Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

In 1977 Philip Sherrod founded the Street Painters, an informal alliance of eight artists dedicated to recording the urban scene directly, while immersed in the ruckus of city life outdoors. Conscious of the work of the celebrated "Eight," whose everyday cityscapes had jolted the art public with their bold immediacy some six decades earlier, the Street Painters shared a commitment to picturing New York City's fierce sense of power and employed an equally diverse range of styles to convey those unfiltered impressions.

Sherrod had gravitated to streetscape painting while attending the Art Students League soon after moving east from Oklahoma in 1960. Although his work drew on that taproot of formal art instruction, he became frustrated by the inhibitions that the academic method posed to spontaneous expression. He preferred stalking his subjects on the sidewalks, where inspiration was visceral and round-the-clock and where his easel stood ready to capture it. "I went to the street to get free of the studio dilemma that most artists end up with," stated Sherrod, in reflecting on the dangers of adhering to a "programmed, overly intellectual approach" to painting that negated honesty and vibrancy.¹

Pussycat Theatre documents an exotic cinema house, now defunct, located on Broadway between 48th and 49th Streets, one of the many pockets of peep shows, massage parlors, and pornographic bookstores that gave the surrounding area notoriety as New York's crossroads of sleaze. Sherrod's brash palette projects the neon energy of this nighttime adult entertainment district. His animated, textural brushstrokes also suggest the distinctive kinetics of Times Square -a quality of constant motion derived from the raw collision of crowds, colors, lights, advertisements, sounds, and smells.

During the 1970s the mayoralty administrations of John Lindsay and Abraham Beame harnessed the Office of Midtown Enforcement and nuisance abatement legislation as instruments to curtail, if not uproot, some of the hundreds of topless bars, massage parlors, and erotic movie houses that were now congregated in this neighborhood thick with tourists. Although the crackdown on massage salons proved effective, the area's depressed real estate values lured few reputable businesses to relocate there and, accordingly, the disbanding of the square's adult entertainment industry foundered. In the wake of Times Square's relapse into a retail vice zone, Sherrod felt compelled to pay homage to the weed-like resilience of establishments like the Pussycat Theatre.

Sherrod's cityscape oeuvre is extensive. His paintings of New York's underbelly, in particular, have been widely exhibited and collected, and are charged with an exuberant frenzy. The artist has been the recipient of numerous purchase awards and creative arts grants, including a Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome. A body of poetry and writings by Sherrod also evokes his devout interest in urban tumble.²

Notes:

1 Philip Sherrod, artist's statement dated July 5, 1983, submitted to the Museum of the City of New York when this painting was exhibited in the special exhibition Painting New York, 1984 -94. The statement concluded, "My form and color are derivative of the city as are my rhythms and images! (It's like -out where it's at, man !!)."

2 The Museum Archives contain press notices, biographical information, and other correspondence illuminating the breadth of Sherrod's career as a street painter, portraitist, and poet-philosopher.


Pussycat Theatre 1982 Philip Lawrence Sherrod (b. 1935) Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 X 30 1/4 Museum purchase, 84.58.4
In 1977 Philip Sherrod founded the Street Painters, an informal alliance of eight artists dedicated to recording the urban scene directly, while immersed in the ruckus of city life outdoors. Conscious of the work of the celebrated "Eight," whose everyday cityscapes had jolted the art public with their bold immediacy some six decades earlier, the Street Painters shared a commitment to picturing New York City's fierce sense of power and employed an equally diverse range of styles to convey those unfiltered impressions. Sherrod had gravitated to streetscape painting while attending the Art Students League soon after moving east from Oklahoma in 1960. Although his work drew on that taproot of formal art instruction, he became frustrated by the inhibitions that the academic method posed to spontaneous expression. He preferred stalking his subjects on the sidewalks, where inspiration was visceral and round-the-clock and where his easel stood ready to capture it. "I went to the street to get free of the studio dilemma that most artists end up with," stated Sherrod, in reflecting on the dangers of adhering to a "programmed, overly intellectual approach" to painting that negated honesty and vibrancy.¹ Pussycat Theatre documents an exotic cinema house, now defunct, located on Broadway between 48th and 49th Streets, one of the many pockets of peep shows, massage parlors, and pornographic bookstores that gave the surrounding area notoriety as New York's crossroads of sleaze. Sherrod's brash palette projects the neon energy of this nighttime adult entertainment district. His animated, textural brushstrokes also suggest the distinctive kinetics of Times Square -a quality of constant motion derived from the raw collision of crowds, colors, lights, advertisements, sounds, and smells. During the 1970s the mayoralty administrations of John Lindsay and Abraham Beame harnessed the Office of Midtown Enforcement and nuisance abatement legislation as instruments to curtail, if not uproot, some of the hundreds of topless bars, massage parlors, and erotic movie houses that were now congregated in this neighborhood thick with tourists. Although the crackdown on massage salons proved effective, the area's depressed real estate values lured few reputable businesses to relocate there and, accordingly, the disbanding of the square's adult entertainment industry foundered. In the wake of Times Square's relapse into a retail vice zone, Sherrod felt compelled to pay homage to the weed-like resilience of establishments like the Pussycat Theatre. Sherrod's cityscape oeuvre is extensive. His paintings of New York's underbelly, in particular, have been widely exhibited and collected, and are charged with an exuberant frenzy. The artist has been the recipient of numerous purchase awards and creative arts grants, including a Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome. A body of poetry and writings by Sherrod also evokes his devout interest in urban tumble.² Notes: 1 Philip Sherrod, artist's statement dated July 5, 1983, submitted to the Museum of the City of New York when this painting was exhibited in the special exhibition Painting New York, 1984 -94. The statement concluded, "My form and color are derivative of the city as are my rhythms and images! (It's like -out where it's at, man !!)." 2 The Museum Archives contain press notices, biographical information, and other correspondence illuminating the breadth of Sherrod's career as a street painter, portraitist, and poet-philosopher.