The world of the Abstract Expressionist artists was firmly rooted in Lower Manhattan.
A walk along 8th Street would take you from the Waldorf Cafeteria, where penniless artists made “tomato soup” from the free hot water and ketchup;
past the Hans Hofmann School of Fine artists founded by the painter of the same name;
to The Club,
a loft where lectures and heated arguments about art carried on late into the night.
Jackson Pollock’s studio was on East 8th Street,
Willem de Kooning’s Philip Guston’s, Albert Kotin's and most other pioneer New York School artists' studios were on East 10th.
Most nights the "down town artists" could be found at the Cedar Street Tavern on University Place.
Although the term "abstract expressionism" was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates,
it had been first used in Germany in 1919 in the magazine Der Sturm, regarding German Expressionism.
Alfred Barr was the first to use this term in 1929 in relation to works by Wassily Kandinsky.
Paintings by the artists of the 9th St Show
Virtual Gallery
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