Curtis Cuffie

Curtis Cuffie

ISBN 10: 1953691153 / ISBN 13: 9781953691156

Edité par Blank Forms Editions, US, 2023

A propos de cet article

Curtis Cuffie (1955-2002) was an artist who lived and worked in and around the East Village from the mid-1980s until his untimely death in the early 2000s. He moved to New York from Hartsville, South Carolina, as a teenager and lived unhoused for long stretches of his adult life. Cuffie found local notoriety for the way he adorned the streets of downtown New York, collecting what the city provided, often sifting trash to stage on-the-spot sculptures along the Bowery and Cooper Square. His arrangements took the form of impossibly balanced towers, delicate shrines, and unwieldy processions up to thirty-feet in length installed along the walls, fences, and sidewalks of the Lower East Side. Nearly without fail they were removed by the police, inclement weather, the department of sanitation, or the grounds team at Cooper Union, which would later employ him. An enduring presence in the East Village, Cuffie staged sprawling tableaux outside the Village Voice offices that were admired by students and venerable artists alike. He was profiled by scene reporters, political writers, and folk-art journalists, all the while exhibiting in the neighborhood's famed alternative art spaces. While few of his sculptures remain today, a trove of photographs from the 1990s taken by Cuffie and his companion Katy Abel preserve the work he made in the city. This photobook, the first publication about Cuffie, seeks to honor the artist by collecting the efforts of two of his partners: Carol Thompson, who lived with Cuffie from 1996 to 2001 and archived a great number of his 35mm photographs, and Abel, a Cooper Square resident who took hundreds of snapshots of his art. Curtis Cuffie is designed by Julie Peeters, edited by Scott Portnoy and Robert Snowden with Ciarán Finlayson, and additionally includes writing by the artist, Finlayson, and critic Alan Moore, and images taken by Tom Warren and Margaret Morton. CURTIS CUFFIE (1955-2002) was an artist based in New York City's East Village. Originally from Hartsville, South Carolina, he moved to Brooklyn at fifteen and eventually settled in Manhattan, first near Bryant Park and later around the Bowery. Homeless for long stretches of time, Cuffie became well-known in the 1990s for the sculptures he made using found materials, which he installed in public spaces downtown. Artforum, the New York Times, and the Village Voice all profiled and reviewed his work. and he held solo exhibitions at Flamingo East, Tribes, and 4th Street Photo Gallery, all in the Lower East Side. In his lifetime, Cuffie was featured in nearly a dozen group shows across the US at venues including Exit Art, American Primitive, and the Jamaica Art Center in New York, and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Most recently his work was included in "Souls Grown Diaspora," curated by Sam Gordon, at Apexart in 2020 and "Greater New York" at MoMA PS1 in 2021-22, both in New York. New York City's East Village. Originally from Hartsville, South.

N° de réf. du vendeur LU-9781953691156

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Curtis Cuffie
• Éditeur: Blank Forms Editions, US
• Date de parution: 2023
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1953691153
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781953691156
• Reliure: Paperback
• État de l'article: New
• Poids: 816 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Ayant vécu et travaillé (longtemps sans abri) dans l'East Village et ses environs du milieu des années 1980 jusqu'à sa mort en 2002, Curtis Cuffie a acquis une notoriété locale grâce à la manière dont il a orné les rues du centre de New York, en collectant ce que la ville lui fournissait, souvent en triant les ordures pour réaliser des sculptures sur place le long de Bowery et de Cooper Square. Ses réalisations ont pris la forme de tours à l'équilibre impossible, de sanctuaires fragiles et d'installations monumentales mesurant jusqu'à 10 mètres de long, construites le long des murs, des clôtures et des trottoirs du Lower East Side. Presque toujours, elles sont enlevées par les intempéries, par le service d'hygiène ou par l'équipe de la Cooper Union, qui l'emploiera plus tard.
Ayant fortement marqué le paysage de l'East Village, les installations tentaculaires de Cuffie devant les bureaux du Village Voice suscitaient l'admiration des étudiants comme des artistes vénérables. Il a fait l'objet de reportages de fiverses personnalités, écrivains politiques ou journalistes spécialisé dans l'art populaire, tout en exposant dans les célèbres espaces d'art alternatif du quartier. Si peu de ses sculptures subsistent aujourd'hui, une multitude de photographies des années 1990 prises par Cuffie et sa compagne Katy Abel rendent compte de l'œuvre qu'il a réalisée dans la ville.
Ce livre de photos, première publication sur Cuffie, rend hommage à l'artiste en rassemblant les travaux de deux de ses partenaires : Carol Thompson, qui a vécu avec Cuffie de 1996 à 2001 et a archivé un grand nombre de ses photographies 35 mm, et Abel, une habitante de Cooper Square qui a pris des centaines de clichés de ses œuvres. L'ouvrage est conçu par Julie Peeters, édité par Scott Portnoy et Robert Snowden avec Ciarán Finlayson, et comprend en outre des textes de l'artiste, de Finlayson et du critique Alan Moore, ainsi que des images réalisées par les photographes renommés Tom Warren et Margaret Morton.