Tenth Avenue Luncheonette
1988
Charles Ford (b. 1941)
Acrylic on canvas, 28 1/8 X 32 1/8
Signed lower left: C. Ford 88
Gift of the artist, courtesy of Michele Birnbaum Fine Arts, 93.56

 

The modest eatery in this painting occupied a storefront on the east side of Tenth Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets, in the section of the city known today as Clinton, within walking distance of the artist's West 20th Street apartment. The denotation "Spanish-American" on the luncheonette's awning suggests Clinton's burgeoning Hispanic population during those years (representing 30 percent of local residents according to the 1980 census). More recently, real estate developers, the theater community, and restaurateurs have identified Clinton's Midtown location, adjacent to the Broadway theater district, as a neighborhood ripe for restoration and gentrification. Active block associations have taken this opportunity to clear their immediate streets of drugs and crime.

Tenth Avenue Luncheonette is typical of the architectural subjects that inspired Texas-born artist Charles Ford during his eight-year-long residency in Manhattan. "During my years in New York, I was drawn to these storefronts . . . as I found that the dilapida-tion and neglect somehow contributed to their character and made them storytellers of the past."¹ A self-taught artist trained as a mechanical engineer, Ford executed the painting almost entirely freehand, using the occasional aid of a ruler and a homemade perspective instrument. The artist usually first records his chosen subject on film, documenting the site from different angles and in varying light. These study photographs are propped next to his easel as guides; projection devices and grids are never used. Beginning with broad strokes of background color, the artist proceeds to refine the composition, building toward an image of fastidious detail.

Notes:

  1  Artist's statement, Museum Archives.