The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever

by Prudence Peiffer

Longlisted for the National Book Award The never-before-told story of an obscure little street at the lower tip of Manhattan and the remarkable artists who got their start there. For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art. Now, for the first time, Prudence Peiffer pays homage to these artists and the unsung impact their work had on the direction of late twentieth-century art and film. This remarkable biography, as transformative as the artists it illuminates, questions the very concept of a “group” or “movement,” as it spotlights the Slip’s eclectic mix of gender and sexual orientation, abstraction and Pop, experimental film, painting, and sculpture, assemblage and textile works. Brought together not by the tenets of composition or technique, nor by philosophy or politics, the artists cultivated a scene at the Slip defined by a singular spirit of community and place. They drew lasting inspiration from one another, but perhaps even more from where they called home, and the need to preserve the solitude its geography fostered. Despite Coenties Slip’s obscurity, the entire history of Manhattan was inscribed into its cobblestones—one of the first streets and central markets of the new colony, built by enslaved people, with revolutionary meetings at the tavern just down Pearl Street; named by Herman Melville in Moby Dick and site of the boom and bust of the city’s maritime industry; and, in the artists’s own time, a development battleground for Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. The Slip’s history is entwined with that of the artists and their art—eclectic and varied work that was made from the wreckage of the city’s many former lives. An ambitious and singular account of a time, a place, and a group of extraordinary people, The Slip investigates the importance of community, and makes an argument for how we are shaped by it, and how it in turns shapes our work. 

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, New York, Audiobook, Biography, Art History

432 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2023

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valiant attempt to root art in a sense of place that succeeds in its aim but largely loses the reader in the process.

As someone with a background in contextual Art History, I’m always interested in how location and setting inform creation, whether that is about why a piece was created, how it was created, or even what literally ends up making up the piece materially.

The author works hard here to demonstrate how much Coenties Slip informed the work of the artists who lived there, and while she succeeds in doing so, it’s a clunky and slow-moving journey to get there. Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it will make for good reading, and while I applaud the theory and research that made all of this true, the narrative didn’t make for a particularly good book.

I would be far more likely to cite something like this than read it for pleasure, which is a compliment to the author’s art historical chops, but perhaps not so much one for her role as an author of narrative nonfiction.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Patricia Vaccarino · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Slip is a little known Manhattan neighborhood that used to exist a stone’s throw from Wall Street. Coenties Slip, named after the early Dutch Settler Coenraedt Ten Eyck, is as close to the water’s edge as one could get without falling into the East River. In colonial New York City, piers and slips were critical to the merchants, fishermen, and sailors who made a living from the sea trade. This rough and tumble business was populated by the dregs of humanity, but the financial rewards were lucrative. The warehouses populating the slip were a cheap place to live—a major attraction to artists who needed suitably large studio spaces at bargain-basement prices. In the 1950s and 1960s the Slip became home to the who’s who among pop artists, experimental filmmakers, painters, sculptors and textile artists, many of whom became distinguished and were sought after by museums, galleries and private collectors all over the world. For a little piece of forgotten New York City history, read The Slip. Also embrace the book’s stronger message, the artists who live, work, and break bread together, are the ones who become successful. With a little help from friends, all things are possible in the art world.

[Wynne Hendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Bart Casper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found The Slip to be an engaging read. The pacing and structure of the narrative is well constructed. The influence of environment, history of place and interrelationships are well explored as is the reaction of the artists to the then contemporary movement of abstract expressionism. The brief yet illustrative biographies of the artist and community of the slip help inform the artists motivations and help to paint the picture of life for these innovators. The link to the emerging preservationist movement including the realization that the value of place is often greater than the sum of the structures or buildings within.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pre emptively giving this one 5 stars. Still waiting on it from the library but I know this piece of non fiction is going to be great, so putting a placeholder here until the review :)

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I never used to consider myself a fan of abstract art, but as I've gotten older I've grown to appreciate it more -- and this book further piqued my interest in this period of art history. I had almost no familiarity with the Coenties Slip artists profiled in this book; I'd heard of Ellsworth Kelly and Agnes Martin, but that's about it. I really liked learning about this group of artists, how the area of Coenties Slip in New York City influenced their work, and the importance of Coenties Slip in NYC's history. I appreciated that the author's writing style was accessible, with lots of fascinating details about these artists' lives and work sprinkled throughout the book. 4 stars

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite NYC art history book so far! Peiffer’s storytelling gives a great outline of NYC at the time and each of these artist’s journeys (solo and with each other) - although it did help to have a background on the city art scene from Picasso’s War and Ninth Street Women. It doesn’t dive in as deep as Ninth Street Women, but I feel all the necessary points about the artists/their careers (relative to the Slip) were covered - felt like a more doable art history read.

I didn’t know anything about the Slip prior to reading this and only had a limited knowledge of these artists, so I really enjoyed this book!

[Leah Weyandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s the story of place itself: Not of singular genius, but little pathways of influence and intrigue.”

“It’s another way of understanding what collective solitude protects: The outer place that gives you an identity, a community and the inner place that allows you to work.”

“Everyone at the slip wanted to be alone and working alone and so staying with your thoughts and that’s very important in the creative arts, but it can be crushing when there’s no kind of outside alternative to it.”

—Youngerman

“I have no patience with people who don’t know that every moment is filled with magic. Can’t they see? Can’t they see?”

—Parsons

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at American art and the city of New York in the 50s and 60s. Lots of rich history condensed into a wonderful book

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about the artists who lived at Coenties Slip on the southern tip of Manhattan from 1956-1967. These artists-- Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney and Jack Youngerman lived in what Peiffer calls a state of "collective solitude--a model of creativity that is about...being together in a very specific place at a very special time, without denaturing each individual, locked-away story...It's about knowing that there are others around you--above and below, just down the block--who are also trying to work out how to make something compellng, and how to survive while doing that. But also knowing that you are alone and free."

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Always intrigued by stories that capture an era, a time, place and a group. Could be the Renaissance and Florence, the Bell Labs guys from the 1960s or punks in st. Mark’s place in the 80s

This book is a fascinating exploration of the artists who followed the abstract expressionism crew and opened up the world of Pop Art which followed.

Very talented writer who brings us into the world of a small group of influential artists who shared a former sail making building in a remote section of Manhattan and changed the art world.

It also is a series of brief biographies.

It also is a brief history of Manhattan.

It’s all the things.

[Antonio Depietro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an incredibly well researched book about the artists that lived on Coenties Slip; Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. Some of whom, I knew nothing about! It’s hard to say which is more fascinating, the place she describes or the community of artists she sets in it. It turns out that this funny (and now non existent) part of the southstreet seaport is a incredibly important part of American art. The legacy of the Slip made a huge impact into postwar abstraction, fiber art, Pop Art, and Minimalism.

[Nicholas (was Allison) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.34 Stars
Notes: I have recently been researching art history more than I typically have been out of curiosity, and after looking through many lists of nonfiction books online, I found this one. This is not an ordinary nonfiction art-related historical book by any means, this was like a breath of fresh air. The reason I have for that, is since the writing style is just so descriptive and easy to read through that I literally wasn’t lost once, and, the best thing was that I didn’t have to take any notes. This is not necessarily light nonfiction reading, though as far as art history books go, this was the one I could read through better than any others I skimmed at first that I previously looked through.

This also features a lot of artists as well as other important people relevant to what the story is currently focusing on (the Coenties Slip, which is a New York neighborhood in Manhattan, slightly nearby Wall Street). There is an absolute ton of researched information here with lots of sources listed in the back, so while the book might appear as long at first, there’s actually a lot of sources referenced, that I appreciated how they were formatted and styled. Even though it’s not necessary to look at those, I tend to typically anyways, since I just enjoy reading nonfiction and stuff relating to it. I will further add in that this novel is going to potentially seem very, very complex to those who have not extremely researched art history before, like I have. I would add in to maybe also research New York/United States history more than some before reading this if you’d want to page through it faster, as there is lots of other historical content in here too. I tend to take extra effort looking into what a novel is actually about if it’s historically related to something that maybe isn’t necessarily too well-known, though this was still such a valuably informative book that I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon.

I am going to also include that this is going to take an amount of mental effort to go through, even though the reading experience I had with this book was worthwhile, it is alright if it takes anyone else a few months or longer to read it all the way through. Why I am adding that in is because there are very lengthy paragraphs in many different pages, even as the pacing is good enough, this is absolutely including more than eighteen hours of reading through the first half at the very least, if one wants to pay attention to everything that is going on. I was already reading previous nonfiction books this year, so I could read this at a regular pace, and I really did like seeing extra art details of how several art pieces were made and creatively styled as well. Not everything will be pleasant reading, since there are some very sad biographical stories about artists and other people that are related to them unfortunately. I would recommend to have an emotional tolerance first, as that is going to be necessary for the first few chapters, immediately early on. There won’t be any specific trigger warnings mentioned and I am not going to mark this with any - however - please keep in mind there is (some) dark content included that might potentially raise anxiety. Other than that, the experience I had with reading this was over the time amount of several months (since February), so I could understand and process everything as much as I could that I managed to read.

If you are really interested in this book, I would recommend it to those who are interested from the description already. I went into reading this like a typical book, and it was extremely worth it to remember everything I had learned from its pages.

[Claudia Majetich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book right after reading Ninth Street Women, which deals with woman who were part of The New York School of Abstract Expression, the art movement that slightly preceded and somewhat overlapped with the group of artists who are covered in this book. Taken together, they provide a mini-seminar in some of the most important visual artists of the 20th century.

Ninth Street Women did a better job of getting inside its subject's personalities--which tended to be big, outgoing and assertive. Peiffer's portrayals of her subjects weren't as vivid, but her subjects weren't the larger-than-life characters of the AE crowd. But, she also didn't seem as interested in getting inside the people she was writing about. I missed that.

However, she does an excellent job of showing how the physical landscape of that part of NYC sustained a nurturing community among the several artists who lived there. The buildings this group of artists used as lofts for their large-scale paintings were left over from the age of sail: human-sized buildings with grand-scale lofts originally used for sewing massive canvas sails. She rightly mourns their demolition as the area was turned into skyscrapers as the nearby financial district expanded.

However, this book needed much better editing. Some sentences were needlessly awkward. Some paragraphs should have been moved around. Some paragraphs would have been split in two. I found myself caught up in these needless glitches, pulled out of the narrative and mentally, rewriting portions of the text. A book published by a major publishing house should not have these flaws.

A plus, however, were the full-color illustrations of some artworks produced by her subjects: a limited sample, but very useful. I found myself consulting them throughout reading the book. The b+w snapshots of her subjects were also excellent.

[vivivivivivi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This art history book blew my socks off!!!! I enjoyed this so much I went ahead and ordered a hardcover version of it to keep for life! It took me a while to finish simply because of the AMOUNT OF DETAIL and information (sometimes a little bit *too much* on the quotidian details) presented in this web of friendships and family formed on the Coenties Slip.




The book is centered around Jack Youngerman, Ellsworth Kelly, Delphine Seyrig, Agnes Martin, Lenore Tawney, Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, and gallery owner Betty Parsons. Instead of focusing solely on their art, I appreciated the emphasis on their kinship with each other <3




This book is structured really well. It starts with geographical history, and then individual artist biographies, then chronologically from 1957 after everyone arrives on (and eventually departs from) The Slip. I learned so much- from the history of the seaport in New York City, to the G.I Bill, to the background and individual personalities of the artists. Reading this made me feel like a fly on the wall watching their lives unfolding in real time. This book takes you into their brain processes almost, seeing how their interaction with environment, politics, and interpersonal relationships influenced their art.




I also loved that the booked touched on sexism when it came to craft arts in the fine arts world.




“A woman working in textiles was immediately assigned to the domestic space, outside of art and culture the space that Tawney and Martin eschewed. In response to this condescension, an artist once remarked, ‘Painters forget they paint on fabric.’”

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engrossing analysis of the work of a group of important American artists residing on Coenties Slip on the lower east side of Manhattan in the 1950s and 60s. Sometimes related stylistically, but oftentimes not, the work of this creative community is instead united here by interpersonal relationships and a sense of place. How do artists within a group impact and support one another's creations? How does geographic space influence one's creative output? Prudence Peiffer's clear-eyed account not only elucidates the history and development of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, film, and textile works, it is also a fascinating history of New York City and its waterfront. The book additionally is a generous biography of some of the biggest names in American art and provides valuable insight into the lives of Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman.

This is a well-researched and interestingly told story of men and women—gay and straight—which intelligently and succinctly supports the author's concept of the necessity of "collective solitude" for the creation of art. Working amid the energy of frenetic Manhattan, these individuals required time alone for contemplating how their work would fit into the wider art world. The artists of The Slip created a space of mutual support and respect enabling this process.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could magically put myself in another life, I think I would have liked to be a painter in New York City in the 1950's, living the bohemian life so well described here. I may have hated that life with all its deprivations, but I love the passion of the artists for their work and the comraderiie of this community.

This is not an academic work. It helps if you are at least a little familiar with some of the artists portrayed here, but it may not be essential. You will want to view their works after you read about them. I found the painter Agnes Martin especially interesting and have already looked up biographies of her.

What the author does so well here is describe the atmosphere of this little corner of downtown NYC, and how these painters survived before their fame. But it is the work that drives them, and that drive is so engaging to read about. I am not a fan of the conservatism of the 1950's, and generally avoid books set in that decade, but this is the exception as it depicts artists who defied thay era’s conventions.

Melissa Redmond, a new narrator to me, perfumed this audiobook and she was quite good, sounding engaged with the material and pleasant to hear.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book because I was curious to read about a part of town my mother used to tell me about in the 1940s when she worked editorial jobs for shipping industry publications. At the time there still were chandlers (she particularly remembered the huge coils of rope) and the kinds of bars catering to sailors that all disappeared by about the middle of this book (mid-1950s or so). It was a wild place (Peiffer notes that waterfront property was not desirable then) where my mother sometimes had to fend off her editor, being chased around a desk. On a recent trip to the Battery, I could not see even a hint of that earlier world; it was all towers of glass, even suburban style box stores were coming to lower Manhattan; the thrill was gone. Peiffer's story of the artists was very interesting and she had a way of telling the story in a very integrated way. I even remember some of the artwork in the color illustration section though I knew nothing of the artists or their significance, much less their connection to the city. I enjoyed reading about them. In their way, they tied the older city to the newer.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book on a whim--I think it might have been a Daily Deal on Audible--and wondered if I would keep listening to it after about 30 minutes. I had never heard of any of these artist and I just couldn't wrap my head around the terminology at first. But then I went and read a few reviews and dug deeper by looking up the artists and their work and I was hooked. Hooked by the writing, hooked by the artists (one of them a performing artist) and hooked by the Slip.
I really hope that Peiffer works with a director to make this a doc. I am not sure any of the actual artists is still with us, but that's not necessary for this to be a great POV episode or other PBS doc--I should really stop writing now and see if she or someone else has already done this. The book is about art, sure. It's also about people choosing to live lives outside the margins--even the margins of the art world. Now what I need to do is take a trip to NY or to some galleries closer to home to spend some time with these six amazing artists' work.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book from a very personal point of view.

Peiffer talks about artistic "movements" as generally generational in construction. THE SLIP discusses the history of a group of New York City's artists that meet during the 1950s while living on a isolated block of neglected apartment buildings on the southeast shore of Manhattan. Together they were figuring out their approach to visually presenting their personal ideas; simultaneously they were gaining sustenance from their social and environmental surroundings.

"movements" as being apparently generational in construction. In THE SL By all artists are figuring out their approach to visually presenting their personal ideas while simultaneously gaining sustenance from their social and environmental surroundings.

Hence; THE SLIP.

I was from the next generation of artistic and creative folk in lower Manhattan. Louise Nevelson was my neighbor. Indiana, apparently, lived nearby on the Bowery.

Reading this book reminded me of the web of encounters, both intellectually and socially, that helped shape me due to the configuration of life in New York City

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much to like about this. Instead of the typical story of the individual (usually male) battling through their demons to achieve greatness (narcissism, toxic masculinity, the glorification of substance abuse), The Slip looks at a place, deeply rooted in nyc urban and maritime history, and sees its influence on a handful of artists, some well-known, some less so. Well researched, with great illustrations and lots of first hand interviews , Pfeiffer was also influenced by the superb grass roots history of gay New York by George Chauncey and explores the crossover of gendered textile arts from craft to fine art.

Does Peiffer's thesis totally work? Not really. But it was so refreshing, it didn't really bother me. I do like the idea of the land holding the inspiration and am intrigued by the notion of collective solitude. And thank god, I wasn't reading about Jackson Pollack drinking himself to death as the be-all and end-all of art.

[Peter Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Slip focuses on a loosely affiliated group of artists in New York City in the late 1950’s. They were part of the generation of artists that came after the Abstract Expressionists. The Slip is at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, a place of docks and warehouses. The artists included Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, Jack Yongerman and Ann Wilson. They all knew and supported each other but the illegal lofts they lived in also gave them independence and a place to live and work. The Slip is a history of the southern tip of Manhattan and the art world in the late 50’s and early sixties. The book has some illustrations but I would like to have seen more of the artwork the author describes. I think how different my father’s life would have been if he was living there in the late 50’s instead of serving in the Air Force. I think he and my mother would have thrived there. He never found an artistic community after leaving Black Mountain College.

[Lionel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Slip is the story of a group of artists who formed an impromptu community in the former Coenties Slip water from a neighborhood in New York in the early 1960s.  This brief five-year period saw the artists Jack Youngerman, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Robert Indiana, and others live near each other during a highly productive period in their careers.  Before reading this book, I was unaware of these artists or their work.  This book is an introduction to both their work and the changing landscape of New York, as the period described was right before the Coenties Strip area was torn down to make way for more modern construction.  The author argues that this chance gathering gave the artists a “collective solitude” that they needed to produce many of their most famous works.  I found this art history book very informative and entertaining.  Anyone interested in art history or the history of New York will find this book an exciting read.

[Marti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very good. I never skipped a day of reading this to read a romance novel instead, which says something.

Rambling: I grew up going to the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, so I know very well so many of these artists' works, which may have made it more interesting to me, but I love any book that takes a tiny slice of life and expands upon it to show the far reaching effects of what surely didn't seem like a big deal at first (finding a cheap place to live and work in NYC). I really appreciated the focus on the women in the group who are not as well known, at least to me, and how the constant changing of the city played such a big part in the art and success of all the artists. I now want to see everything I can by Agnes Martin (The Tree, 1965 is currently on view at the AKG, so I guess I'll have to visit that when in Buffalo soon) and Lenore Tawney.

[Michael Byron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m nostalgic for a specific place and period of time I had absolutely no involvement in. I was born in the 50s and my first awareness of contemporary art was with Andy Warhol. Of the artists mentioned in this book I had only heard of Robert Indiana and his LOVE sculpture. This is a fascinating look into the lives of several artists living on or neat the Coenties Slip in lower Manhattan. They were serious, and brave people, who worked hard at their art. They also seemed to party a lot, good for them.

[wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot reading this book about a small vibrant neighborhood in New York City with a burgeoning community of artists who lived there in the 1950's and 60's. The Slip refers to an area in early times when sea vessels docked there. Thus there some cheap empty warehouses that were perfect for a large artistic creations. We meet a tight group of artists involved in various cutting edge movements in modern art. We learn of their struggles and triumphs as they rose in influence and prominence.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working in a museum that opened in the early 1960s, this was a great read to understand the contemporary art scene of the day and the emerging artists. While various artists and their networks were threaded throughout the narrative — truly a who’s who of art in NY — the artists of Coenties Slip created their own unique community. Regardless of medium or style, these neighbors bolstered one another through ups and downs, shared space and solitude, and supported one another as a new generation of art was launched.

[Siobhan Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

NYT Notable Books 2023: 10/100

If you're in to the early pop art movement, especially its roots in New York City, this might be a great read for you. However, as someone not deeply versed in this era of art, at points it was hard to follow the book. Names were dropped from seemingly nowhere, with an assumption that readers would know who they were. I'm sure these were significant names, but they didn't mean a lot to me. The portraits of the artists themselves were solid and gave really good and detailed information, but I found Peiffer's introductions to other people to be less clear.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The slip refers to a short street on the lower east side of Manhattan where, in the olden days, ships would slip in to be unloaded and loaded. In the 1950s and 1960s artists moved into these mid-nineteenth century buildings because the spaces were and cheap (and unheated). Their community of artist created some of the important 20th century art we know today. A wonderful history.

The book is also a testament to how important these areas are for artists to work together and influence each other.

[Pam Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This proved to be an important read for me. Sprinkled throughout are countless validations for me as an artist. The author lovingly starts us off with a historical perspective on the birth of that section of Manhattan with all its transformations and economics. Then bringing us directly into the intimate lives of artists living in the same geographic spaces. I was fully drawn into the lives and processes of these artists. This is one of my favorite reads; so many things said that made me feel validated and connected as an artist.