The 9th Street Art Exhibition, otherwise known as the Ninth Street Show May 21-June 10 1951 was a historical, ground-breaking exhibition during a critical period of art history. It was a gathering of a number of notable artists, and it was the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School. May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters and musicians active in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s in New York City. ...

Early Canon

Action painters ^[1]: Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Hans Hofmann Willem de Koonings Woman V (1952-53), National Gallery of Australia Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was an abstract expressionist painter, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. ... Pollocks One: Number 31, 1950 solely occupies an entire wall at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. ... Hans Hofmann (1880 - 1966) was an abstract expressionist painter. ...

Color field painters: Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb and Robert Motherwell. Color Field painting was an abstract style that emerged in the 1950s after Abstract Expressionism and is largely characterized by abstract canvases painted primarily with large areas of solid color. ... Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, one of the leading figures in abstract expressionism. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. ... Adolph Gottlieb (March 14, 1903 - March 4, 1974) was an American abstract expressionist painter. ... Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 –July 16, 1991) was an American abstract expressionist painter. ...

Downtown Group and the Organization of the "Ninth Street" Show

Artists who served in World War II did not have the attention of the Art critics of the post-World War II era. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Art criticism is the study and evaluation of art. ...

The studios were located in lower Manhattan in the area bounded by 8th and 12th street between First and Sixth Avenues during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The artists who occupied these studios were called the Downtown Group.^[2]

In 1949 the Downtown Group founded the Artists' Club located at 39 East 8th streets. The members with few exceptions were mostly war veterans, forty years old, professional artists^[3]

The weekly discussions in the Club led to the idea of organizing an exhibition. The exhibition was called the "Ninth Street" Show and was held on May 21-June 10 1951. A linoleum cut poster was created by Franz Kline to promote the show. ^[4], ^[5] The show was located at 60 East 9th Street in the first floor and the basement of a building which was about to be demolished. May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Franz Klines Painting Number 2, 1954 Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 - May 13, 1962) was an American painter mainly associated with the Abstract Expressionist group which was centered, geographically, around New York, and temporally, in the 1940s and 1950s; but not limited to that setting. ...

Legacy of the "Ninth Street" Show

"The artists celebrated not only the appearance of the dealers, collectors and museum people on the 9th Street, and the consequent exposure of their work but they celebrated the creation and the strength of a living community of significant dimensions"^{[6] [7]}

There are documents available from the "Ninth Street" show: Series of photographs made by Aaron Siskind, who himself was a member of the New York School.^{[8] [9]} The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters and musicians active in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s in New York City. ...

Yet in spite of the public interest exhibited toward the "Ninth Street" Show, there were few galleries that were willing to accept the works of the New York School artists who were unknown to the new Art criticism. The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters and musicians active in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s in New York City. ... Art criticism is the study and evaluation of art. ...

A converted horse stable named The Stable Gallery, located at 924 7th Avenue and 58th Street in New York City continued to host the New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals 1953-1957. ^[10]

The poster of the second New York Painting and Sculpture Annual at The Stable Gallery in 1953 included an introduction by Clement Greenberg: "This exhibition was conceived and organized by artists, the event rightly to be considered the precedent for this one was the famous "Ninth Street" show held in the spring of 1951 on the ground floor of a vacated store, on East 9th St. Like this one, that exhibition was organized, and its participants named and invited, by artists themselves, and a range of the liveliest tendencies within the mainstream of advanced painting and sculpture was presented. I don't think the reverberations of that show have died away yet..." ^[11], ^[12] Clement Greenberg (January 16, 1909 - May 7, 1994) was an influential American art critic closely associated with the abstract art movement in the United States. ...

References

1. ^ Rosenberg, Harold. The American Action Painters. poetrymagazines.org.uk. Retrieved on 2006 August 1.
2. ^ Harold Rosenberg, "Tenth Street: A Geography of Modern Art," Art News Annual XXVIII, 1959, New York: Art Foundation Press, Inc. pp.:120-143
3. ^ New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, New York School Press 2000 ISBN 0-9677994-0-6 p.:11-12
4. ^ "9th St." Show Poster
5. ^ New York Cultural Capital of the World 1940-1965 ed. Leonard Wallock, Rizzoli, New York 1988 ISBN 0-8478-0990-0 p.: 146
6. ^ Bruce Altshuler, Avant-Garde In Exhibition New Art in the 20th Century, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994 ISBN 0-8109-3637-2 Chapter 9, p.171
7. ^ Bruce Altshuler, Avant-Garde In Exhibition New Art in the 20th Century, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994 ISBN 0-8109-3637-2 Chapter 9, pp.:156-173
8. ^ New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, New York School Press, 2000 ISBN 0-9677994-0-6 pp.:13-14
9. ^ Bruce Altshuler, Avant-Garde In Exhibition New Art in the 20th Century, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994 ISBN 0-8109-3637-2 Chapter 9, pp.:168-169.
10. ^ Interview with Nicolas Carone: New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, New York School Press, 2000 ISBN 0-9677994-0-6 p.:19
11. ^ Stable Gallery 1953 Poster
12. ^ New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, New York School Press, 2000 ISBN 0-9677994-0-6 pp.:20-21