12 Golden Age of Gay Sex Photos at the New York Piers in the ’70s-’80s
| 05/17/19
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Frank Hallam, 'En Masse, Sunners Seen from Pier 45', 1982
In 1970s New York City, in a golden age between the Stonewall riots and the awareness of AIDS, the abandoned piers of the Hudson River became the site for extraordinary works of art and a popular place for nude sunbathing and anonymous sex. Jonathan Weinberg's provocative book Pier Groups: Art and Sex Along the New York Waterfront (Penn State University Press) -- part art history, part memoir -- weaves interviews, documentary photographs, literary texts, artworks, and film stills to show how avant-garde practices competed and mingled with queer identities along the Manhattan waterfront.
Artists as varied as Vito Acconci, Alvin Baltrop, Shelley Seccombe, and David Wojnarowicz made work in and about the fire-ravaged structures that only 20 years before had been at the center of the world's busiest shipping port. At the same time, the fight for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, spurred by the 1969 Stonewall riots, was literally transforming the cultural and social landscape of New York City. Gay men suddenly felt free to sunbathe on the piers naked, cruise, and have sex in public. While artists collaborated to transform the buildings of Pier 34 into makeshift art studios and exhibition spaces, gay men were converting Pier 46 into what Delmas Howe calls an "arena for sexual theater."
Featuring 100 exemplary works from the era and drawing on Weinberg's personal experience with interviews and a rich variety of source material, Pier Groups breaks new ground to look at the relationship of avant-garde art to resistant subcultures and radical sexuality.
All images courtesy of Pennsylvania State University Press.
Shelley Seccombe, 'Sunbathing on the Edge, Pier 52 (Matta-Clark’s Day’s End)', ca. 1977
About the Author: Jonathan Weinberg is the curator of the Maurice Sendak Foundation and teaches at the Yale School of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. He is author of Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art and Ambition and Love in Modern American Art, and coeditor with Alejandro Anreus and Diana Linden of The Social and the Real, also published by PSU Press. He is the lead curator for the touring exhibition Art After Stonewall: 1969-1989, organized by the Columbus Museum of Art to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. His paintings are in many public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Montclair Art Museum.
Alvin Baltrop, 'The Piers', n.d. (1975–86).
Photograph used courtesy of The Alvin Baltrop Trust, (c) 2010, The Alvin Baltrop Trust and Galerie Buchholz. All rights reserved. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Leonard Fink, 'Self-Portrait, Cat Walk, Pier 46', 1979.
Collection of the LGBT Community Center National History Archive. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Arthur Tress, 'Dockside Interview, New York', 1977.
(c) Arthur Tress. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Alvin Baltrop, 'The Piers', n.d. (1975–86).
Photograph used courtesy of The Alvin Baltrop Trust, (c) 2010, The Alvin Baltrop Trust and Galerie Buchholz. All rights reserved. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Alvin Baltrop, 'The Piers', n.d. (1975–86).
Photograph used courtesy of The Alvin Baltrop Trust, (c) 2010, The Alvin Baltrop Trust and Galerie Buchholz. All rights reserved. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Leonard Fink, 'Two Men', ca. 1978.
Photo: LGBT Community Center National History Archive. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Leonard Fink, 'Self-Portrait on West-Side Highway Ramp', ca. 1978.
Collection of the LGBT Community Center National History Archive. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Alvin Baltrop, 'The Piers', n.d. (1975–86).
Photograph used courtesy of The Alvin Baltrop Trust, (c) 2010, The Alvin Baltrop Trust and Galerie Buchholz. All rights reserved.
Andreas Sterzing, 'David Wojnarowicz and Mike Bidlo', 1983.
(c) Andreas Sterzing. Reproduced with permission of P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York. Courtesy of PSU Press.
Andreas Sterzing, 'Luis Frangella, Pier 34', 1983.
(c) Andreas Sterzing. Courtesy of PSU Press.
