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Steve Silver stands inside his 5,000-square-foot loft in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Silver, a painter, moved into the loft in 1979.
A Look Inside New York’s Historic Artist Lofts
The Last of Their Kind.
They used to be printing shops, garment factories and flophouses. Now they’re some of the coolest artist spaces you’ll ever see.
These unique, expansive lofts, rarely seen by the public, are all over New York City.
For decades, they’ve been occupied by painters, sculptors and other artists who moved in when manufacturers started leaving the city in the second half of the 20th century.
“When people think of New York City as a cultural epicenter, these are the artists that they’re envisioning,” said Joshua Charow, a photographer and filmmaker who has spent the past few years documenting the artists and their studios for his book “Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts.”
Artist Claire Ferguson moved into her loft in the city’s Tribeca neighborhood in 1981. At the time, the building in Lower Manhattan had a mix of artists and industrial tenants. “The floor below me was a paintbrush factory,” she told photographer and filmmaker Joshua Charow. “The floor above me put lines on paper before they had offset printing, and they had these huge machines. They had a guillotine that cut through the reams of paper every morning. At 6 a.m., they would turn it on, and it was this noise, aargh!”
JG Thirlwell’s loft in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood doubles as his home recording studio. “Loft living is not for everyone,” he told Charow. “You’re responsible for everything in here, and not everyone wants a life like that.”
A cat rests inside the Tribeca loft of Ken and Flo Jacobs, experimental filmmakers who moved into the space in 1965. At the time, the monthly rent for the 2,000-square-foot loft was just $70.
For the first half of the 20th century, New York City was a major manufacturing center. Factories were all over, producing everything from ice cream to torpedoes.
But when companies started finding it profitable to move their operations to other parts of the country and the world, many buildings were abandoned. By the 1960s and ‘70s, industrial neighborhoods, including those we now know as SoHo and Tribeca in Lower Manhattan, were largely deserted.
Landlords were desperate to find tenants. A big problem, however, was that the buildings were not zoned for residential use. Many of them didn’t have kitchens or showers, or even electricity or heat.
“The only people that would rent the space were artists,” Charow said. “And that’s because (the buildings) had tall ceilings, so they could make big work. They had big windows to let in lots of light. The spaces were completely raw, in many circumstances.”
Anne Mason sits in front of one of her late husband’s paintings in the loft they lived in together in the Little Italy neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. Frank Mason died in 2009, but his wife preserved his studio and his paintings.
Plants thrive in the natural light of the Midtown loft Bob Petrucci and Ray Bailey call home. It’s on the 16th floor of a building previously used as a necktie factory.
Artists would move into the empty factories and warehouses and make them more livable spaces. It was technically illegal, of course, but everyone was benefiting and the once-abandoned neighborhoods started to thrive again.
By the end of the ’70s, however, loft living had become quite fashionable and some landlords were looking to cash in, pushing out the artists for a wealthier clientele.
The artists pushed back, and in 1982 state lawmakers enacted Article 7-C of the New York Multiple Dwelling Law, which is commonly known as the 1982 Loft Law. This legislation gave protection and rent stabilization to people who had been living in these spaces. It also required landlords to bring the units up to residential code.
When the law was enacted, Charow says in his book, there were tens of thousands of artists living in lofts across the city. Now just a few hundred remain.
Noah Jemison moved to his Williamsburg loft in 1980. He remembers his neighborhood not having as much traffic as it does now. “You could walk down the streets and see nobody,” he told Charow. “It was a place where you could hear yourself think. It was perfect for artists.”
A scan of a 1913 blueprint shows one of the Manhattan buildings Charow photographed. New York City was a major manufacturing center for the first half of the 20th century.
Painter Betsy Kaufman walks inside her Tribeca loft. She uses the front half as her studio. It still has its original wooden floors.
Legislation enacted in 1982 allowed loft residents in New York to establish legal residence and have their living spaces brought up to code. It also stabilized their rent and protected them from eviction.
Charow wanted to document these artists — and their extraordinary lofts — before their numbers dwindled even more. He found a map of the remaining protected buildings and went door to door to see whether their tenants would be willing to share their story with him.
He was often rejected at first. But over time, more doors started to open up as people he met would introduce him to others.
Over the past three years, Charow has photographed 75 artists — 30 of whom are in his book.
“My life has been greatly enriched by meeting some of these artists and learning about their lives and their stories,” Charow said. “It’s had a big impact on just my life, and I can’t imagine how much of an impact this group of people has had on the city as a whole.”
Art created by Carolyn Oberst and Jeff Way adorn the walls of the loft they share in Tribeca. They live on the top two floors of a building they started renting in 1975. “I won’t tell you what it cost, but it was very cheap. We’ll just leave it at that,” Way told Charow. “But that was an incentive to fix it up. It was sweat equity, they called it.”
Ellen Christine makes new hats and restores old ones. She’s one of the last milliners in New York City. “In the 1930s, you could walk down any street, and there would be at least 30 milliners,” she said. “It was just (that) everybody wore hats, you see… So they needed new ones all the time.”
Curtis Mitchell remembers when he first walked into his loft in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn. The building used to be an ice cream factory. “It looked just like a dream,” he said. “To me, it still is a dream. It’s a fantastic place. Cold as hell in the winter and hot as hell in the summer, but I don’t care.”
One of Charow’s favorite spaces was the Bowery loft of Carmen Cicero, who is now 97 years old but moves with the energy of someone much younger, Charow said. Cicero lives in the loft with his wife, the art historian Mary Abell. Filling the space are hundreds of Cicero’s paintings, some bigger than he is.
“When you dream of what a painter in their loft in New York would be like, it’s Carmen,” Charow said. “And he’s filled with incredible stories. He has such phenomenal stories of his time as an artist here.”
Cicero’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
He told Charow the story of how he got his big break: “I had a lot of friends who thought I was a really remarkable painter. One day, they said, ‘Carmen, you’re going to a gallery.’ And they had two guys grab my feet, and two guys grab my arms — they threw me in the car and said, ‘We’re going.’ We went to four or five galleries, and almost every one of them wanted my work — I was lucky.”
Carmen Cicero lives in the Bowery, which has one of the highest concentration of Loft Law-protected buildings in the city. The painter moved to New York in 1971, after his home studio in New Jersey went up in flames
Charow says it has been a thrill to meet these artists and listen to their stories.
“The spaces are beautiful and interesting and historic in their own ways. But without the artists, these spaces lose the significance and the interest to me,” he said. “The artists are the ones who are giving the spaces meaning. Their decades of life and working there is what makes these spaces sort of a sacred thing.”
Through June 29, Charow’s photos are being exhibited at Westwood Gallery NYC, alongside the art of many of the people he photographed.
“I’m really excited that people get to see the paintings and sculptures and and see where they’re made,” he said.
Filmmakers Ken and Flo Jacobs have lived in their top-floor Tribeca loft for more than 50 years. “Once, we staged a live shadow play with a stretched curtain in the loft. Our audience consisted of just two people: Yoko Ono and John Lennon,” Ken told Charow.
Sculptor Marsha Pels lives in what used to be a glass factory in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood.
Even though the book is already published, Charow’s project will continue. After he began sharing his photos and videos, more artists started reaching out to him so that they could tell their story.
He now has a list of artists to photograph over the next few months.
“This isn’t just a thing of New York’s past. This is the present,” Charow said. “You can walk down the street and look at a window and you might see (an artist), and they’re still working and they’re still making their paintings and sculptures.
“I think it’s a beautiful part of our city, that this exists. It took a lot of resilience and ingenuity to stay in these spaces.”
Kimiko Fujimura, a painter, moved from Tokyo to New York City more than 50 years ago. She has lived in this Chinatown loft since 1979. It was the top floor of a former bow-and-ribbon factory.
The Lower Manhattan skyline is seen from a loft in Brooklyn.
Joshua Charow’s book, “Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts,” is published by Damiani Books. The exhibition at Westwood Gallery NYCis taking place through July 13.
Photographs by Joshua Charow. Story by Kyle Almond. Published June 16, 2024
#Joshua Charow#A Look Inside New York’s Historic Artist Lofts#Joshua Charow “Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts”#loft#real estate#art#artist#art work#art world#art news#art studio#long post#long reads
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Inside the Life of a 99-Year-Old New York Painter. premiered 27 May 2024.
Video Directed by Joshua Charow Cinematography by Josh Curley Edit by Abraham C. Howard
Joe Barnes is a meditative monochromatic painter. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum Katharinehof-Kronenburg, the Hood Museum of Art, and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum. To see Joe Barne's work or inquire for sales, please visit: https://www.joebarnesartist.com/
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Christopher Winter Pugliese is an artist from New York City. He paints in the manner of his Italian ancestors and considers the process an exploration of his own genetic history. His work is inspired by Renaissance and Italian Baroque paintings and sculptures. Christopher spends his days in the studio painting commissioned and personal works. His work has been exhibited at the Eleanor Ettinger, John Pence, Capro Nason, Arcadia, Hirschl and Adler, Bellwether and Shooting galleries. For inquiries to purchase or commission a painting by Christopher Winter Pugliese, please contact: [email protected]
#video#youtube#art#artists#artist#new york#loft tour#home tour#Joshua Charow#Christopher Winter Pugliese#Youtube
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“Jeff Way In His Tribeca Loft”, 2023; “Turtle Owl Death Mask”,2018 and “Egyptian Violet Gorilla Mask”, 2017
Kimiko Fujimura “Party-3 (Party at Peter’s)", 1990, and “Kimiko Fujimura in her Chinatown Loft”, 2023
For his current exhibition, Loft Law, on view at Westwood Gallery, documentary photographer and filmmaker Joshua Charow photographed artists living and working in the remaining spaces still protected by Loft Law in NYC. The well-crafted portraits offer a chance to see how the artists have made these spaces home over the years.
The gallery has also included artwork by eleven of the artists featured in the photos- Carmen Cicero, Loretta Dunkelman, Betsy Kaufman, Kimiko Fujimura, Joseph Marioni, Carolyn Oberst, Marsha Pels, Gilda Pervin, Steve Silver, Mike Sullivan, and Jeff Way.
From the gallery-
In 1982, Article 7-C of the Multiple Dwelling Law, also known as the Loft Law, was passed in New York City. The law gave protection and rent stabilization to people living illegally in manufacturing and commercially zoned lofts. Hidden behind this legislation were thousands of artists who needed a live/work environment at an affordable rent. These artists protected by the Loft Law changed the trajectory of New York’s cultural landscape.
Three years ago, Charow found a map of the remaining buildings with Loft Law protection. He rang hundreds of doorbells to find and photograph over 75 Loft Law tenants across the city to document the last of these incredible spaces and the creative individuals who made them home. Charow’s interest in the Loft Law and the vanishing history of New York stemmed from his early teenage years when he became immersed in a subculture called ‘Urban Exploring,’ the practice of illegally climbing skyscrapers, bridges, and abandoned subway stations. One of the rooftops he visited was an old factory building in South Williamsburg, where a tenant explained to Charow about the building’s remaining tenants under Loft Law protection.
The photos are a living visual document of the expansive spaces: old flophouses on the Bowery, garment factories in Tribeca and SoHo, glass factories in Greenpoint, and even a former ice cream factory in DUMBO. From the 19th to the 20th century, many buildings in NYC, including SoHo, were manufacturing centers for items from sewing machines to textiles to printing houses. The massive light-filled loft spaces with high ceilings were left empty when these businesses vacated in the mid-1900s and moved to other areas outside of New York City. The industrial-zoned lofts were not legal to live in, as they did not meet the building requirements for residential use, and oftentimes were completely raw spaces without a kitchen, shower, plumbing, or even heat. However, artists were attracted to these large spaces where they could work and create at any hour of the day. At the end of the 1970s, loft living started gaining attention in the media and the wealthy started to become attracted to this lifestyle. Soon landlords began to evict the artist tenants in favor of a wealthier clientele. A group of artists formed the Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants and spent years lobbying in Albany to gain legal protections and rent stabilization. At the time the Loft Law was first passed, there were tens of thousands of artists living in lofts across the city. Today, only a few hundred artists protected under the original 1982 Loft Law remain. This exhibition marks one of the first documentary insights into this vanishing history.
The majority of Charow’s images depict painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, and filmmakers captured amidst their industrial loft spaces. Notable portraits include experimental music and film artists Phillip (Phill) Niblock (1933-2024) and Katherine Liberovskaya (b. 1961); Phill was instrumental in the avant-garde music and film scene from the 1960s to the present. Visuals artists include 97-year-old abstract and figurative expressionist Carmen Cicero (b. 1926), who has works in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum; Kimiko Fujimura (b. 1932), who in 1965 was selected as “Japan’s Top 5 Female Painters in Contemporary Art” by Geijutsu-Shincho, a Japanese monthly art magazine; minimalist painter Loretta Dunkelman (b. 1937), a co-founder of the all-female artists cooperative A.I.R. Gallery; and Gilda Pervin (b. 1933), whose studio occupies the top floor of a 1790s Quaker building linked to the Underground Railroad and happens to be the old studio space of famed sculptor Eva Hesse, who worked there from 1965-70. Also included is Chuck DeLaney, co-founder of the Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants, an early activist group that was responsible for the lobbying and passing of the Loft Law.
This exhibition closes on 7/13/24.
#Joshua Charow#Westwood Gallery#Art#NYC Art Shows#Photography#Art Shows#Kimiko Fujimura#Jeff Way#Artist Documentaries#Betsy Kaufman#Carmen Cicero#Carolyn Oberst#Documentary Photography#Gilda Pervin#Joseph Marioni#Loft Law#Lofts#Loretta Dunkelman#Marsha Pels#Mike Sullivan#Mixed Media Art#New York Art Shows#NYC Artists#NYC Tenant Law#Old New York#Painting#Sculpture#Steve Silver#Artist Housing
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Joshua Charow Made a Photo Book about NYC's Original Artist Lofts
He spent the past two years creating his first photography book titled 'Loft Law. The Last of New York City's Original Artist Lofts' about artists living under the protection of the Loft Law.
The law, enacted in 1982 (Article 7-C of the Multiple Dwelling Law), granted protection and rent stabilization to thousands of artists who were living illegally in commercial and manufacturing zoned lofts in neighborhoods like Soho, Tribeca, and the Bowery after the manufacturing industry predominantly left Manhattan.
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The Hidden World & Studio of an Artist in Paris | Short Documentary
Nov 8, 1979
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Marlène Mocquet is a French Postwar & Contemporary painter who was born in 1979. Mocquet creates surrealist and fairytale-like paintings and ceramic sculptures in her sprawling studio in Paris, France. To contact Mocquet for sales or inquiries, please reach out to: [email protected]
Directed & Edited by Joshua Charow Cinematography by Nicky Rudolph Assistant Camera Mangua Diallo Equipment Provided by Jamaya Film Develpment & Scanning by Kafard Films Colorist Nicky Rudolph
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James Maroon and two other workers clean the reflecting pools at the @911memorial five nights a week
James Maroon and two other workers clean the reflecting pools at the @911memorial five nights a week, from midnight to 8 a.m. “It’s a long eight hours, but it’s worth it,” he says, “to keep them as spectacular as we can.” Joshua Charow (@flashing.lights), who filmed and directed this video in collaboration with @downtownnyc and @joshkatz, told TIME the crew mostly cleans up leaves, although occasionally other items, such as cameras and jewelry, fall in. Maroon was walking to work in the area on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the first plane roared overhead. After the second plane hit, he says, “the rest is history. Bad history, but we’re trying to make it better every day here.” Working in the pools, “it gets dark in there sometimes, and you lose yourself in there,” he says. “But it’s pretty beautiful to see that sun come over the wall.”
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