The Kitchen in My Studio on Broome Street

This is the largest painting in the Broome Street Studio series. In the make-shift kitchen area of the artist’s studio in an old commercial loft building on Broome Street everything was exposed: wires, pipes, hot water heater, gas space heater, vent pipes and raw brick walls. The artist delighted in playing with this particular subject matter as well as using his bright, energetic color palette. A fellow artist standing in front of this painting commented, “You must have been on drugs when you made this painting”. The artist laughed and replied that he didn’t need the use of drugs to make his art. The “Think Happy” sign over the stove was made to remind the artist to stay cheerful. Whenever he felt a little down he would add another color. 

About the artist’s Broome Street Studio period: In 1966, fresh out of graduate school, the artist moved to his first real working studio in an industrial loft building at 389 Broome Street in New York City. After living on the second floor for a year, he then moved up to the third floor. Make-shift living in an industrial loft space was a new and fascinating experience and his immediate interior environment became the subject matter for much of his artwork during this period. Paintings done in and about his studio environment were shown in his first major solo New York exhibition at the Martha Jackson Gallery in 1968.