I’m not one of those New Yorkers who reminisces nostalgically about the days of depravity of the old Times Square or what The Bowery used to be when CBGB’s emerged as the bastion for punk and new wavers along a strip where crime and homelessness were the two main tenants.
With CB’s gone less than two years now, the space has been renovated and partially preserved by its new tenant John Varvatos, the fashion designer. I suppose it could have been worse, as he points out in this article; a bank or deli might have occupied the space without leaving any hint of the club’s former glory.
Next door at 313 Bowery, the old CB’s Gallery has been replaced by the venerable Morrison Gallery, the preeminent haven of rock and roll photography, which has other locations in Soho and Los Angeles. On Thursday evening the gallery held an opening of Bob Gruen’s work to a packed crowd full of older rockers, the somewhat successful indistinguishable from those still embracing the scene, (and a few who actually became stars).
Gruen showed over 200 photographs. If only half were great on merits of aesthetics or technique, the remainder rise to greatness because of their iconic importance. Gruen has created documents of rock’s most significant shakers of the seventies and eighties. The show is a walk-through of the genre’s most memorable and definable moments. Zeppelin, Lennon, The Ramones, Kiss, Blondie, Patti Smith, Television, Lou Reed, Bowie…. He shot everyone.
A thick crowd jams The Morrison Gallery for the opening of Rockers by Bob Gruen.
The exhibition features photographs of the New York rock scene including the legendary venue, Max’s
Kansas City.
Deborah Harry and friends pose for a photograph at The Morrison Gallery at 313 Bowery.
After the show, Mary Beth and I slipped into another newcomer to the ever-changing Bowery scene, The New Museum. Ultra-sleek, seven floors, and vast areas of space sparsely filled with modern works.
The New Museum only allows photographs in their lobby, but the elevators are too green to ignore.
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