A bustling city of 8.5 million, New York City has an ever-changing art scene.

From the world-renowned cultural institutions and museums, to commercial art galleries and outdoor public installations, New York satisfies all cultural tastes.

Sink your teeth into the city’s array of architecture, exhibition spaces, and cultural events, with art spaces on almost every corner, from the public art of the High Line to the iconic Solomon Guggenheim Museum to the annual Armory Show.

An art calendar booked full all year round, no matter when you visit, the city’s art scene is ready to welcome you with open arms.

A BRIEF LOOK AT NEW YORK’S ART HISTORY

During the Second World War many European artists relocated to the US in search of refuge and they brought with them their avant-garde art movements.

American socialite and art collector Peggy Guggenheim, who had lived for many years in Paris, was part of a large circle of artists and she was crucial in ensuring the safe travel of several artists along with their works to New York in the early 1940s.

After the war had finished, Guggenheim moved to Venice where she opened her home and her extensive modern art collection to the public.

In the post-war years, the European artists influenced their American contemporaries and vice versa.

Abstract expressionism took root and became a huge movement, pioneered by Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, and Willem De Kooning.

Paris and the rest of Europe had been a booming hub of creativity, but after the devastation of war they had to take time to recover, while New York saw the birth of a growing creative community and artistic activity.

During the 1950s and 60s, several co-operative galleries began to operate in the East Village and were known as the 10th Street galleries.

Among these was the Tanager Gallery, which was the first artist run gallery space opened in 1952, which provided an alternative to the upscale and exclusive galleries found on Madison Avenue and 57th Street.

The galleries became a social scene for emerging artists, creating opportunities to meet other creatives, curators and collectors.

Artists who were founding members of these galleries include Allan Kaprow, Emily Mason, Miriam Laufer, Alice Neel and Angelo Ippolito.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama moved to New York in 1958 and exhibited the first of her signature mirrored rooms in 1965 with Infinity Mirror Room (Phalli’s Field) and the following year Peep Show Or Endless Love Show.

Another Japanese artist establishing herself in the art world was Yoko Ono, who in 1964 premiered the avant-garde performance of Cut Piece in Kyoto, where viewers were invited to cut away her clothing with scissors as she sat on a stage.

The piece was performed again at New York’s Carnegie Hall the following year.

BREEDING GROUND FOR ART MOVEMENTS

The city became the breeding ground for other art movements such as conceptual art and pop art in the following years.

Several names of the New York City pop art Movement include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and Claes Oldenburg.

In the 1980s, New York saw the rise of artists such as Richard Prince, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Jeff Koons, who heavily influenced the trends of the art market.

Before the dramatic change in art history during the 50s, New York’s own art history already began to take shape with the advent of The Armory Show in 1913. Also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, over 70,000 people attended the exhibition in its month-long opening.

In 1994 the Armory Show evolved into an annual modern and contemporary art fair, with the next edition planned for Sept 8 to 10, 2023 at the Javits Center.

Fast forward to today, New York City has over 1,000 art galleries, mainly concentrated in Chelsea and the Lower East Side.

WHAT EXACTLY MAKES AN ART CITY?

An art city is dedicated to the arts and culture, where these aspects are seen and recognised as central to the city’s identity.

A prominent percentage of the local economy, cultural tourism, and reputation is generated from an established relationship and support of the arts and cultural events.

Naturally, a large number of people from the art city will have a role or work in the creative industries. These industries can include design, visual arts, music, publishing and literature, film and video, crafts, fashion, television and radio, theatre, and performing arts.

MUSEUMS, GALLERIES AND ART SPACES

DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY

With the first gallery space opening in New York’s Soho neighbourhood in 1993, David Zwirner has grown exponentially.

To celebrate their twentieth anniversary, the gallery opened a new five-story exhibition and project space on West 20th Street in New York.

Currently on show is Franz West’s larger-than-life sculptures Echolalia, an exhibition of new and recent works by German painter Gerhard Richter and an exhibition dedicated to New York artist Dan Flavin.

In addition to four gallery spaces across New York City, David Zwirner galleries are also found in London, Paris and Hong Kong.

NEW MUSEUM

Founded in 1977, the New Museum was the first museum devoted to contemporary art established in New York City since the Second World War.

In 2002, Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (of SANAA Ltd) were selected to design the New Museum’s new home at 235 Bowery, opening its doors to the public in 2005.

The final design is a seven-storey structure, a dramatic stack of seven rectangular boxes.

Exciting upcoming exhibitions this summer include Wynnie Minerva, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Herstory, the first New York museum survey of work by Judy Chicago.

SOLOMON R GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

An iconic example of 20th Century architecture, the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum was designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1959.

A monument to modernism, art and architecture lovers flock to visit the spiral ramp that is the focal point of this art museum.

Guggenheim and his wife Irene Rothschild began to collect art in the 1890s, later leaving the works to the Foundation, including hundreds of examples of European modernism and in particular Wassily Kandinsky.

In addition to the permanent collection, upcoming temporary exhibitions include Gego: Measuring Infinity, a show dedicated to the work of German-Venezuelan artist Gertrud Goldschmidt.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE

The Museum of the Moving Image is dedicated to all things film, television and digital media.

Dating back to 1981, the museum holds the nation’s largest and most comprehensive collection of artefacts relating to the art, history and technology of the moving image.

On display until October 2023, visitors are encouraged to see Cinema Of Sensations: The Never-Ending Screen Of Val Del Omar, and the ongoing The Jim Henson Exhibition and Behind The Screen, the museum’s core exhibition where visitors are immersed in the production and creative aspects of the film and television industry.

DIA

The Dia Art Foundation was founded in 1974 in New York City by Philippa De Menil, Heiner Friedrich and Helen Winkler.

Today Dia has several sites across the US, and one in Germany, including permanent site-specific installations, such as Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field in New Mexico and his The New York Earth Room, a long-term installation of soil packed into a Soho gallery space, which has been on view to the public since 1980.

Dia Beacon in the Hudson Valley hosts the foundation’s art collection from the 1960s to today.

Currently on show is Senga Nengudi, following the African-American visual artist’s career from 1969 to 2020.

THE HIGH LINE

Built along the former elevated railroad, the local community saw potential in the abandoned 1.45-mile track turning it into The High Line; a unique park filled with public art installations and community projects.

The original construction dates back to 1933, separating the freight trains from the pedestrian traffic at street-level.

The infrastructure went into disuse in the 1980s, with many New Yorkers calling for its demolition, however the non-profit conservancy group Friends of The High Line advocated for its preservation.

From 2009 onwards, visitors to The High Line can stroll through the park and see works such as Freedom’s Stand by Faheem Majeed, Observer, Observed by Julia Phillips, and Jasmina Cibic’s video art installations.

MAGAZZINO ITALIAN ART

Located an hour north of the city in the Hudson Valley, Magazzino is a non-profit museum and research centre dedicated to the study and exhibition of postwar and contemporary Italian art, the only one of its kind in the US.

Magazzino, which translates to mean “warehouse”, opened its doors in 2017 in a space designed by Spanish architect Miguel Quismondo.

The permanent exhibition focuses on the Arte Povera movement, with works by Jannis Kounellis, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Giovanni Anselmo.

Upcoming exhibitions will cover the work of Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa, and the paintings of Mario Schifano.

Join us on a Journey Through Sound.

Cover Credit: Nina Chanel Abney, NYC LOVE, 2022. A High Line Commission. On view November 2022–Fall 2023. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line.

Writer | Glesni Trefor Williams

Glesni Trefor Williams is a Bologna-based art journalist/translator from North Wales, who focuses her writing on contemporary art and interlinked exhibition spaces. She writes for Lampoon, Spinosa Magazine, and is an arts contributor on BBC Radio Cymru. @glesniw

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