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The Lonely Palette

BonusEp. 15: Tamar Avishai interviews Prudence Peiffer, Author and Content Director, MoMA

The Lonely Palette

The Lonely Palette

Arts, Podcast, Art, Museum, Painting, Modern Art, Visual Arts, Art History

4.8857 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1950s and 60s, Coenties Slip—an obscure street on the lower tip of Manhattan overlooking the East River—was home to some of the most iconic artists in history, and who would define American Art during their time there: Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, these artists created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation. Prudence Peiffer is the kind of art historian who understands the importance of context and place, and her book, “The Slip: The New York City Street that Changed American Art Forever” provides the kind of rich context and human detail that textbooks could only dream of. She joined me to discuss the history of these artists, why we have such a hard time seeing artists as people, the friction between accessible artists and their inaccessible art, why watching Robert Indiana eat a mushroom for 39 minutes is actually totally beautiful, and what it means to authentically nudge art history towards inclusion. Prudence Peiffer is an art historian, writer, and editor, specializing in modern and contemporary art. She is Director of Content at MoMA, New York. She was a Senior Editor at Artforum magazine from 2012-2017, and Digital Content Director at David Zwirner in 2018. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Artforum, and Bookforum, among other publications. Her book, “The Slip: The New York City Street that Changed American Art Forever” has been longlisted for the National Book Award. See the images: https://bit.ly/3rOM7vE Music used: The Blue Dot Session, “Skyforager” Rufus Wainwright, “11:11” Support the show: www.patreon.com/lonelypalette

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hub and Spoke. Audio collective.

0:10.0

I'm looking at a photograph of a group of people in coats and caps on a roof deck.

0:16.4

They're in New York, set against a pattern backdrop of buildings on a casual fall afternoon.

0:23.2

And we can tell from their coats and caps

0:26.1

that this is a different New York,

0:28.2

that it's the New York of the middle of the 20th century,

0:31.8

where people in these kinds of coats and caps could have a roof deck.

0:40.4

These people are artists. Artists you would only recognize by their names.

0:45.0

Text on a card mounted next to a painting on a wall

0:49.0

that is beautifully hung and illuminated with a perfect artificial light source.

0:54.3

Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist.

1:00.6

But here they are, human beings sucking down cigarettes, sitting on a pile of scrap, and encouraging one of their kids to smile for the camera.

1:11.0

Moma and the Whitney and the Met camera. But this is their New York. This is Coenties' slip.

1:30.8

Coenties' slip.

1:30.8

Coenties' slip was a dead-end street in Lower Manhattan. It was also home to an itinerant

1:36.1

community of scrappy mid-century artists, many of whom, as author Prudence Pfeiffer

1:41.5

explores in her book,

1:42.8

the slip, the New York City Street that changed American art forever,

1:46.8

evolved together alongside one another.

1:50.0

Because they hung out together.

1:53.0

They were friends.

1:54.0

They helped one another.

...

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