During the 1980s, Manhattan below 14th Street was a vibrant and affordable place to live and make art, a flourishing scene for creative expression. With the city as their stage, artists working there engaged with graffiti culture and street art, photographed their communities of friends and lovers, and produced collaborative forms of sculpture, painting, design, and performance. The rough-hewn streets still bore the traces of New York’s economic collapse in the 1970s, and downtown was fertile ground for art responding to urban blight, Reaganomics, gentrification, and the first wave of the AIDS pandemic. Producing art for public spaces as well as exhibitions in galleries, studios, and nightclubs scattered across the neighborhood, these artists turned their environment into a hub for the integration of art and life.
Collection 1970s–Present
202
Downtown New York
202
Downtown New York

- MoMA, Floor 2, 202
Artists
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Ida Applebroog
American, born 192915 exhibitions, 7 works online -
Alvin Baltrop
American, 1948–20042 exhibitions, 6 works online -
Jean-Michel Basquiat
American, 1960–198814 exhibitions, 12 works online -
Ashley Bickerton
British, born 19596 exhibitions, 2 works online -
Roger Brown
American, 1941–199710 exhibitions, 25 works online - There are 37 artists in this collection gallery online.
Installation images
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