East Village Art Tour

Artist and historian Marc Kehoe leads you through the streets of the legendary East Village, cradle of counterculture and home of ground-breaking artists of the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Though the scene declined in the 1990s, it has experienced a surprising rebirth of galleries and artistic activity in recent years.

You'll learn about leading art world figures such as Abstract Expressionists Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Joan Mitchell, photographer Robert Frank, visionary artist and sculptor June Leaf, and Pop Art pioneer Larry Rivers. The tour will also discuss the series of multimedia events at St. Mark’s Place organized by Andy Warhol, and Paul Morrissey known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and the beginning of the careers of Jeff Koons, Kenny Scharf, Keith Haring, Jean Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, David Wojnarowicz, and George Condo. It will examine the 10th Street galleries that revolutionized the art world, such as Patti Astor's Fun Gallery, which showed graffiti artists, and talk about the impact of literary artists such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. You’ll also hear about art performance clubs like Club 57, 8BC, and the Pyramid Club. The tour will include visits to several contemporary galleries in the neighborhood.

Meet at “The Cube” (Alamo) sculpture at the intersection of Astor Place and Fourth Avenue

[image by Marc Kehoe]