8 Begin: Artists' Memories of Starting Out
a co-publication with The Colby College Museum of Art

(Libellum, 2014)

$15

Cover design by Oliver Katz. Photo by Rudy Burckhardt.

Edited by Ada Katz. Texts by Ronald Bladen, Lois Dodd, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Al Held, Alex Katz, William King, Phillip Pearlstein, and George Sugarman. Introduction by Sharon Corwin. Afterword by Vincent Katz.

Eight Begin offers an intimate look at the formative years of eight artists who were associated with the 10th street gallery scene in New York during the 1950s and early 1960s: Ronald Bladen, Lois Dodd, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Al Held, Alex Katz, William King, Phillip Pearlstein, and George Sugarman. Published here for the first time, these first-person accounts are based on interviews conducted by Ada Katz in the mid-1970s. Katz was interested in finding out what brought these artists to New York City, what sparked their initial interest in the arts, and how they found their way to 10th street, where a handful of artist-run cooperative galleries provided critical alternatives to the more established commercial galleries uptown. These memoirs make vivid the motivations of eight artists who all went on to have significant careers in New York and beyond. From today's perspective, their stories have important lessons to impart to those who wish to find ways to make art outside the existing mainstream.