Anthony Cudahy: Circle Game

Exhibition Dates: June 21—July 28, 2019

1969 Gallery presents a special exhibition of new work by Anthony Cudahy.

Regarding this new series of work, which will be accompanied by an essay, Cudahy says:

”This grouping of paintings feature figures on watch, or protecting each other, and individuals at the precipice of two zones---maybe a doorway, maybe sleep. The work sources imagery from the 1977 Everard bathhouse fire, queer photo archives, Pompeii wall art, gay Tumblr (R.I.P.), snapshots of my partner, ... Within this grouping of disparate interests, there is a common thread of a desire for and a negotiation of safety.

There is a queer inflection to this negotiation and the Everard fire can be used as an encapsulation. The Everard was a gay bath on 28th and Broadway. By the time Koch closed it down in the 80’s, the baths had been operating for a century, and rebuilt from two fires. Somewhere in the 1910’s or 20’s, it shifted to becoming a primarily homosexual venue. The fire that killed nine was exasperated by the fact that the windows to the Everard were boarded shut, both to make the space as dark as possible during the day and to keep the eyes of the straight world out. Nothing in the bath was up to code; in fact the owner was at the time of the fire on an extension from the city, past his original deadline for upgrading the facilities. Like any underground gay space of the time, it’s been claimed to have been run by the mob with heavy police involvement.

The balancing of and subjection to danger in pursuance of a safe space is the contradiction explored within these paintings. ‘Tender’ is an apt word, for both of its definitions: intimacy and pain.”