New York: 1962-1964

The book explores a pivotal moment in art and culture in New York City The radical changes that occurred in the three years between January 1962 and December 1964 had a profound effect on creative life in the city and around the world, altering not only the fine arts but everything from performance to music to design. Together with these creative innovations, the period from 1962 through 1964 saw a shift in the center of artistic gravity from Europe to the United States and the rise of a new leadership in the arts, centered on a number of New York-based curators, gallerists, and other impresarios. Inspired by the scale and format of the widely read, image-forward magazines of the time such as Life and Look, this lavishly illustrated oversize paperback traces a detailed itinerary of artists and curators, experimental exhibitions and groundbreaking happenings, as well as historical and political events that transformed society during this explosive moment. From the important “New Realists” exhibition at Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962 to the award of the International Grand Prize in Painting to the New York-based artist Robert Rauschenberg at the Venice Biennale in 1964, the city saw a flood of new approaches to art making, as well as fertile encounters among creators across mediums and disciplines. The volume was conceived by the lead curator of the accompanying exhibition, Germano Celant, Artistic and Scientific Superintendent of the Prada Foundation, Milan. The book features interviews by Celant with Christo and Jim Dine with tributes by Claudia Gould and Michael Rock. The development of the book’s extensive month-by-month chronology was supervised by Sam Sackeroff, Lerman-Neubauer Associate Curator at the Jewish Museum, a contributor to the catalogue along with international, multidisciplinary scholars including Emily Bauman, Ninotchka D. Bennahum, Jennifer G. Buonocore-Nedrelow, Olivia Casa, Laura Conconi, J. English Cook, Maria Corti, Michaëla de Lacaze Mohrmann, Joshua B. Guild, Liz Hirsch, Hiroko Ikegami, Susan Murray, Kristina Parsons, Benjamin Serby, Jennifer Sichel, and Robert Slifkin. Images include artworks as well as archival photographs. Germano Celant (1940-2020), widely influential Italian art historian, critic, and curator who coined the term Arte Povera, wrote more than one hundred publications, including both books and catalogues and curated hundreds of exhibitions in the most prominent international museums and institutions worldwide