Goode, Eric and others. Area Archive.

[New York: n.p. 1983–1987]. Collection of 125 flyers and posters from New York’s hottest and most inventive nightclub, Area. The flyers cover the whole spectrum of the clubs four year reign as the nexus of the downtown club scene. Although it was a disco, Area was a purely visual, happenings-based venue, with themes like “Religion,” “Elements,” “Confinement,” “Sex,” “Future,” “Fashion,” “Art” and “Suburbia” that went way beyond even the craziest of Halloween party décor, reimagining the 33,000 square foot space into a 3D multisensory mind trip. For the “Food” motif, Area's pool became a giant bowl of alphabet soup. “Gnarly” had a skate ramp with skateboarders gliding by the dance floor. “Religion” included a 10-foot burning cross and a confessional booth complete with a “priest.” For those four mad years Area was where New York's art, music, design, fashion, and literary worlds collided; There were the freaks, the beautiful people, the up-and-comers, the semi-famous, the very famous, and the very wealthy, Basquiat DJ'd, Warhol built invisible sculptures and set up a Polaroid studio there, photographing Area's beautiful people. Gender-bender Bernard-Zette would be posed in the lounge on any given night as Jesus Christ, Jim Jones, St. Sebastian, Brooke Shields, Anne Frank or Jane Jetson to name but a few. 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. The invites, which were art themselves, became instantly collectible. For the opening, Area mailed a blue pill that when dissolved in water, spelled out the party details. For “Gnarly,” a box released an amyl nitrate capsule that ambushed the receiver with a noxious odor. (Resulting in Judy Collins demanding to be removed from the mailing list). 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. The archive provides a remarkable reference point for New York City nightlife's golden years as well as a defining celebration of the creative hedonism of 1980s New York. An unparralled documentation of the “Bright Lights, Big City” years, and the place that gave birth to the most creative parties in the history of New York. Contents uniformly in near fine to fine condition. Please email for a detailed listing.