Only in New York?
Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral’s Presence I (Courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society, New York)
New York: 1962–1964 was on view at the Jewish Museum from July 22, 2022, through January 8, 2023.
What is it about New York? Or, rather: what was it? Specifically, what was it about New York, in the middle of the twentieth century, specifically in the 1960s, more specifically in the early 1960s, that seems to have sparked so much art, so much writing, so much music and theater and dance? Why was it that apparently all of a sudden, in this particular place and this time, everyone was making things? There was a certain creative energy, maybe, hard to pinpoint but contagious and unbounded; there was the propulsive force of big global shifts and cultural upheavals; there was the chaotic, exciting urban environment itself, which was rapidly changing because of “urban renewal” and the city’s growth. There was just something about New York, a mysterious alchemic interchange between it and its artists.
An exhibition at the Jewish Museum sought to examine this place and time, specifically at New York: 1962–1964. At the time, Alan Solomon, then presi…
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