CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/14/2017

Evidence of life before the art market … Club 57

If you’re looking for a crash course on what it was like to be an artist, or at least an after-hours flaneur in alt-downtown NYC during the late 70s and early 80s, MoMA’s vibrant new survey, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983 is an excellent source, as noted by the New York Times, the Observer and Architectural Digest, among others. Presenting artwork and ephemera that survived the legendary underground club at 57 St. Mark’s Place, this volume collects paintings, collage works, film stills, photographs, posters, flyers, and zines by the likes of Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Fred Brathwaite (aka Fab 5 Freddy), Ann Magnuson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Wojnarowicz and John Sex, whose 1981 silkscreen for the first annual group Erotic Art Show is reproduced here.