Book SummaryThe Slip, by Prudence Peiffer

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Slip

History, Significance, and Art Community of Coenties Slip

Coenties Slip: Transition Between Land, Sea, Trade, and Art

Peiffer explains that Coenties Slip was an important, central location for trade in New York for centuries even as it was always a place apart, geographically and culturally, from the rest of Manhattan, because of its location on the "southernmost tip" of the island, just before reaching the East River. She emphasizes the physical reality of the "slip" as a space cut into the island and then filled in; its nature is impermanent, always changing, a microcosm of New York's development. This inherent contradiction of the place—between being a central neighborhood and existing on a liminal edge—is also illustrated repeatedly by the diverse groups of people who have resided and labored there, many of them transient and existing in a kind of dual space, between land and water, arriving by boat, and often departing by boat too.

Initial Development: Native Settlement, European Colonization, Maritime Growth

Coenties Slip's geographic and cultural contradictions arose from the beginning, with its very establishment tied to the displacement of Native people and exploitation of labor. Long before the arrival of European settlers, the island was “Manahatta,” the territory of the Lenape people, whose daily life and survival, Peiffer recounts from historical records, depended on the ecological richness and interconnectedness of the surrounding waters and lands, a worldview they mistakenly assumed European settlers shared. After “buying” the island for a paltry sum in trinkets and goods, the Dutch settlers, reliant on enslaved people from Africa for labor in almost all aspects of its development—from clearing land to building roads and forts—established New York's first streets, buildings, and slips alongside the East River, where fresh water ran freely. In this founding, Peiffer notes, is already the confluence of the ocean and the earth, trade, and the forced labor that made that exchange possible.

Soon markets appeared at the slips, each named after the most prominent or ambitious neighborhood families: Exchange, Burling, Coenties. The slips were crucial for Manhattan's commercial growth, allowing huge ships to come directly into narrow streets to unload their cargo and passengers. Each slip had an open-air market that became a hub for specialized trade. Coenties Slip Market, a hub of activity, was dominated by the fish trade—from "ear-shaped" clams (as one settler uncharitably described) to cod, mackerel, lobsters, and herring—and it was so vital to the economy that citizens raised money to build a roof over it to protect the wares from the weather.

Context

• The establishment of slips and markets was driven by the economic interests of European settlers, who prioritized trade and commerce over the rights and well-being of indigenous populations and enslaved individuals.
• The Lenape practiced sustainable land management, using techniques such as controlled burns to clear land and promote the growth of certain plants. This helped maintain the health of the ecosystems they depended on.
• The presence of enslaved Africans contributed to the cultural and demographic landscape of the colonies, influencing language, cuisine, and traditions, despite the oppressive conditions they faced.
• The transaction marked the beginning of significant disruption for the Lenape people, leading to their displacement and the eventual loss of their traditional lands as European colonization expanded.
• Dutch architectural styles and building techniques influenced the early development of the city, including the use of brick and gabled roofs.
• The presence of slips influenced the layout and growth of the city, as infrastructure developed around these key points of trade and transportation.
• The families after whom the slips were named often wielded significant influence in the community, shaping local politics, economy, and culture. Their prominence could stem from various factors, including wealth, land ownership, or involvement in trade and politics.
• Markets such as Coenties Slip were not just commercial centers but also social hubs where people from diverse backgrounds interacted, contributing to the cultural melting pot that characterized early New York.
• The need for a roof underscores the challenges posed by New York's climate, including rain, snow, and seasonal changes, which could damage perishable goods and disrupt market activities.

Displacement of Maritime Communities by Demolition and New Development in Coenties Slip During the '50s and '60s

Peiffer traces a long history of Coenties Slip's vulnerability to change and redevelopment, from the late-nineteenth century's massive fire that ripped through the location, to the late 1940s, when the passage of legislation by the Interstate Commerce Commission led to a decline of working ports in Lower Manhattan, even though New York's harbor was then the world's busiest. By the mid-twentieth century, the area's most distinct maritime community—canal boaters who spent months living on their boats and transporting goods up and down the state's canals and waterways, docking their vessels at the slips—were displaced, mirroring the gradual shift from sail to steam-powered engines, from small workshops to corporate business. But even in the municipality's "pull-down-and-build-over-again" ethos, the neighborhood's specific geography—as a...

The Slip Summary Coenties Slip Artists: Diverse Backgrounds, Collaborations, and Creative Processes

Ellsworth Kelly's Journey From Paris to NYC: Forging His Unique Everyday Abstraction in a Rejection of Abstract Expressionism

Peiffer traces Kelly's trajectory from Paris to the Slip, and the unusual situation of the artist arriving back to a New York art scene in 1954 that, while celebrating Abstract Expressionism and the artists who produced those works, rejected Kelly's own hard-edge style, developed in France through visits to artists' studios whose experimentation with pre-war modernism had not received much attention. His initial works, including paintings and sketches, were often of the spaces where he lived; he had honed a visual vocabulary that came not from composing pictures but finding patterns, colors, and shapes already existing in his environment, what he called the "already-made." Meanwhile, Kelly was frustrated by the difficulty of making a living through art in Paris and longed to be understood by his compatriots back in the States. Kelly's circumstances and ambitions mirrored those of the other Slip artists as they left behind the influence of Abstract Expressionism prevalent in New York for the open possibilities of a more global vision of art...

The Slip Summary Conditions Enabling Coenties Slip Artists' Development

Struggling Downtown NYC: Pre-SoHo Cheap Artist Spaces

Peiffer explains that the artistic community that flourished on Coenties Slip was born not from any shared aesthetic movement or political mission, as so often happens in the mythology accompanying artists’ shared studios and spaces, but from the very particular geographic and economic situation of lower Manhattan in that decade. The area had a temporary reprieve from urban renewal after the Great Depression; in fact, Peiffer notes, very few new buildings or projects were begun downtown from the 1930s into the 1950s. This, along with the drop in maritime trade and factories moving during the Second World War, created a unique opportunity for artists who couldn’t afford to live or work in more traditional areas to find housing and studio space.

Artists Repurposing Materials: Ship Masts, Billboard Canvas, Wood Floors;...