John Cohen: Cheap Rents and de Kooning

A rich and intimate portrait of the New York downtown art scene between 1957 and 1963

Cheap Rents … and de Kooning revisits the New York downtown art scene between 1957 and 1963, when the Tenth Street galleries were the center of the art world and inexpensive lofts were still available. John Cohen was there, and portraying the artists' haunts--among them the Cedar Tavern, the Club and the Tanager Gallery--and creating a definitive photographic impression of a lively, hedonistic, highly sociable scene. Abstract Expressionists, Pop artists and Beat writers could be found at these bars and galleries; Willem de Kooning's studio was in the middle of the block, and is also documented here. This volume, by one of the leading chroniclers of the era, provides its richest and most intimate portrait.
John Cohen (born 1932) is a photographer, musicologist and founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers. He has extensively documented Bob Dylan, the Beat writers and folk musicians in Appalachia. He has been one of the most important "discoverers" of traditional musicians and singers, recording Dillard Chandler and Roscoe Holcomb among others.

Cheap Rents is ...an artistic record of a place and a time when people were truly alive, very much in the world, living for art, and pushing ideas to their limits – together. (Simon Bowcock 1000 Words)