnes Martin ; Lenore Tawney ; James Rosenquist -- Part III. Getting to work. The nature of it ; Money ; Structure ; Auditions ; First words ; Sixteen Americans and two Frenchmen ; Dark river ; Simple things ; The American dream ; Pop will eat itself -- Part IV. Departures. A delicate city ; Delphine and Jack ; Lenore ; Ellsworth ; James ; Robert ; Agnes -- Afterword. Collective solitude.

Personal Subject:

Indiana, Robert, 1928-2018.

Kelly, Ellsworth, 1923-2015.

Martin, Agnes, 1912-2004.

Rosenquist, James, 1933-2017.

Tawney, Lenore.

Youngerman, Jack, 1926-2020.

Subject Term:

Artists -- United States -- Biography.

Artists' studios -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.

Geographic Term:

Coenties Slip (New York, N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.

New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs.

Genre:

Biographies.

Summary:

"For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art." -- inside front jacket flap.

"A group portrait of artists Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, Jack Youngerman, and the street they all called home, Coenties Slip in the 1950s and 1960s"--

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Lake Elmo Library	709.73 PEI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	709.73 PEI	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Longlisted for the National Book Award · A New York Times Notable Book of the Year · Winner of the New York City Book Award · Shortlisted for the Apollo Book of the Year Award · Shortlisted for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography · Finalist for the 2024 Gotham Book Prize

The never-before-told story of an obscure little street at the lower tip of Manhattan and the remarkable artists who got their start there.

For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art.

Now, for the first time, Prudence Peiffer pays homage to these artists and the unsung impact their work had on the direction of late twentieth-century art and film. This remarkable biography, as transformative as the artists it illuminates, questions the very concept of a "group" or "movement," as it spotlights the Slip's eclectic mix of gender and sexual orientation, abstraction and Pop, experimental film, painting, and sculpture, assemblage and textile works. Brought together not by the tenets of composition or technique, nor by philosophy or politics, the artists cultivated a scene at the Slip defined by a singular spirit of community and place. They drew lasting inspiration from one another, but perhaps even more from where they called home, and the need to preserve the solitude its geography fostered. Despite Coenties Slip's obscurity, the entire history of Manhattan was inscribed into its cobblestones--one of the first streets and central markets of the new colony, built by enslaved people, with revolutionary meetings at the tavern just down Pearl Street; named by Herman Melville in Moby Dick and site of the boom and bust of the city's maritime industry; and, in the artists's own time, a development battleground for Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. The Slip's history is entwined with that of the artists and their art--eclectic and varied work that was made from the wreckage of the city's many former lives.

An ambitious and singular account of a time, a place, and a group of extraordinary people, The Slip investigates the importance of community, and makes an argument for how we are shaped by it, and how it in turns shapes our work.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Art historian Peiffer's enchanting debut revisits the art scene that emerged in New York City's Coenties Slip in the 1950s and early '60s. A narrow street between piers in Lower Manhattan where ships were loaded and unloaded, Coenties Slip became a hotbed for artists in the 1950s, attracting abstract painter Ellswoth Kelly, Pop Art pioneer Robert Indiana, sculptor and collagist Lenore Tawney, and others. They "experiment in their illegal warehouse studios"; sourced found materials, including wood from sail masts, for their pieces; and worked at the forefront of pop art and other movements. Despite diverse styles, the artists found a sense of belonging with each other, as the Slip's geographic isolation offered a "release from societal expectations" and "a sociopolitical refuge." Change came in the 1960s with efforts to modernize the Financial District through the "widening of streets the demolition of waterfront piers," leading to the artists' gradual departure. Peiffer vividly traces the community's genesis and makes a detailed and persuasive case for its influence on other "alternative models to conventional city life." It's a gratifying deep dive into New York City art history. (Aug.)

Kirkus Review

A fond portrait of a thriving community dedicated to nurturing art. Art historian Peiffer, managing editor of the creative team at the Museum of Modern Art, makes her book debut with an appreciative group biography of a community of artists who lived and worked in cheap lofts and studios on Coenties Slip, at the lower tip of Manhattan, from 1956 to 1967. Ranging in age from 24 to 50, the artists were at the beginnings of their careers, eager to find their place in an art world dominated by abstract expressionism. Some--Ellsworth Kelly and Jack Youngerman--had studied in Paris, where they met major artists, including Jean Arp, Brancusi, Giacometti, Braque, and Calder. While they felt they were learning a lot, they were frustrated that their own art was hardly being seen. Others came to the Slip from all over the country. In 1957, Agnes Martin arrived by bus from New Mexico and soon became "the mercurial den mother of the Slip." Lenore Tawney, a wealthy 50-year-old widow, came from Chicago the same year. Slip residents included Robert Indiana (he changed his surname to honor his home state); James Rosenquist; and Youngerman's wife, actor Delphine Seyrig. Peiffer chronicles each artist's career, tracing webs of influence as well as the gallery owners and art critics who promoted their work. Besides illuminating the creative work, the author captures the spirit of the "unique microcosm" of the "modest, almost forgotten" Slip, "an alley dead-ending in shipworm- and gribbles-infested piers" that once was a site of New York's bustling harbor trade. By the 1950s, though, its streets were dilapidated, and abandoned lofts had fallen into disrepair. Still, the area seemed like a refuge from the commercialism of uptown Manhattan. "The Slip," Peiffer writes, "offered a release from societal expectations but also community; its siting as a sociopolitical refuge is a part of how we can think about collective solitude. Its isolation allowed for that community to be self-selecting." A warm evocation of a unique place and time. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Ships docked in Coenties Slip on the bustling Lower Manhattan waterfront until the inlet was turned into a street in 1835, its buildings housing sailmakers and maritime suppliers. In the mid-twentieth century, the Slip, scruffy and off-the-beaten-track, became a sanctuary for emerging artists who cherished what art historian Peiffer calls collective solitude. Peiffer offers an engrossing history of the neighborhood, which inspired Herman Melville and Walt Whitman before it made a profound impact on groundbreaking painters and sculptors Jack Youngerman, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin, Lenore Tawney, Ann Wilson, and James Rosenquist, and actor Delphine Seyrig. Peiffer incisively illuminates each artist's personality, aesthetics, and creations, describing their illegally occupied studios, their interactions, financial struggles, and, for some, battles with mental illness. Those who were queer were grateful for the haven the Slip provided in an aggressively anti-gay era, even as the wrecking balls of so-called urban renewal encroached. As she traces the Slip artists' paths from obscurity to recognition, Peiffer also profiles pivotal critics and gallerists. In a precisely detailed, well-contextualized narrative alive with anecdotes, Peiffer considers the dynamic between place and creativity, mutual support and individuality, expertly and insightfully illuminating an underappreciated artistic enclave and its pivotal role in modern art.

Library Journal Review

Art historian Peiffer debuts with an intriguing biography of six modern artists who lived and created in warehouse lofts on Coenties Slip, a street in lower Manhattan that was once a water inlet used to dock vessels along the East River. The book is divided into four overlapping parts: "Before" describes the historic area, while "Arrivals" discusses the converging paths of artists Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman and his actress wife Delphine Seyrig to the Slip buildings in the mid-1950s. "Getting to Work" explores their camaraderie, abstract experimentation, and professional recognition as they tried to distance themselves artistically and geographically from the uptown abstract expressionist movement made famous by Pollock and de Kooning. In the "Departures" section, the book indicates that the artists were evicted when the buildings (except 3--5 Coenties Slip, still standing today) were razed in the mid-1960s to make way for urban renewal. Peiffer expertly describes many works of art influenced by the Slip's surroundings, but photographs of the artworks are minimal. VERDICT This well-researched monograph is a love letter to a unique time and place. It will likely appeal to readers interested in modern art or New York City history.--Denise Miller

Introduction	xi
Part I Before
1 The Slip	3
2 The French Prelude	18
Part II Arrivals
3 Ellsworth Kelly	53
4 Robert Indiana	69
5 Delphine Seyrig and Jack Youngerman	75
6 Agnes Martin	83
7 Lenore Tawney	87
8 James Rosenquist	91
Part III Getting to Work
9 The Nature of It	99
10 Money	111
11 Structure	131
12 Auditions	150
13 First Words	164
14 Sixteen Americans and Two Frenchmen	182
15 Dark River	192
16 Simple Things	213
17 The American Dream	222
18 Pop Will Eat Itself	249
Part IV Departures
19 A Delicate City	273
20 Delphine and Jack	288
21 Lenore	300
22 Ellsworth	305
23 James	311
24 Robert	315
25 Agnes	323
Afterword: Collective Solitude	333
Acknowledgments	345
Notes	349
Index	397

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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