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40 Top Art Events of the Downtown Era: A Timeline, 1974–1992

The Downtown Era began in the 1970s, when aspiring artists of the baby-boomer generation arrived in New York. Over the next two decades, they would radically change the art world, opening it up to new forms of media, new modes of exhibiting art, and new social perspectives.

Fine Arts Building, Jeffrey Deitch, Lives, Invitation, 1975

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Artists Who Deal With Peoples’ Lives (Including Their Own) As The Subject And/Or The Medium Of Their Work

Curated by 23-year-old Jeffrey Deitch, “Lives” captured the art world’s turn from formalist theory toward an engagement with everyday life.

The Fine Arts Building at 105 Hudson Street (in what is now known as TriBeCa) saw a flourishing of art events in the 1970s, thanks to its owners’ shrewd hiring of art entrepreneur Julian Pretto to boost the property’s cachet. Pretto set aside the ninth floor for a series of exhibitions by plugged-in young curators.