Rivington School was an art group that emerged from the
East Village art scene in the 1980s in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Many of the artists of the Rivington School were involved in welding and forging sculptures,
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
or
street art
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...
.
The group, that was started in 1983 by early founder "Cowboy" Ray Kelly, named themselves after an abandoned public school house building located on
Rivington Street
Rivington Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which runs across the Lower East Side neighborhood, between the Bowery and Pitt Street, with a break between Chrystie and Forsyth for Sara D. Roosevelt Park. Vehicular t ...
.
The school was located near the art clubs No Se No and
A's where many artists would meet and where many music and poetry performances were held.
[Margalit Berriet, ]
W.A.R.S. (Women Artists of the Rivington School) De Alors à Aujourd’hui
', Mémoire de l’Avenir, 2025,
The group is most noted for "massive junk sculpture installations on the
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
,"
and other forms of metal
public sculpture. Also a group of women artists have organized themselves as W.A.R.S. (Women Artists of the Rivington School).
Sculpture Gardens
Many public and guerilla sculpture spaces emerged from the Rivington School, most notably the Rivington Sculpture Garden, originally constructed on Rivington Street near
Forsyth Street. Due to the non-permitted nature of the work, the ''Rivington Sculpture Garden'' was regularly knocked down by the city. Eventually it found a home at 6th Street, between Avenue B and Avenue C;
and the Corragio Studio, more commonly known as "2B" or "The Garage", started by another early founder of the movement,
Linus Coraggio.
The name "2B" refers to its location at 2nd Street and Avenue B in the
East Village of
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, on which a condominium building now stands. The construction and destruction of the ''Rivington Sculpture Garden'' was documented by
Monty Cantsin (aka
Istvan Kantor
Istvan Kantor (aka "Monty Cantsin", and "Amen!") (; born August 27, 1949, Hungary) is a Canadian performance art, performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and one of the early members of Neoism.
Life
Kantor was born ...
) on the super8film ''ANTI CREDO''.
Early artists
Among the early artists of the Rivington School were
Toyo Tsuchiya,
Monty Cantsin (aka
Istvan Kantor
Istvan Kantor (aka "Monty Cantsin", and "Amen!") (; born August 27, 1949, Hungary) is a Canadian performance art, performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and one of the early members of Neoism.
Life
Kantor was born ...
),
Shalom Neuman,
Paolo Buggiani
Paolo Buggiani (born 9 May 1933) is an Italian contemporary artist.
His work is characterized by using dynamic media superimposed on an existing cityscape, rather than using static media, like figures that are skating, sailing, or running while o ...
,
Jacek Tylicki
Jacek Tylicki (born 1951 in Sopot, Poland) is a Polish artist who settled in New York City in 1982. Tylicki works in the field of land art, installation art, and site-specific art. His conceptual projects often raise social and environmenta ...
,
Linus Coraggio, and
Ena Paul Kostabi.
See also
*
Adam Purple
*
ABC No Rio
ABC No Rio is a collectively-run nonprofit arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. Founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979–80 Real Estate Show, the center featured an art gallery s ...
*
A's
Bibliography
*
C. Carr, On edge: performance at the end of the twentieth century. , Wesleyan University Press, 2008
* “Local History: The Battle for Bohemia in the East Village” (with James Cornwell), chapter in
Julie Ault, ed., Alternative Art New York, 1965-1985 (University of Minnesota Press, 2002)
*
Holland Cotter, “Art in Review: Toyo Tsuchiya, 'Six O'Clock Observed',” ''New York Times'', June 18, 1999.
*
New Art Examiner, Volume 17, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. New Art Associations, 1989
* Richard Armijo, “Rivington Street Style,” ''East Informer'', no. 2, 1987.
* Margalit Berriet, ''W.A.R.S. (Women Artists of the Rivington School) De Alors à Aujourd’hui'', Mémoire de l’Avenir,
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
American art movements
Culture of Manhattan
East Village, Manhattan