IN CONVERSATION
Sue and Al Ravitz have run the project space 57W57ARTS over past eleven years, with a focus on reductive and conceptual art. Located in Al’s psychiatric offices in Midtown Manhattan, they see their gallery as a way to show the art they like, and to create a community. 57W57ARTS has presented the work of close to 200 artists, mounting approximately eight shows per year, each consisting of several one-person exhibitions. This September, a new series began with five one-person shows.
Sue Ravitz grew up a small-town girl, in Kalamazoo, MI. For generations, the women in her family did crafts, but she was never exposed to “fine art.” She continued to do handwork while raising her family in Chicago; she still makes rugs and tapestries. Sue has a BFA from Columbia College. She has shown her work with Patrick Parrish at Mondo Cane Gallery, with Superhouse, and she has a show opening this October at One Wall Gallery in Eugene, OR. She accidentally became the curator of 57W57ARTS because she was involved with Instagram when it first began.
Al Ravitz grew up in Detroit in the 60’s. He loves R&B; until 1967 he regularly attended the Motown Review at the Fox theater. He collected all sorts of things from a young age; he says he’s always been strongly affected by the placement of objects in spaces. He eventually became a psychiatrist, but he’s continued to have an intense response to the environments he occupies.
Al had been on the faculty at the University of Chicago for 30 years, with a very well- established career, when Sue impulsively decided she wanted to move to NYC. They arrived there in 2006. He wrote, “I started over; everything worked out; change is good!”
I understand that you collected art before starting 57W57 ARTS. What is the origin story of your project space?
Al Ravitz: We began collecting art in 1978. We weren’t part of that world at all, but we both were physiologically sensitive to a certain type of aesthetic experience. I once wrote, “The nice thing about running a space that shows art is that I get to live with the work. This ‘living with’ evokes certain [psychoaesthetic] experiences. I form memories of those experiences. Each time I see new work, my perception is influenced by my memory.”
We began collecting at the height of Neo Expressionism – that’s all we knew – so for us, it was the bigger, the louder, the better. At some point – not really sure what happened – we became interested in quieter, more reductive work. Then we had this random, incredible experience with the collectors Irving and Natalie Forman, after which we became tightly focused on Radical and Concrete Painting. Over time, and with the guidance of our friends, Rudolf de Crignis and Marcia Hafif, we became more open to other forms of abstraction.
At around the same time, we began collecting furniture after a dealer told us there were “real versions” of the stuff we’d purchased at shops like Design Within Reach. We began to collect mid-century Italian furniture and lighting, but over the years our focus has widened; we also became interested in contemporary furniture.
As for the gallery, I was on the child psychiatry faculty at the University of Chicago for 30 years, and then at NYU for several more. In 2014 I went into private practice. Sue and I looked for an office. There was this beautiful raw space on the corner of 57th and Sixth, at 57 West 57th, and they were willing to do the build-out for free. In our naivety, and despite 35 years as art collectors, we decided to open a gallery. It’s been a great, interesting experience, but we’re lucky we don’t have to live off of it.
What do you feel are the distinctive qualities of the space?
Sue Ravitz: It’s very consciously curated, typically four or five different one-person exhibitions in separate spaces. I’m totally focused on making sure that the art in each individual room complements the art in the others.
It’s not a white cube; it’s Al’s office. It’s filled with mid-century and contemporary furniture we’ve collected over the years, so it’s easy to sit down and talk.
We show artists from all around the world who fit into our reductive/conceptual program, free of commercial or institutional pressure. Finally, we’re friendly – as long as you are.
How has your thinking about your program evolved over the years?
Al Ravitz: It’s been fairly consistent in terms of reductive abstraction and conceptual work, shown in a semi-domestic space, with interesting books and furniture. Over time, the artists we know have introduced us to other artists and gallery programs. Additionally, Sue has made international connections through Instagram and her book projects, Painting On Porch, and Spectacle Exhibitions. So it’s about the same focus, but with more artists, each of whom widens our field of inquiry.
Tell me about finding the artists’ work that you show, and how you organize the exhibitions.
Al Ravitz: Sue has a life on Instagram. She’s connected with almost all the artists – local and international – that way. She rarely does a studio visit; she likes putting shows together virtually. Also, as mentioned above, artists we know turn us on to other artists. Sue makes sure everything relates to everything else.
What are some most memorable shows that you have presented?
Sue Ravitz: I guess we’d respond by specifying that “memorable” can have several different meanings. Keeping that ambiguity in mind, we have strong memories of (nostalgia for?) the older, bigger space, which we gave up in 2018 because we couldn’t afford it. In September 2015 we mounted a show called Painters/Paintings. Paintings, in the large gallery, was comprised of several paintings by Daniel Levine, who also curated the Painters portion of the show with work from our collection. Painters, in The Waiting Room, included Rudolf de Crignis, Helmut Federle, Paul Feeley, Ron Gorchov, Marcia Hafif, Alfred Jensen, Phil Sims, Peter Tollens, and John Zurier.
Then, in January 2016, an artist who was supposed to show with us pulled out at the very last minute. We again had to rely on our collection. We came up with Three Big Paintings, Three Chairs. We showed big paintings by Paul Feeley, Poul Gernes, and Ron Gorchov, with chairs by Marc Held and Guy de Rougemont, and a Henry Glass prototype with a Jessi Reaves cover. (Al especially enjoyed this show because, between patients, he could sit in one of the chairs and commune with one of the paintings.)
During the summer of 2016, we mounted Anne Thompson’s Color-Word Value Index. “Thompson describes the Index as ‘a taxonomy of colors, words, symbols, and numbers based on [her own] color theory in psychology, mysticism, and early modernism….All products imagine a disciple-like adherence to the properties of the Index – 44 word pairings; 10 colors; 5 suits; values of positive, negative, and neutral; and a relativism that evokes chance and reversals such as mirroring, flipping, and doubling.” And … it was our only show with wall paper!
Having mentioned these three shows, we want to make it clear that over the years we’ve mounted so many shows that we’ve loved, in all of our spaces. This summer we showed 52 small paintings by artists from all over the US and the world. We don’t really know how to run a profitable commercial gallery, but we love showing art and building community.
Please tell me about the current exhibition.
Al Ravitz: On September 21st, we opened with Leslie Jane Roberts, who we’ve shown a few times, in the Waiting Room. Ingunn Fjola Ingborsdottir, an Icelandic artist that Leslie met while doing a residency there, will be in Al’s office along Susanne Staehli, an artist from Germany. In Melanie’s Office we’ll have Barbara Laube, and on The Shelf, Audrey Stone. The work is all – big surprise – reductive/conceptual abstraction.
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57W57 Arts, 501 Fifth Avenue, Suite 701, New York (across from the New York Public Library). Open Fridays from 3:30 – 6:30, Saturdays and Sundays 1:30 -4:30.
@57w57arts.com
About the writer John Mendelsohn’s abstract paintings explore the poetics of color, perception, and light. Over the past five decades, his work has been exhibited in New York and beyond, and reviewed in publications including The New York Times, Art in America, Hyperallergic, and The New Criterion. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the David Richard Gallery, New York, and Breath, curated by John Yau, at Art Cake, Brooklyn. He received a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from Rutgers University, and participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He has written about contemporary art for many publications. . @johnmendelsohn123