Park Place Gallery
| Company type | Artist cooperative |
|---|---|
| Industry | Contemporary art gallery |
| Founded | 1963 |
| Defunct | 1967 |
| Headquarters | New York City , United States |
Key people | John Gibson (first director), Paula Cooper (director) |
| Products | Exhibitions of geometric abstraction and spatial concept art |
The Park Place Gallery was a contemporary artist-run cooperative gallery that operated in New York City from 1963 until 1967. It gained recognition in the post-World War II era for its strategic location and its dedication to artists exploring geometric abstraction and spatial concepts.
Regarded as the inaugural 1960s gallery in Lower Manhattan's emerging art district, Park Place was initially situated at 542 West Broadway, close to the area now known as SoHo. Established as a cooperative near Park Place in 1963, the gallery expanded in 1965 by moving to a larger venue on West Broadway. The exhibition layout included a spacious main gallery accompanied by an office and an additional display area at the rear. Typically, the primary space showcased paired exhibitions featuring one painter alongside one sculptor, while other artists were presented in the secondary room.
John Gibson was appointed as the gallery's first director before founding his own John Gibson Gallery in the early 1970s. Following his tenure, Paula Cooper took over leadership and, after Park Place's closure, opened the influential Paula Cooper Gallery in SoHo. Cooper emerged as a key figure in shaping the contemporary art market and played a significant role in the growth of New York City's gallery scene throughout the 1970s.
Precursors
During the early 1960s, artists across the United States began occupying lofts and warehouse spaces in Lower Manhattan—once referred to as "Hells Hundred Acres"—which provided expansive and cost-effective studios. This migration attracted dealers and gallery owners who established new exhibition spaces nearby.
By 1966, SoHo had transformed into a vibrant artist enclave, with Park Place Gallery acting as an important cultural center. The gallery became known for hosting popular music events and special programming. Concurrently, venues such as Max's Kansas City on Park Avenue South and St. Adrian's bar on lower Broadway emerged as gathering places for artists, writers, and creative communities in downtown Manhattan.
Early Park Place Gallery
Founded in 1962 near Park Place in Lower Manhattan, the original cooperative included ten founding artists: Mark di Suvero, Dean Fleming, Robert Grosvenor, Forrest Myers, Peter Forakis, Leo Valledor, Tamara Melcher, Tony Magar, and Edwin Ruda. John Gibson (1933–2019) served as its inaugural director. Subsequent members comprised David Novros, Jonathan Baldwin, and Gay Glading.
The gallery concentrated on showcasing emerging talents engaged with geometric abstraction, shaped canvases, hard-edge painting techniques, Op Art, paradoxical geometric forms, sculpture, and experimental practices. Many participants were also involved with avant-garde architecture, electronic music innovations, and minimalism.
Later history
In 1965, Park Place Gallery moved to 542 West Broadway near what is now SoHo. That same year Paula Cooper assumed directorship, establishing the gallery as a focal point for downtown’s avant-garde community. The space regularly featured poetry readings, electronic music performances, and popular exhibition openings that attracted a youthful artistic audience. Financial support was obtained from the Lannan Foundation.
Closure and legacy
Park Place Gallery ceased operations by 1967.
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York’s artistic landscape expanded to encompass movements such as Conceptual art, Earth art, Lyrical abstraction, Minimalism, Postminimalism, Performance art, Abstract expressionism, Color field painting, Op art, and Pop art. Park Place played a pivotal role in shaping the nascent SoHo gallery environment. Following its shutdown, Paula Cooper utilized her background to establish the notable Paula Cooper Gallery located on Prince Street in SoHo.
Between 2008 and 2009, the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin presented an exhibition titled Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York, curated by Linda Dalrymple Henderson.
Artists
Numerous artists connected with the gallery have been collectively referred to as "The Park Place Group." The gallery was instrumental in exhibiting works by both rising talents and recognized artists, frequently hosting their inaugural shows.
Founders
The founders of Park Place Gallery consisted of:
Exhibitors
Artists who presented their work at Park Place Gallery include:
See also
- Tenth street galleries
- Minimal art
- Postminimalism
- Lyrical Abstraction
- shaped canvas
- Hard-edge painting
- Impossible object
- truncated dodecahedron
- polyhedron
Further reading
- Blanton Museum of Art: American Art Since 1900 / edited by Annette DiMeo Carlozzi and Kelly Baum, University of Texas at Austin, 2006, catalog .
- Blanton Museum catalog: Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Dean Fleming, Ed Ruda, and the Park Place Gallery: Spatial Complexity and the "Fourth Dimension" in 1960s New York, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 379–389
- Lyrical Abstraction, essay by Ronnie Landfield, [1]
External links
- Park Place Gallery artists films, 1967, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Art and Space: Park Place and the beginning of the Paula Cooper Gallery, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
- 1963 establishments in New York City
- 1968 disestablishments in New York (state)
- Art museums and galleries disestablished in 1968
- Art museums and galleries established in 1963
- Artist cooperatives in the United States
- Contemporary art galleries in the United States
- Cooperatives based in New York (state)
- Cultural history of New York City
- Defunct art museums and galleries in Manhattan