The SoHo gallery model developed from loft-scaled spaces for outsized sculpture

Evidence

Recognizing a place for a large outdoor sculpture in Silver Towers, Park Place’s twenty-eight-year-old director Paula Cooper suggested the project purchase a Mark di Suvero sculpture and stake a claim. She was informed that the spot was already reserved for a Picasso. Still, the Park Place Gallery of Art Research, Inc. provided the template for galleries to come. Expansive enough to encompass the Group’s outsized, urban-scale sculptures, their space fostered an atmosphere and viewing protocol quite different from the uptown art scene. It was utilitarian and could be imagined as an aesthetic laboratory. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1015

Categorization

• SEED: The physical scale of available loft space (built for industry) literally determined what art could be shown — a strong concrete example of material conditions shaping aesthetic form, worth an article.