Forthcoming New Museum Show Is a Love Letter to the Bowery
The New Museum will present a comprehensive historical survey opening September 24 examining four centuries of cultural production along the Bowery, the Manhattan street now housing the institution itself. The exhibition assembles archival documents, period artifacts including an 1830 hand-pump fire engine and dime museum remnants, alongside documentary photography by Jacob Riis and artworks by Keith Haring, Lynda Benglis, and June Leaf. The narrative traces the Bowery from its origins as a Lenape footpath through Dutch colonial settlement and the establishment of Manhattan’s first free Black community, via 19th-century amusement districts and subsequent urban decay documented through tenement photographs, to its postwar renaissance as an affordable artistic enclave attracting Beat Generation figures and Abstract Expressionists, culminating in its emergence as punk and new wave epicenter with CBGB’s 1973 opening and the launch of bands including Blondie and the Ramones. The exhibition positions the street as a site of persistent cultural innovation across multiple eras.
Original article published on Hyperallergic — AI-generated summary. Visit the website to read the full article at the source. Image via Hyperallergic.
