The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery will launch its fifth digital archive, Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965, as part of its TRACE: Archives and Reunions series, on July 28. For this special TRACE event, co-hosted with the NYU Grey Art Gallery, Inventing Downtown curator Melissa Rachleff reunites with the Director of the NYU Grey Art Gallery Lynn Gumpert, and the Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery Maya Allison. Starting with the landmark exhibition Inventing Downtown as a point of departure, the speakers will explore the history of the famed New York “downtown” art scene, and explore how art scenes form today, even in a time of physical separation.

Organised by NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, Melissa Rachleff’s Inventing Downtown exhibition traveled to The NYUAD Art Gallery in October 2017. Her research and the resulting catalogue for this exhibition marked a turning point in the art historical understanding of New York’s art scene. It examines the period between New York’s peak of Abstract Expressionism in the early 1950s and the rise of Pop Art and Minimalism in the early 1960s.

It was the first major museum exhibition to survey these vital years from the vantage point of fourteen key artist-run galleries. This live webinar will take place on July 28 at 8pm via Zoom. Tracing: Inventing Downtown marks the launch of the exhibition’s digital archive. The online archive will make available digital versions of the youth guide, exhibition brochure and photo archives.

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