The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984 (Paperback)

~ Marvin J. Taylor (Editor), Lynn Gumpert (Foreword), Bernard Gendron (Contributor), RoseLee Goldberg (Contributor), Carlo McCormick (Contributor), Robert Siegle (Contributor), Brian Wallis (Contributor), Matthew Yokobosky (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

" ... a celebration of the New York scene from 1974-84". -- Gregory McNamee, The Hollywood Reporter

"By pushing the limits, its participants opened possibilities for artists who followed them". -- Grace Glueck, New York Times

"Lovers of Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nan Goldin, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson and the whole Sick Crew will love this book". -- The Star-Ledger

"Lower Manhattan at the turn of the 1980s has become in legend one of those crossroads of music and art". -- Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle

"The late 1970s and early '80s roar back to life in `The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974-1984'". -- Bloomberg

"The names resonate from a performance-based art world of what seems like yesterday". -- Mary Voelz Chanlder, Rocky Mountain News

Review

The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984 celebrates the era's creative commotion, much of it scattershot and under the mainstream radar.
(New York Times Style Magazine )

For readers with an interest in New York's art history, the detailed chronology alone makes the book essential source material.
(Kenneth Baker San Francisco Chronicle )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; illustrated edition edition (October 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691122865
• ISBN-13: 978-0691122861
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #751,715 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, January 28, 2008

By	Besenkopf (NY) - See all my reviews

I agree with the previous reviewer: why no Basquiat? Yet that brings me to my major issue with the book, which is the uneven quality of the included essays. Berbard Gendron's essay on downtown music and Matthew Yokobosky's essay on no wave cinema are useful and interesting, yet the reader is punished with Robert Siegle's vague essay on downtown writing, an absurd essay about modernism vs postmodernism, and an absolutely awful essay by Carlo McCormick. Here's a sentence by McCormick:

"Between the communality of the great psychedelic orgy and the mortal dread of viral transmission, the concupiscence of youth proliferated a polymorphous perversity that explored the politics of desire, the social ideals of attraction, and the aesthetics of fetish in a carnal celebration of ideogrammatic Sexpressionism."

Someone get him a copy of _The Elements of Style_.

In any case, the book is filled with some really interesting photos and reproductions, so I'd say it's worth a look. I just wouldn't pay full price.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great cross-section, but where's Basquiat???, November 29, 2006

By	Kerianne Morgan "TheSisterUnknown" (Big Desert City) - See all my reviews

This book indeed contains a good cross-section of the artists, writers & performers navigating around the downtown NY art scene between 74 & 84. Great photographs & an excellent Chronology feature at the end of the book. BUT: How do you get by sub-titling a book The New York Art Scene 1974-1984 without showing one photo of or one piece of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, or writing one full paragraph concerning him? There are only scattered mentions of him here & there & the only photo we get are a couple of stills from Downtown 81. It's true that I didn't buy this book expecting in-depth Basquiat coverage, but still, there could have been at least a bit more on him. I'm only knocking off one rating star for that since besides the lack of Basquiat pictures, this book is an excellent summary/chronology of an increasingly important & often overlooked period of American art.