Club 57: Flyers 1979-83

Club 57 was on St. Mark's Place from 1979 - 1983. It was run by Ann Magnuson, who called it a place for "pointy-toed hipsters, girls in rockabilly petticoats, spandex pants, and thrift-store stiletto heels...suburban refugees who had run away from home to find a new family...who liked the things we liked--Devo, Duchamp, and William S. Burroughs--and (more important) hated the things we hated--disco, Diane von Fürstenberg, and The Waltons."

Keith Haring had his first New York show at Club 57.


Magnuson in front of Club 57--see more photos by Harvey Wang

Back in the day, long before blogs, local news and announcements were spread via flyer. A collection of Club 57's flyers is available through the Alden Projects.

Todd Alden writes on his site: "What is reproduced here just tells part of the lost stories of Club 57. This archive consists of a collection of flyers that happened to be saved by contributing Club 57 artist, Henry Jones, who assisted Ann Magnuson in scheduling the club’s calendar. (Several of Club 57’s monthly calendars, designed by Magnuson are also reproduced). Jones, who attended SVA, like Haring, Sex, and Scharf, made a notable stroboscopic film around 1978 about The Fleshtones and was a protégé of the filmmaker and musicologist, Harry Smith."

"To some extent, the original photocopies from Club 57 unquestionably approximate artworks. But of course the equivocal status of the photocopy as non-art---as degraded ephemera, designed to invite the audience to passing performances and to passing pleasures, also contributed to the re-doubled urgency of these messages in a place where life and art traded places, however briefly."



The flyers were on display and for sale recently at the NY Art Book Fair (see also: poet's pubic hair).

Alden was also selling a spiral-bound book full of photocopies of the flyers. It was priced at $20. If you're a Club 57 fan, or just enjoy ephemera from this lost era, you might still be able to find the book through Alden Projects.