9th Street Art Exhibition

9th Street Art Exhibition
Felix Stahlberg · CC BY 2.0 · source
Name	9th Street Art Exhibition
Location	New York City
Venue	9th Street
Date	1951
Type	Art exhibition

9th Street Art Exhibition

The 9th Street Art Exhibition was a landmark 1951 art show in New York City that showcased a cohort of painters and sculptors associated with the emerging postwar movement centered in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, Downtown Manhattan, and the East Village, Manhattan. The exhibition signaled a shift from European modernism associated with Paris and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art toward a distinctly American avant-garde linked to studios and collectives such as the Tenth Street galleries and the Artists' Club (New York City). It drew participants who were active in networks connected to Black Mountain College, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony.

Background and Context

The show emerged amid postwar cultural developments involving figures from Columbia University art departments, alumni of Hunter College, veterans of the Works Progress Administration, and expatriates returning from Paris and London. It was organized during a period that included the publication of journals like ARTnews, Partisan Review, and The New Yorker, and contemporaneous exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, and Carnegie International. The broader milieu encompassed debates fostered by critics and writers tied to The New York Times, Artforum, and personalities such as Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg, and intersected with performance circles near venues like The Living Theatre and literary salons associated with The Village Voice and Poets Theater. The climate included support structures like the G.I. Bill, patrons such as Peggy Guggenheim, and dealers operating in the SoHo and Chelsea areas.

Organization and Participants

The exhibition was organized by artists connected to the informal Artists' Club (New York City) and workshops in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, coordinated by dealers and critics who had links to galleries like Leo Castelli Gallery, Stable Gallery, and Sidney Janis Gallery. Participating artists included members of circles with ties to Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Franz Kline; peers and younger colleagues included practitioners influenced by teachers from School of Visual Arts, Yale School of Art, Ohio State University, and Pratt Institute. Collectively they had connections with institutions such as the New York School, residency programs like Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and avant-garde music and dance collaborators from Merce Cunningham and John Cage circles. The roster involved painters and sculptors who frequented salons near 8th Street, worked in lofts near East 9th Street, and exhibited in venues comparable to the Hale Woodruff and Arshile Gorky-linked studios.

Exhibition Content and Works Displayed

Displayed works ranged from large-scale gestural canvases reminiscent of Action painting practices associated with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning to more measured color-field approaches paralleling Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb. Sculptural pieces echoed experiments by artists in the lineage of David Smith and Alexander Calder, while collage and mixed-media works referenced techniques used by Robert Rauschenberg and Joseph Cornell. Several contributors had studied with Hans Hofmann and displayed paintings reflecting his pedagogy; others had affiliations with Black Mountain College where peers included Josef Albers and Robert Motherwell. The show included recent graduates and established painters who had exhibited at venues like the Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, and whose works circulated among private collections connected to collectors such as Alfred Barr, Milton A. Avery, and Samuel Kootz.

Reception and Critical Impact

Contemporary reception involved reviews and commentaries in outlets including The New York Times, ARTnews, Art Digest, and columns by critics like Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg. The show catalyzed debates at institutions such as Barnard College and New York University over the direction of painting, and generated letters and essays published in The Nation and The New Republic. Gallery owners from Leo Castelli to Sidney Janis observed increased market interest, while curators at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art reassessed acquisition priorities. Discussions spread into radio programs broadcast from WNYC and lectures at Columbia University School of the Arts. Critics and historians later contrasted the exhibition with prior surveys at the Armory Show centennial retrospectives and postwar exhibitions such as the 1953 São Paulo Art Biennial.

Legacy and Influence on Abstract Expressionism

The exhibition is frequently cited in histories that link mid-century developments in American art to a consolidation of Abstract Expressionism narratives involving Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still. It influenced the formation of artist-run spaces exemplified by the later Tenth Street galleries and the evolution of commercial galleries in SoHo and Chelsea. Scholarship at institutions like Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University traces its impact on pedagogy at Art Students League of New York, curricula at School of Visual Arts, and the careers of artists who later exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and international fairs such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta. The exhibition's cohort shaped museum collections at the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and the National Gallery of Art, and its networks informed later movements including Minimalism dialogues and Pop Art intersections.

Category:1951 in art Category:Abstract Expressionism