Alternative Histories ─ New York Art Spaces, 1960 to 2010

This groundbreaking book--part exhibition catalogue, part culturalhistory--chronicles alternative art spaces in New York City since the 1960s. Developed from anexhibition of the same name at Exit Art, Alternative Histories documents morethan 130 alternative spaces, groups, and projects, and the significant contributions theseorganizations have made to the aesthetic and social fabric of New York City. Alternative art spacesoffer sites for experimentation for artists to innovate, perform, and exhibit outside the commercialgallery-and-museum circuit. In New York City, the development of alternative spaces was almostsynonymous with the rise of the contemporary art scene. Beginning in the 1960s and early 1970s, itwas within a network of alternative sites--including 112 Greene Street, The Kitchen, P.S.1, FOOD,and many others--that the work of young artists like Yvonne Rainer, Vito Acconci, GordonMatta-Clark, Ana Mendieta, David Wojnarowicz, David Hammons, Adrian Piper, Martin Wong, JimmieDurham, and dozens of other now familiar names first circulated.

Throughinterviews, photographs, essays, and archival material, Alternative Historiestells the story of such famous sites and organizations as Judson Memorial Church, Anthology FilmArchives, A.I.R. Gallery, El Museo del Barrio, Franklin Furnace, and Eyebeam, as well as many lesswell-known sites and organizations. Essays by the exhibition curators and scholars, and excerpts ofinterviews with alternative space founders and staff, provide cultural and historicalcontext.

ContributorsJacki Apple, Papo Colo, JeanetteIngberman, Melissa Rachleff, Lauren Rosati, Mary Anne Staniszewski, Herb Tam

IntervieweesSteve Cannon, Rhys Chatham, Peter Cramer and JackWaters, Carol Goodden, Alanna Heiss, Bob Lee, Joe Lewis, Inverna Lockpez, Ann Philbin, Anne SherwoodPundyk and Karen Yama, Irving Sandler, Adam Simon, Martha Wilson