LongHouse Talks: Prudence Peiffer on her book The Slip (May 25)

Join us on Saturday, May 25 from 4–6:00 pm for a conversation with Prudence Peiffer, author of The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever. For LongHouse, her talk will focus on Lenore Tawney's role on Coenties Slip, and a crucial visit to her studio by Jack Lenor Larsen.

From 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated warehouses at the lower tip of Manhattan became the epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art. Prudence Peiffer pays homage to these artists and the unsung impact their work had on the direction of late 20th century art and film. An ambitious and singular account of a time, a place, and a group of extraordinary people, The Slip investigates the importance of community, and makes an argument for how we are shaped by it, and how it in turns shapes our work.

The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever (Harper, 2023) won the New York City Book Award, was longlisted for the National Book Award, is a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize and the Plutarch award for best biography of the year, was shortlisted for the Apollo Book of the Year award, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.