For the Artists

This collection of art reviews, critical essays and interviews with artists chronicles an exhilarating time in the artworld of 1980s Manhattan when a burgeoning gallery scene in the East Village evolved to rival the more established gallery outposts on 57th Street. And, Greg Masters, writing for a number of publications, covered it all – the well-known names and the upstart younger painters, photographers, sculptors, film-makers and creative folks working in various media.

For the Artists: Critical Writing, Volume 1 presents a collection of art reviews, critical essays and interviews with artists and chronicles an exhilarating time in the art world of 1980s Manhattan, when a burgeoning gallery scene in the East Village evolved to rival the more established gallery outposts on 57th Street. Greg Masters, writing for a number of publications, covered it all – both the well-known names and the upstarts. Younger painters, photographers, sculptors, film-makers and creative folks working in various media are all accounted for in this compilation. Complementing the text are 10 artist portraits by acclaimed photographer Barry Kornbluh, and a number of reproductions of artists' work, including two never-before-published drawings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Interviews with: Rudy Burckhardt, Philip Hartman & Doris Kornish, Jean Holabird, Sam Messer, Elizabeth Murray, Larry Rivers, Sandy Skoglund.

Reviews of gallery and museum shows by: Colette Alvarez Urbajtel, Suzanne Anker, Chet Augustine, Milton Avery, Adam Bartos, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Peter Bellamy, Joseph Beuys, Ronald Bladen, Chris Bobin, Suzanne Bocanegra, Rudy Burckhardt, Rene Burri, Marc Chagall, Stuart Davis, Werner Drewes, John Duch, Don Freemann, Omar Galliani, Michael Goldberg, Stephen Greene, Robert Hameline, Louise Hamlin, Eric Holzman, Yvonne Jacquette, Joel Janowitz, Bill Jensen, Barrie Karp, Minoru Kawabata, Peggy Katz, John Kennard, Deborah Maverick Kelley, Basil King, Kitty Klaidman, William Klein, Barry Kornbluh, Pamela Lawton, Stephanie Brody Lederman, Helen Levitt, Wyndham Lewis, Sally Mann, Shelley Marlowe, Randy Matusow, Rosemary Mayer, Karl A. Meyer, Joseph Koudelka, Eugene Richards, Gladys Nilsson, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Orsini, Park Avenue Cubists, Ljubomir Rastovski, Scott Richter, George Schneeman, Emil Schumacher, Johan Scott, Andres Serrano, Barbara Siegel, Sandy Skoglund, Jim St. Clair, Michelle Spark, Surrealism, Alphonse Van Woerkom, Edouard Vuillard, Sasha Waters, Todd Weinstein, David Wilson, Trevor Winkfield, Francesca Woodman, William Zorach, Michael Zwack.

When he arrived in Manhattan’s East Village in the mid-1970s, Greg Masters pounded rock and roll drums in basement dives, “alternative” spaces, CBGB and Irving Plaza and began attending readings and workshops at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Along with Michael Scholnick and Gary Lenhart, he edited the poetry magazine Mag City from 1977- 1985. In 1977-78, along with a crew of poet comrades, he produced a cable TV show, Public Access Poetry (now available online thanks to the Poetry Project). From 1980-83, he edited the Poetry Project Newsletter.