The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever

Art historian Peiffer debuts with an intriguing biography of six modern artists who lived and created in warehouse lofts on Coenties Slip, a street in lower Manhattan that was once a water inlet used to dock vessels along the East River. The book is divided into four overlapping parts: “Before” describes the historic area, while “Arrivals” discusses the converging paths of artists Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman and his actress wife Delphine Seyrig to the Slip buildings in the mid-1950s. “Getting to Work” explores their camaraderie, abstract experimentation, and professional recognition as they tried to distance themselves artistically and geographically from the uptown abstract expressionist movement made famous by Pollock and de Kooning. In the “Departures” section, the book indicates that the artists were evicted when the buildings (except 3-5 Coenties Slip, still standing today) were razed in the mid-1960s to make way for urban renewal. Peiffer expertly describes many works of art influenced by the Slip’s surroundings, along with photographs of the artworks.