The best books that capture the creative energy of New York’s art scene

I loved this book because it vividly illustrates how place can shape great art. I was familiar with the work of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe before reading this beautifully-written memoir, but I was unaware of how their deeply-intertwined lives—including their loft homes—influenced their photography, poetry, and music.

My favorite parts are Smith’s descriptions of renovating their shared loft across from the famous Chelsea Hotel and, later, of their work to make Mapplethorpe’s Lower Manhattan loft space habitable. These sections capture how artists found beauty in New York’s neglected industrial buildings, demonstrating how the process of renovating a home and studio can open up possibilities in one’s creative practice.

My favorite image from my research on New York’s SoHo neighborhood is a photograph of a girl riding her bicycle through her parents’ loft apartment—a former factory transformed into an airy, art-filled home that was spacious enough to serve as an indoor playground.

This book captures what it was like to grow up in one of New York’s most famous artist communities. While few (if any) SoHo children helped to break up an international art forgery ring (like the one depicted in this YA novel), it evocatively captures the sense of adventure that children might have felt living in an industrial area during a time of neighborhood transition.

This is a vibrant depiction of what it was like to come into one’s own as an artist in 1970s New York. The critically acclaimed novel—which was nominated for a National Book Award—illustrates the spirit of creative collaboration pervading the New York art scene, taking the reader from the lofts and streets of Lower Manhattan to motorcycle speed tests on the Bonneville Salt Flats and labor strikes in fictional Italian motorcycle factories.

I love how it captures the danger and possibility of this era while raising important questions about privilege and patronage in the arts and about who bears the burden of globalization and deindustrialization.

The New York arts scene in the 1970s was like a small town; the truth of this oft-repeated cliché is borne out in my research, and it comes to life in the pages of Hermes’ fascinating book about contemporary music history. The book profiles iconic musicians, including jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, members of the rock band Talking Heads, and minimalist composer Philip Glass.

As a music lover, I was surprised and delighted by how New York’s village feel allowed seemingly disparate musicians to influence each other’s work.

The most famous chapter of the renowned book on New York history, Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, outlines how the Cross-Bronx Expressway gutted once thriving Bronx neighborhoods. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop shows how the global cultural phenomenon of hip-hop arose in the same borough two decades later.

Chang takes readers through public housing recreation rooms, South Bronx streets, and elevated subway lines where a group of musicians, visual artists, and dancers changed world culture. I especially love how the book illuminates how a specific place and time period made possible the development of this now ubiquitous artistic genre.