Soho: The Rise and Fall of an Artist's Colony [Hardcover]

Richard Kostelanetz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0415965721 | ISBN-13: 978-0415965729 | Edition: First Edition

Soho: The Rise and Fall documents how a little-known industrial neighborhood in New York became, through one of the accidents of history, a nexus of creative activity for a brief but intensive period. Such an ideal situation--entirely unplanned--could not last forever; the author shows how market forces squeezed out this art utopia, to be replaced by a shadow of its former self.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The transformation of a few Manhattan blocks South of Houston into an epicenter of contemporary art during the '60s and '70s is the subject of artist, critic and anthologist Kostelanetz's brisk memoir, rich in vivid street-level detail and evoking a time that now looks like something of a golden age. While forgivably nostalgic, Kostelanetz (Crimes of Culture) is otherwise evenhanded and thorough, describing not only the multifarious activities in which he was involved but through them the lives and work of such luminaries as theatrical conceptualists Robert Wilson and Richard Foreman, photographers Hannah Wilke and Cindy Sherman, "protean polyartist" Meredith Monk and musicians Philip Glass and Sonic Youth, to name but a few. But the book's major contribution is its meticulous recounting of the unprecedented confluence of gray-area zoning and occupancy laws coupled with sheer pioneering spirit that led to the area's development in the first place. Without government assistance and for years flying under the radar of rapacious developers-and without displacing a resident population, for there was none-hardy souls like Kostelanetz and Twyla Tharp stealthily moved into the vast lofts above garment warehouses in search of creative space, quite unaware of the revolution in urban style they were creating. Photographs, notes and an extensive bibliography fill things out terrifically. Like the neighborhood it describes, Kostelanetz's cheerfully episodic book is full of odd corners, secret alleys and sudden vistas.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Artist and author Kostelanetz writes with firsthand knowledge of the place and its people, tracing SoHo from its heyday as an eclectic center of artistic expression in the 1970s to its discovery by the mainstream and subsequent transformation into the pricey world of chic. -- Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal
The chapters that focus on Nam June Paik, Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, and other such pivotal figures offer the book's best insights into the essence of the SoHo phenomenon. -- Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal
There is plenty of detailed description throughout about everything from startling sculpture and performance art and the design of offbeat lofts to the complicated mechanics of funding and the protocol of garbage scavenging. -- Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal
Of particular interest to artists and New York City buffs, this savvy little history should also be appealing to those intrigued by the sociology of counterculture and the traditions of avant-garde art. -- Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal
Books at once this informative and this much fun are rare. Here is city history--neighborhood history--at its best. What starts off looking like a no frills account, develops authority, presence, and drive. Read it, and the art of that time, that place will simply make more sense. It's a book I'm glad I read and am personally grateful to Kostelanetz for having written. -- Samuel R. Delany
New York's SoHo, by an uncanny series of accidents, became one of the great magical places of the late twentieth-century. There are many people around the world today, including me, who were drawn to downtown in its prime and who mourn what is gone. The amazing thing though is that SoHo happened at all. Richard Kostelanetz was there from the start and lived through its glory days from inside. He offers thick, rich descriptions of people, institutions, and events, explains the unlikely synergies that made it possible, and above all captures its aura. Without intending to do it, Kostelanetz convinces us that creative buildings, blocks, streets, and neighborhoods can come into being again. -- Marshal Berman
A very important first hand contribution to the history of a unique art community that changed not only the art, but also the City, of New York. -- Jonas Mekas
For those who want to read up on media and performance artists and others who were active in SoHo in the 70s and 80s, Kotelanetz's book will be a useful reference. He has probably the best and most even-handed description of George Maciunas, the Fluxus artist and creative developer of the first SoHo co-ops. -- SoHo Artists Foundation/ Ingrid Wiegand
For those who want to read up on media and performance artists and others who were active in SoHo in the 70s and 80s, Kotelanetz's book will be a useful reference. He has probably the best and most even-handed description of George Maciumas, the Fluxus artist and creative developer of the first SoHo co-ops. -- Ingrid Wiegand

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; First Edition edition (May 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415965721
• ISBN-13: 978-0415965729
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #745,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Individual entries on Richard Kostelanetz's work in several fields appear in various editions of Readers Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers, Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, Contemporary Poets, Contemporary Novelists, Postmodern Fiction, Webster's Dictionary of American Writers, The HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Directory of American Scholars, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Art, NNDB.com, Wikipedia.com, and Britannica.com, among other distinguished directories.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Rambling March 2, 2004

By Mr. Chips

Format:Hardcover

Author Kostelanetz was a long-time Soho resident and writes a personal account about the history of Soho as an artist's neighborhood. The most interesting parts of the book are the beginning in which he describes Soho's slow transformation from a daytime industrial district into the thriving artist colony it was to become. I lived in lower Manhattan for much of the same period and can recall many of the people and places he describes.

The problem with this book is that there is no story, no narrative trajectory, no structure. The chapters appear to be loosley based on certain themes, although even those are hard to discern at times. There's nothing chronological; it's just a rambling collection of reminiscences with no cohesion or thread to hold it together or make it engaging. The author's nostalgic point of view (criticized in the Publisher's Weekly review above) would be fine if he stayed with it and honed in on it; but as is, it's just an uneven mish-mash of nostalgia and memories weaving in and out of splatterings of facts, with no order or trajectory. I have to honestly say I only got halfway through this book, so it may have improved by the end. But it just wasn't worth it for me to force myself through what felt like literary packing peanuts when there's so much other good stuff out there to read.

It needn't be this way. For example, Legs McNeil authored an excellent history of punk rock taking place mostly in New York at about the same time as this book (see "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" elsewhere on Amazon.com). The latter shows that a recent period of New York history can be conveyed in oral remembrances in a way that both informs and captivates the reader. Such an approach would have taken more labor and forethought -- something that is sorely lacking in this volume.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Soho: The Rise and Fall of an Artist's Colony by Richard Kostelanetz August 17, 2011

By Bill Rabinovitch

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Richard Kostelanetz has created a unique detailed study of the entire SoHo art scene's Rise & Fall, along with photos. Besides an authoritative, detailed narrative -- it's a great detailed study of every aspect of SoHo's evolution & demise by an a great author who settled there from the very beginning & took pains in getting to know just how it came together. in many dimension Richard clearly records every aspect in a knowing, cogent, narrative form through 2003. This is it! There can be no other. Take it from one who was also there. Bill Rabinovitch 2011