Paula Cooper’s ’70s Soho Art World
The Cut • • technology
Key Points:
- Paula Cooper opened her gallery in 1968 on Prince Street in Soho when the neighborhood was largely industrial and mostly empty after work hours, with artists occupying abandoned lofts.
- Cooper developed close, collaborative relationships with the artists she represented, as well as other prominent artists, fostering a slower, more engaged art community atmosphere.
- Her early gamble to establish a gallery in Soho paid off as many galleries and institutions followed, helping transform Soho into a vibrant art district by the 1970s.
- In the early 1970s, Cooper purchased a building on Wooster Street for her gallery and lived nearby among other artists, maintaining the space until moving to Chelsea in the mid-1990s.
- Now 88, Cooper reflects on her pioneering role in Soho’s art scene with a pragmatic view, welcoming competition as long as it doesn’t saturate the market.
