John Cohen

Cheap rents … and de Kooning revisits the New York down - town art scene between 1957 and 1963, when the 10th Street galleries were the center of the art world and inexpensive lofts were still available. Living in this dynamic neighborhood, John Cohen photographed a series of its famous and infamous artists’ haunts?among them the legendary Cedar Bar, the Artists’ Club and the Tanager Gallery?creating a definitive impression of a hell-bent, headstrong era. De Kooning’s studio was in the midst of this avant-garde bloc, where Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Performance Art and Happenings all ambitiously made their mark alongside the Beat Generation. ? Cohen’s provocative arrangements of high-contrast lights and darks had as many undercurrents as a Rorschach test. He discovered in these images a maximum of animation?whether a quickly smiling face or a dramatically outstretched hand?a snapshot rhetoric with an underlying emblematic power. Jed Perl, New Art City