This catalog was produced in conjunction with:
Bowery Gallery Founding Members, 1969
November 8-29, 2014
Westbeth Gallery
55 Bethune Street New York, New York 10014 westbethevents@gmail.com www.westbeth.org
We would like to acknowledge Lynda Caspe, John Bradford, Anthony Santuoso and Rebecca Maiese for their assistance with this project. Special thanks also to Eugene Maiese for organizing and curating this exhibition.
Cover photo: Robert Gordon Catalog design: John Goodrich
In the 1960s, America was transformed by radical ideas championed by individuals. All of these ideas shared the core belief that the people’s voices needed to be heard. It was a time of grassroots movements and tearing down the status quo. In the New York City art scene, that spirit was reflected in a group of young artists who dared to challenge the conventions of the day. They believed in the radical idea that artists could represent themselves, that they didn’t need to be presented in fancy galleries, or represented by agents or supported by big money. If the art was worthwhile, it would find a way.
On October 31st, 1969, the Bowery Gallery was born. It was a gallery of artists for artists. They had a shared point of view and, more importantly, a passion for keeping representational painting alive. The gallery was the first in a series of co-operative galleries that were created in the late 1960’s, and the spirit and passion of that time has stayed with these artists.
This show celebrates both what they accomplished then and what they have accomplished in the years since. Can later history shed light on the beginning?
—Eugene Maiese, Curator
Above:
Nicholas Colao
Millie 1970 oil/canvas 26 x 24 in.
Right:
Bill Sullivan
Still Life with Binoculars 1984 oil/canvas 22 x 28 in.
Left:
Frank Smullin
Model for Labyrinth of Datalist 1979 welded steel pipe 18 ¼ x 18 x 25 in.
A discussion of Bowery Gallery’s beginnings must start with the Alliance of Figurative Art, an organization formed early in 1969 around issues of contemporary figurative art. The first meeting to establish the Alliance was on February 14, 1969 at the loft of Cora and Chuck Mashowitz, former Studio School students. Larry Faden instigated the meeting, but Sam Thurston, Anthony Santuoso, Howard Kalish, Jack Silberman, Tony Siani and others were also involved and helped found the Alliance.
Subsequently the group met every Friday night, first at Alfred Leslie’s studio and thereafter at the Educational Alliance on the Lower East Side. Each week there were speakers or panels on figurative art, or open nights when artists would bring their work in progress for comments and critiques. The interest in figurative art came in great part from art schools such as the School of Visual Arts, the Cooper Union, and the Studio School. Some teachers who taught at these schools were also active in the Alliance: Alex Katz, Leland Bell, Gabriel Laderman, Philip Pearlstein, Paul Resika, Paul Georges, Rosemarie Beck, and Peter Heinemann. Bowery Gallery was the first of at least three galleries to come out of the Alliance. It opened on October 31, 1969. Again Larry Faden was the instigator, but almost all the original Bowery Gallery members helped to start this new gallery.
—Lynda Caspe
In 1969, the Bowery Gallery was started by number of young artists who felt close to the art that had preceded them in the shift from Europe to New York in the 40’s.
It was a great time to be a young artist in New York. There were teachers and mentors who had been participants in the 40’s-50’s scene: the Cedar Bar, the artists’ club, and later the Hofmann School and the 10th street co-ops. Multiple directions abounded, but these artists tacked to their studio walls pictures by Titian, Cézanne, Balthus, Giacometti, and Beckmann, not ones by Warhol, Smithson, Close, or Ruscha.
For the ideologues in the group, a co-op could be a salon des refusés of sorts against the institutional uptown academy which brooked no dissension from its orthodoxies of pop irony, minimalist authoritarianism, or above all, an askew stance towards the art of the past rather than a full, formal engagement with it. For others, a co-op meant strength in numbers in the cacophony of an uptown scene that hadn’t refused them so much as didn’t know they existed.
What was undeniably true for all was that they were ambitious, knowledgeable artists with a shared interest in representational art who spent their non-working hours in their studios, at artist meetings, arguing and engaging in studio visits not in an academic context, but looking for high level, tough crits from other good painters and sculptors. They wanted to be around the often contentious people who knew a
lot about making art and could help you as you struggled with form. They were clearly not commercial-ready types—more like 60’s downtown art world Llewyn Davises. When the uptown moment finally came for non-photo realist figurative art in the Neo-Expressionism of the 80’s, it was with artists who were totally removed from the figurative artists circle and its opinions about good and bad art.
Within a very few years, all the particular identity-forming discussions—working directly from observation vs. building imaginary compositions from studies, or the necessity for a re-engagement with humanism in the current political moment, or the urgency of contemporary vs. allegorical subject matter, or painters who painted the toenails in vs. the full brushed gesture painters, or even the bitter political feuds of the New Left era—moved from the Friday night Figurative Alliance meetings into the artists’ individual studios far from the narratives being written by the victors in the culture wars.
So I would argue it was the idea of becoming a figuratively oriented, artist-run co-op, itself, that was the unique aspect of the moment. Would that happen today? If that is a legacy that could only have come out of the 60’s, it’s one of a very few good ones.
—John Bradford
Born 1942 in Pittsburgh, PA. Masters degree from Bank Street College.
One person shows: 2011, 2008 Blue Mountain Gallery, NYC; 2006 Samuel Morse Historical Site, Poughkeepsie, NY; 1995, 1993 Piermont Flywheel Gallery, Piermont, NY (founding member); 1993 Long Island University Gallery, NYC; 5 shows at Bowery Gallery (founding member).
Grants, Residences: Farera, Spain, Cornell, England, Yaddo, VCCA, Millay Colony. Collections: AT&T, Merrill Lynch, Royal Bank of Canada, Rabobank
Review by Joel Shapiro, 2008: “Beal’s observations of nature are particular, individual and satisfying.”
Beal paints plein air at her home in Columbia County. She is currently a member of Blue Mountain Gallery. More at www.bluemountaingallery.org/nancy-beal/
Lily
Born Wilmington, Delaware. Moved to NYC in 1967.
Studied with Paul Georges and Leland Bell at Cooper Union. Program Director for the Figurative Artist’s Alliance From 1973-75. MFA from Yale, 1978: studied with Lester Johnson and Andrew Forge. Started Biblical Painters Group in NYC with other artists and political theorists, including Tony Siani, Richard McBee,Tom Milstein, and Avi Berkowitz. 1980s: exhibited at Gallery 120, associated with the Biblical Painters Group. 1990’s–2007: showed with Maurice Arlos Fine Arts and at 55 Mercer Gallery. 2007: rejoined Bowery Gallery. 2011: received the Visual Arts Award from American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Reviewed by New York Times, Village Voice, Jewish Press, Art News.
Artist and poet, born NYC. BA, University of Chicago; MFA, University of Iowa; Postgraduate: Atelier 17, Paris; New York Studio School.
One woman shows include: Bowery Gallery, America West, Sovereign/Santander, Derfner Judaica Museum. Group shows include: Cooper Hewitt Museum, Virelin Museum, Oslo, Institute of Contemporary Art London, Pennsylvania Museum of Jewish Art.
Grants: Yaddo Fellow, Creative Artist Public Service Grant, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Public Collections: Derfner Judaica Museum, Schering Plough, National Gallery of Australia. Listed in Who’s Who in American Art.
Taught at Parsons School of Design, City University of New York, University of Chicago, University of Alberta.
More at www.lyndacaspe.com
Born 1942 in NYC
Six one person exhibitions: G.W. Einstein, Bowery Gallery; 40 group exhibitions. Contributing founder of New York Studio School, Bowery Gallery, and the Alliance of Figurative Artists.
Gallery and museum publications: American Artist Magazine, 1992; Gail Levin, Edward Hopper’s Legacy, Whitney Museum catalog, 1995; Carter Ratcliff, monograph, 1985; Who’s Who in American Art.
Collections: Chase Manhattan Bank, Becton Dickinson & Company, Philip Pearlstein.
Homage to Death 1980 oil/linen 8 x 11 ¾ in.
Born Chicago, IL
Education: Pratt Institute; studied with Gabriel Laderman and Philip Pearlstein. Artist member of Bowery Gallery, 1969-1971.
Collaborative projects: 100 Survivors, 2010-2012, and We Are Family,2013. Group shows: The Big Show, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD; Station North, Baltimore, MD; Robert Antreasian Gallery, Baltimore, MD; A Week in Provence, Dundalk Gallery, CCBC, Dundalk, MD; Drawing Each Other, Brooklyn Museum Community Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Women Artists, International House, NY; Bowery Gallery, NY.
Born and raised in NYC. High School of Music & Art, Yale, Cooper Union.
Membership in Bowery Gallery for 37 continuous years. Exhibitions throughout the country: New York, Philadelphia, Tulsa, New Hampshire, Roanoke, including a traveling survey.
Numerous public and private collections. Numerous reviews, articles and awards; Fulbright Grant, Ingram Merrill, Ranger Fund Purchase, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Grumbacher and Obrig Prizes. Member of the National Academy since 1994.
Teaching: Yale, University of Pennsylvania, NY Studio School, Chautauqua Institute, Western Connecticut State University. Visiting critic: American University, Brandeis, Vermont Studio Center, University of Tulsa, Boston University.
More at www.barbaragrossman1.com
Howard Kalish has made public art for over 20 years, while continuing to have numerous exhibitions in museums and art galleries. His public art projects are designed for the site in form and content.
He has taught sculpture at the National Academy, New York University and the Nassau County Museum, and has been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. His work has been written about in the New York Times, Art in America and Artforum. He is a member of the National Academy and the Sculptors Guild, where he served on the Executive Board.
More at www.howardkalish.com
Born 1943 in Brooklyn, NY
Studied art at The School of Visual Arts in 1962-1965. In 1966, received a fellowship scholarship for a fourth year of study under Paul Georges, Alex Katz and Nicholas Krushenik. A Vietnam veteran, Eugene was drafted into the US Army and served from June 1966 to March 1968.
Eugene is a founding member of the Bowery Gallery, where he had solo exhibitions in 1973 and 1977. He also had a two-man show in 1970 and participated in group shows from 19691977. Other important group shows include: Painterly Realism, AFT Touring Exhibition (1969), Eye and Mind II (1978), Bowery on the Bowery (1983 & 1984), The Figurative Imagination (1989) and Baycrest Centre in Toronto, Canada (1996).
Opening Night Bowery Gallery (single piece, painted both sides) 2008 oil/canvas 19 x 60 in.
Born 1943 in Mineola, New York. Died 1971 in New York City.
Education: BFA, The Cooper Union, 1965.
Solo exhibition, Bowery Gallery 1970. Painted in New York, Vermont and Arizona. Two children, Sara McCall Ephron and Jack McCall.
Vermont
1970 oil/canvas 59 x 51 in.
Born 1944 in Oregon
Studied at the School of Visual Arts, NYC, Maryland Institute of Fine Arts. Teaches presently at the Fashion Institute of Technology, has taught at Brandeis University, and the National Academy.
Selected solo exhibitions: Caelum Gallery, Tatistcheff & Company, Inc., Bowery Gallery.
Selected group exhibitions: Butler Institute, Reading Museum, National Academy Museum, Queens Museum, Einstein Gallery, Artists’ Choice Museum, Hammer Gallery. Arranged Selected Paintings from the Alliance, The New York Studio School. Public collections include School of Visual Arts, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tatistcheff & Company, Weatherspoon Gallery, UNC.
More at anthonysantuoso.blogspot.com
Born 1939 in NYC. Deceased 1995.
BFA from University of Colorado, 1962, where he studied with Roland Reiss, befriended Paul Georges, and audited Clyfford Still. Moved to Hoboken, NJ in 1962, then to NYC in 1965. Founding member of the Figurative Artists’ Alliance and the Bowery Gallery in 1969, where he had 5 one-man shows and 9 group shows.
Other one-man shows: Gallery 120 (two), Louise Ross Gallery (three), 48 Laight Street (one), The Gallery (two). Other group shows include: Bond Street Gallery, Hudson Guild, Pratt Manhattan Center, 55 Mercer Street Gallery, One Penn Plaza and The National Academy of Design’s 107th Exhibit. Controversial for his artistic philosophies and aesthetic principles, he spanned genres from abstract to figurative, personal to biblical. His work is being digitized and cataloged and lives through the efforts of colleagues like John Bradford and the members of Bowery Gallery.
The Artist’s Models—Real and Unrealized 1989 ink print 10 x 13 in.
Born in 1943
Education: The Art Students League; The Cooper Union, both NYC.
One-person shows: Blue Mountain Gallery, Bowery Gallery, 55 Mercer Gallery (all NYC); Johnson Studio Center, Johnson, VT; Johnson State College, Johnson, VT; Catamount Arts Gallery, St. Johnsbury, VT; River Arts Gallery, Morrisville, VT; The Greek Institute, Cambridge, MA; Trinity College, Burlington, VT; Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, CT; Deerfield Gallery, South Deerfield, MA.
Review by: Jed Perl, The New Republic; Ken Johnson, The New York Times; Peter Gallo, Burlington Free Press; Thomas Fraiser, Art New England
Currently member Blue Mountain Gallery, NYC. More at samuelthurston.com
The Education of My Daughter 1984 pencil on paper 30 x 22 in.
Attended the School of Visual Arts where he studied with Peter Heinemann, Paul Georges, Alex Katz, and Michael Loew, and earned a scholarship for his final year.
A founding member of the Bowery Gallery, he had his first one-man show there in 1976. His group exhibitions include shows at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Artists’ Choice Museum (including its first exhibition, Artists’ Choice: Figurative Art in New York), Painters of Content at the College of the Mainland, the Hudson Guild Gallery, and the National Academy of Design. He can be found online at richarduhlich.tumblr.com.
Texas, March 1974
1974–2014 watercolor and pencil on paper 22 x 28 ¾ in.
Members, 1969:
Nancy Beal
John Bradford
Charlotte Bunting Floyd
Lynda Caspe
Nicholas Colao*
Michael Crespo
Lawrence Faden
Sherron Francis
Barbara Grossman
Howard Kalish
Garrett Korfitzen
Bette Lang*
Eugene Maiese
Frank McCall*
Bill Moore
Anthony Santuoso
Tony Siani*
Jack Silberman*
Frank Smullin*
Bill Sullivan*
Sam Thurston
Richard Uhlich
Robert Yarber
*deceased *
fRont coveR:
Bowery Gallery members, 1969 (Left to right)
Back row:
Howard Kalish, Bill Sullivan, Lynda Caspe (in front of Bill Sullivan), Robert Yarber (to the left of Lynda Caspe), Tony Siani, Nancy Beal (in front of Tony Siani), Jack Silberman, Frank McCall, Sam Thurston, Anthony Santuoso, Michael Crespo, Lawrence Faden (holding picture of Nicholas Colao), Charlotte Bunting Floyd & Eugene Maiese (farthest right).
Middle row:
Bette Lang, Sherron Francis (in front of Robert Yarber) & Barbara Grossman (in front of Lynda Caspe).
Bottom row: Bill Moore, Richard Uhlich, John Bradford & Frank Smullin.