A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
Just a note here - I recommend installing the Substack app (free) on your phone. It’s easier, works well and looks better! Or online here - browse away!
the delve
As times and populations change, the city evolves, or devolves, and through each shift another set of histories is gone. The Lower East Side has long been an area of transition - the starting point for millions of immigrants arriving in America. Most older buildings in downtown New York hold stories from their past. I enjoy discovering these hidden histories of places I pass every day. It’s not about nostalgia. I’m not wallowing in the past - I just appreciate it. I like the digging and discovery aspects of the delve. It's just interesting to find out stuff I didn’t know!
no more
Recently it was time to re-watch The Naked City (1948)- a classic film noir cop film that’s actually shot in the style of Italian Neorealism. What makes it really great are the exterior scenes—it was one of the first films shot entirely on location in New York City, including inside the morgue, and it culminates in a fantastic chase through the Lower East Side
In this scene there’s real street life - washing hanging on fire escapes, an organ grinder, hopscotch and people watching the filming, leaning out of the window of what would have been a strange narrow room in a slim wedge building that used to be in the middle of East Houston St. Strangely, I would have seen this building from our window yet I never even knew of its existence until fairly recently.
still there
In the background of the film shot you can see this square building which was The Provident Loan Society of New York. Built to resemble a bank for added gravitas, it was a philanthropic upmarket pawn shop to help people get ahead.
Bought by Jasper Johns in 1967 who lived and worked there through the 70s. Later, it was abandoned, nearly demolished, then repurposed as a club, among other uses. At one point, it came close to being gutted and transformed into a 12-story building built within its walls - another potential casualty of 'facadism.' (if interested in facadism, click - it’s really big in London)
The photographer Hans Namuth took so many photos you probably know - of artists in their studios around that time, including those shots of Jackson Pollock working.
removed
Another of my postcard pieces from way back in 1988. Inspired by seeing empty frames hanging on the walls in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, I thought I’d make a postcard where the work has been removed for restoration.
The familiar subject combined with the shaped frame almost makes the painting unnecessary to be able to imagine how it might appear.
and gone
A chain is only as good as its weakest link, as they say - the U lock had to physically attach the bike to the rack.
I love the idea of Madonna and Child removed for restoration. Fantastic.
Hadn't heard of Facadism before reading your post Steve. What a bizarre and ghastly 'solution'. The article you provided the link to was a good read.
Thanks for the edification. 😊