The Lost New York Publication That Turned Up In A Closet

In mid-1968, a suggestive and daring release began circulating among New York’s bohemian crowd. It focused solely on the photography and contained no text. It spread primarily through word of mouth and in places like the iconic Max’s Kansas City nightclub, frequented by lower Manhattan’s hedonists. Opened, the tattered and folded tabloid measured 58 by 86 centimeters, allowing readers to hang the pages on the wall like works of art.

Among a long list of 48 artists, Andy Warhol, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Peter Beard, Peter Hujar, Christo and Jeanne Claude, Yayoi Kusama and Paul were involved in publishing the magazine, which only published 14 issues Thek, Roy Lichtenstein, Duane Michals and Lucas Samaras. The first two copies did not have a title, nor did the images bear the names of the photographers. The tabloid initially also refrained from specifying the credits.

The third edition hit the streets under the name Ark. But in April 1969 the correct numbers were established and the photographers and publishers named, while the publication’s name was changed. Newspaper costs 50 cents.

Behind the risky publishing adventure was Steven Lawrence – an unknown 22-year-old designer from Texas – who benefited from the invaluable input of Peter Hujar and Andrew Ullrick in selecting and editing content. Newspaper was undoubtedly a more radical, experimental and relaxed publication than the already established Village Voice. There was room for an infinite number of images with completely different interests.

A cover of “Newspaper”“Newspaper”, work by Peter Hujar. Courtesy of Primary Information and © Estate of Peter Hujar.Peter Hujar“Newspaper”, work by Steve Lawrence. Courtesy of Primary Information. Steve Lawrence“Newspaper”, work by Joseph Raffael. Courtesy of Primary Information. Joseph Raphael“Newspaper”, work by Gerald Laing. Courtesy of Primary Information. Gerald Laing“Newspaper”, work by Paul Thek and Edwin Klein. Courtesy of Primary Information. Paul Thek and Edwin Klein“Zeitung”, left unknown artist and right work by Andy Warhol. Courtesy of Primary Information and © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Unknown artist / Andy Warhol“Newspaper”, on the left a work by Steve Lawrence, on the right an unknown artist. Courtesy of Primary Information. Steve Lawrence / artist unknown“Newspaper”, work by Stephen Paley. Courtesy of Primary Information. Stephen Paley“Newspaper”, work by Maurice Hogenboom. Courtesy of Primary Information. Maurice Hogenboom“Zeitung”, left unknown artist, right Peter Beard. Courtesy of Primary Information and © The Estate of Peter Beard. Unknown artist / Peter Beard on the right“Newspaper”, work by Ann Douglas. Courtesy of Primary Information. AnnDouglas“Newspaper”, work by an unknown artist. Courtesy of Primary Information.Unknown artist“Newspaper”, work by an unknown artist. Courtesy of Primary Information.Unknown artist

But over time – perhaps due to the AIDS crisis that was devastating the New York art scene or the uncertainty of the publication format – Newspaper disappeared entirely. No copies have been found even in the Hujar archive.

But in 2015, a discovery was made. While working in the Danny Fields archive – named after the writer, musician and publicist who was part of Andy Warhol’s studio – art historian and archivist Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez discovered a bundle of copies in a cupboard. The yellow, crumbling pages caught the researcher’s interest, who recognized works by Arbus and Avedon on the pages.

“Dealing with an issue is a process that resembles a ritual. The body is involved. [You need] a space large enough to accommodate its full proportions,” warns the archivist. Primary Information – a not-for-profit publisher – provided this space and published the entire newspaper circulation. All 14 issues are now available in a single volume. Restored by Rick Myers and photographed by David Vu, it includes a timeline authored by Yáñez.

Before Lawrence started the newspaper, he had only recently settled in New York. One of his first contacts was Hujar – they were even lovers for a while. They also shared an apartment at 188 Second Avenue when the tabloid ran between 1968 and 1971. The enigmatic photographer’s gaze is present in almost every issue: you can lose yourself in Hujar’s portraits of Beat poet Tuli Kupferberg and blind composer Moondog, members of psychedelic theater group The Cockettes and gay activist Jim Fouratt. There are also some nude photos as well as photographs taken in the Catacombs of Palermo.

The newspaper came at a pivotal point in Hujar’s career and became his primary medium for exhibiting his work. This was true of other fringe photographers as well, as the magazine represented an alternative space at a time when art galleries rarely exhibited photography.

The unifying element of all tabloid editions was the inclusion of a grid consisting of images from different sources. For example, under the title “Environment” the photo of two monkeys by the cook Julia Child could be placed next to the image of a wax figure of Christ on the way to the cross. Likewise, an Indian yogi and a nude tattooed woman could be categorized together. It was precisely this chaotic method of curating images that made Newspaper innovative.

“The chaos raised questions about the method by which images and news were read and understood by people at the time, in the late 1960s, in a context that included the proliferation of mass media, the Vietnam War, and the social and spiritual revolutions.” the counterculture,” explains Yáñez in a text published by the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. This thought-provoking chaos would also shape Hujar’s later work.

“The paper’s eccentricity and boldness were right for the moment,” notes Vince Aletti in the New Yorker. At about the same time as the magazine’s run, the author and critic was contributing to Rat, another underground publication. “When it came to visual impact, Newspaper was second to none,” he adds. Though the tabloid could be politically radical at times, the sexual proclivities of most of its contributors didn’t go unnoticed either. “In the East Village in the early 1970s, gender fluidity was the order of the day. Even if readers didn’t take it for granted, at least it didn’t worry them,” the critic notes.

In 1970, the magazine was included in a prestigious exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art entitled Information, devoted to contemporary conceptual art and directed by Kynaston McShine. This is how an underground initiative became a work of art.

From the outset, the publication played with a dynamic that sat “between the visual reading of a tabloid and that of an artists’ magazine,” explains Yáñez. “[Newspaper] plays with the idea that artists deface the currency of time: they consume the news, they change and transform official history, they take the disposable and ephemeral nature of the daily newspaper and elevate it to the category of art. The game of calling art garbage—and garbage art—is something Lawrence and Hujar played with in the publication [and] until the end of her career.”