Manifesto: 50 years On

Manifesto 50 Years On

BOWERY GALLERY

DECEMBER 26, 2018 –JANUARY 26, 2019

Manifesto 50 Years On DECEMBER 26, 2018 - JANUARY 26, 2019

BOWERY GALLERY 530 W 25TH ST, 4TH FLOOR NEW YORK NY 10001 www.bowerygallery.org 646-230-6655 · tues-sun 11-6

Martha Armstrong

Mark Lewis

Kamini Avril

Adrianne Lobel

Rita Baragona

Lynette Lombard

Temma Bell

Jeremy Long

Monica Bernier

Nicole Maynard-Sahar

David Bradford

Gael Mooney

Diana Cabouli

Nagib Nahas

Simon Carr

Naomi Nemtzow

Glen Cebulash

Iris Osterman

Karen Davie

Hearne Pardee

Anne Delaney

Thaddeus Radell

Diane Drescher

Deborah Rosenthal

Colleen Franca

Dena Schutzer

Stephanie L. Franks

Tony Serio

Dorothy Frey

June Silverberg

John Goodrich

Rachel Siporin

Janet Gorzegno

Walter Strach

Barbara Grossman

Charles Swisher

Suzanne Guppy

Esme Thompson

Michael Louis Johnson

Ian Tornay

Deborah Kahn

Grier Torrence

Lynn Kotula

Evelyn Twitchell

Judith Lambertson

Carolyn Virgil

Richard LaPresti

“To be put in any category not defined by one’s work is to be falsified.”

—Elaine de Kooning

We are marking the fiftieth anniversary of the adventurous founding of a gallery

by a group of male and female artists, created as a counter to the commercial galleries, both their programs and their profit motives.

We assert on this anniversary the continuing life and importance of the craft and culture of painting and sculpture. We assert an art that does not depend on subject matter or other categories to guarantee meaning or worth. We assert an art that is a full expression of the language of painting and sculpture.

What is the purpose of art? Is this the right question for our time--or any time?

Beauty is in itself a social good. Beauty is part of the fabric of civilized society and all over the world, people under the thumb of authoritarian rule yearn for beauty.

Ours is the world of line, color, and form, both as a tradition and as an art that lives exuberantly in the present. For us form speaks content and truth is arrived at through line, color, and shape. This truth may embrace myth, geometry, philosophy, or narrative, but ultimately it springs from the conviction of its forms.

To the contemporary question, “What is art for?” the artists of the Bowery Gallery, echoing W.H. Auden, might answer that art “makes nothing happen.” The artist’s task, as Auden said of the poet’s, is to make “a rapture of distress.” With our paintings, we reaffirm the openness of the past to all artists who engage with the past. We assert that traditions of image-making transcend national and cultural boundaries.

December 2018

BOWERY GALLERY: A Brief History In the summer of 1969, a group of young artists started talking about founding a new gallery. The artists – there were about 18 of us, known to each other from such establishments as Cooper Union, a drawing studio on 14th St., friends of friends – were driven to show representational work in an art world that did not seem to have any use for it.

Bowery Gallery’s first location at 299 Bowery was in a rough store front between Houston and First Street. With considerable reconstruction of floors and walls it became a worthy space. The opening show was on October 31, 1969. The Bowery was still inhabited by ‘bums’ who were mostly either down and out men and/or serious alcoholics.

They often checked out the gallery, staggering through the door and wondering where they had landed. It was almost always easy to guide them to the exit. There was not much traffic from interested customers.

In those days, the gallery members were mostly painters with a few sculptors. All the work was representational and most was done from life. Since we were pretty young, many of us were just shedding our ‘teachers’ ways and were ready to express ourselves in our own voices. In the pursuit of a visual, formal language, it became evident that the work could be either representational or abstract, and today it is not unusual to see non-objective work displayed in the gallery. While principles have evolved over time, as the members grew within their studio lives and new members were chosen to join the cooperative, the original ideas remain embedded in the values of the gallery: authenticity, rigor, invention and the expression of the visual language.

In the early 70s, the City of New York took eminent domain over the block, and we received a payout to move. We moved to Greene Street in 1972, just as Soho was developing into an art district. Our space at 137 Greene was divided the long way, forming two narrow galleries, with Bowery on the left and Green Mountain Gallery on the right. Green Mountain was a partial co-op gallery, while the Bowery was entirely a co-op, supported and managed by its members. The space got a lot more traffic than on the Bowery, and we coordinated our openings with a group of other small, nearby non-commercial galleries.

In 1980 we moved to 121 Wooster Street, where we shared the second floor with Prince Street and Blue Mountain Galleries. During our lengthy time on Wooster the gallery received quite a lot of attention. As Soho became more and more gentrified, galleries quickly began moving to the Chelsea area. After a long and arduous search, in 2000 Bowery moved to its current location, 530 W. 25th Street, where it thrives to this day.

Today the Bowery stands as part of the extremely diverse New York art world. Its members are highly respected artists who show in numerous galleries and university exhibition spaces all over the country, their independence from commercial pressures allowing them to pursue their own visions. Bowery Gallery promises to continue to serve far into the future as a unique and vibrant exhibition space.

—Barbara Grossman Founding member

Manifesto

Lynn Kotula

Pale Green Tiger Squash, Eggplant, Lime and Plump Pattypan oil on panel, 8 x 18 in.

Above:

Monica Bernier

Cutout #2

2017, gouache on cut paper, 14 x 20 in.

Left:

Rita Baragona

Fall Blooming

2018, acrylic on paper, 21 x 15 in.

Above:

Janet Gorzegno Crossing

2018, gouache on paper, 10 x 10 in.

Right:

Martha Armstrong

Pieces of a Hillside

2017, oil on canvas, 14 x 11 in.

Adrianne Lobel Reliable Truck

oil on canvas, 10 x 20 in.

Diana Cabouli

Tappan Zee Bridge – From Piermont 2016, oil on paper, 6 x 16¼ in.

Iris Osterman

#20 Beachy Head

2017, gel monoprint, 8 x 10 in.

Above:

Diane Drescher

Acadia Coast (Tide Coming In) 2016, oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in.

Left:

Barbara Grossman

Patio Plants

2018, oil on linen, 14 x 12 in.

Above:

Karen Davie

Dog

2017, oil on linen, 12 x 18 in.

Right:

Kamini Avril

Dancer

2018, oil on linen, 24 x 18 in.

Above:

Colleen Franca

Clothesline

2018, oil on linen on board, 8 x 10 in.

Right:

John Goodrich

Model with Red Ribbon

2018, oil on canvasboard, 18 x 14 in.

Above:

Anne Delaney

A Walk in the Valley

oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.

Left:

Jeremy Long

Colleen pregnant with Emerson 2005, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

Deborah Rosenthal rue des Archives

2018, gouache on paper, 18½ x 11½ in.

Temma Bell

The Seaman´s Hat and the Cat 2018, oil on linen, 32 x 19 in.

Above:

Hearne Pardee

Field Collage

2016, acrylic collage on panel, 12½ x 19 in.

Left:

Mark Lewis

Head (self-portrait)

2018, scrap pigment collage and oil on board, 10 x 8 in.

Above:

Judith Lambertson

Watch Hill Boat Club

2018, oil on linen, 24 x 20 in.

Left:

Richard LaPresti

Easel

2018, watercolor, 24 x 18 in.

Above:

Michael Louis Johnson

Finally Fall

2018, pigment stick (oil) on canvas, 24 x 20 in.

Left:

Stephanie L. Franks

A Mosaic Moment

2017-18, collage, 10 x 9 in.

Above:

David Bradford

Still Life

2017, oil on canvas, 8 x 9 in.

Right:

Glen Cebulash

Iris

2017-18, oil and cut paper on cardboard, 11 x 6¼ in.

Gael Mooney

Portrait of a Gisant (Charlemagne I), Saint-Denis Basilica 2011-12, oil on linen, 15ž x 19½ in.

Rachel Siporin

Modern Library

2018, color etching, 14 x 18 in.

Lynette Lombard

On the Ox-Bow Dock

2016, oil and charcoal on canvas, 18 x 18 in.

Esme Thompson

Tessere

2017, acrylic on metal, 14 x 14 in.

Above:

Simon Carr

Figures Study (for Isabel Bishop) 2018, acrylic, 14 x 18 in.

Right:

Deborah Kahn

Figures in an Interior Space

2015, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in.

Dena Schutzer

Break Time

2017, oil on board, 12 x 16 in.

Tony Serio

Bridge and Trees

oil on panel, 11 x 14 in.

Above:

Nagib Nahas

Ninth Avenue from Thirtieth Street 2018, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

Right:

Naomi Nemtzow

Seventh Ave. with Garbage Cans 2017, oil on paper, 21 x 14 in.

Above:

Evelyn Twitchell

Red River

2018, oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in.

Left:

Carolyn Virgil

Teapot

2018, acrylic on canvas board, 20 x 16 in.

Suzanne Guppy

Snow in the Lowcountry

2018, oil on linen, 14 x 18 in.

Ian Tornay

Tyler State Park

2018, graphite on paper, 11 x 14 in.

Above:

Grier Torrence

Monterey

2018, casein and colored pencil on paper, 7½ x 12 in.

Right:

Dorothy Frey

Hassock Island

2017, oil on canvas, 10 x 10 in.

Above:

Charles Swisher

Tina, Seated

acrylic, 8 x 10 in.

Left:

Thaddeus Radell

Study for a Portrait of Telemachus 2018, oil/wax on panel, 22 x 18 in.

Above:

Walter Strach

Autumn Oak

2016, tempera on board, 16 x 20 in.

Left:

Nicole Maynard-Sahar

Untitled

2018, oil on panel, 20 x 16 in.

On previous pages: Bowery Gallery members, November 11, 2018. Photo: Ralph Gabriner

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Deborah Rosenthal Kamini Avril Janet Gorzegno Barbara Grossman Diana Cabouli Naomi Nemtzow Diane Drescher

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8. Tony Serio 9. Martha Armstrong 10. Nagib Nahas 11. Michael Louis Johnson 12. Simon Carr 13. Jeremy long 14. Dena Schutzer

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15. Rita Baragona 16. Judith Lambertson 17. Monica Bernier 18. Carolyn Virgil 19. Colleen Franca 20. Stepanie L. Franks 21. Temma Bell

22. Gael Mooney 23. Nicole Maynard-Sahar 24. Lynn Kotula 25. John Goodrich

(Missing: David Bradford, Glen Cebulash, Karen Davie, Anne Delaney, Dorothy Frey, Suzanne Guppy, Deborah Kahn, Richard LaPresti, Mark Lewis, Adrianne Lobel, Lynette Lombard, Younghee Choi Martin, Iris Osterman, Hearne Pardee, Thaddeus Radell, Marylou Schuck, June Silverberg, Rachel Siporin, Walter Strach, Charles Swisher, Esme Thompson, Ian Tornay, Grier Torrence and Evelyn Twitchell)

BOWERY GALLERY

230 W 25th St, 4th Flr, New York, NY 10001 646-230-6655 · www.bowerygallery.org