Area Archive

[New York: n.p., 1983-1987]. Contents uniformly in near fine to fine condition.. Collection of 120 flyers and posters from New York's hottest and most inventive nightclub, Area, during the mid-1980s. Although it was a disco, Area was a purely visual, happenings-based venue, where New York's art, music, design, fashion, and literary worlds collided; Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, or Jean-Michel Basquiat might be brushing up against Michael Forbes, David Byrne, or Georgio Armani, and Stephen Saban would be there to remind them what happened afterwards in his Details magazine column. Unlike other downtown clubs that focused on music or dancing, Area was driven by art and the scene that it engendered, through its theme nights, elaborate installations, and inventive flyers that seemed to embody Warhol's concept of business art. This archive includes Area's famously unconventional invitations, posters, articles, booklets, and other ephemera from the nightclub's short-lived, yet significant, four-year history. Features two cards enclosed in envelopes addressed to Richard Serra. A defining celebration of the creative hedonism of 1980s New York and a remarkable documentation of the "Bright Lights, Big City" years.