Spiritual America: Difference between revisions

1983–1984 artist-run gallery at 5 Rivington Street, New York; founded by Kim Fine

Spiritual America

Established	October 28, 1983
Dissolved	March 1984
Location	5 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, United States
Type	Artist-run contemporary art space
Founder	Kimberly (Kim) Fine; Sandra Schulman; Richard Prince

Spiritual America was a short‑lived, artist‑run gallery at 5 Rivington Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side that operated from October 28, 1983, to March 1984. The operation kept irregular hours and appointment‑only viewings.^[1][2] The gallery was founded by Kim Fine who mounted the first presentation of Richard Prince’s photograph later widely titled Spiritual America (1983), Prince’s rephotograph of a 1970s image of Brooke Shields by Gary Gross, out of her apartment. ^[1] Fine’s presentation emphasized difficulty of access and a reverential preference for blacked‑out windows, black‑painted walls, and a single source of light.^[2][1] The initial black‑on‑white invitation cards read “By Richard Prince, a Photograph of Brooke Shields by Gary Gross,” omitted hours and dates, and used the password “TESTIMONY” for entry; the card survives in ephemera collections with Fine’s name and address as the letterhead.

Metro Pictures dropped Prince from its rosters due to controversy around the eponymous photograph. Prince claims he decided to represent himself by opening his own gallery and that he “hired a woman to beard the place”.^[1][2] Kimberly Fine had previously worked at the Museum of Modern Art’s membership desk and at Time Inc., where she met Prince; she recalls swapping Time shifts for prints and an encounter with Alfred Stieglitz’s photograph Spiritual America that inspired her to christen the shell gallery after the 1923 image^[2][1][2]. Fine states that Prince left New York for several weeks and that pro bono counsel later advised, after which viewing continued by appointment out of her ground-floor residence between Bowery and Christie st.^[2] She also recalled cease‑and‑desist threats by phone from attorney Richard Golub (then representing photographer Gary Gross) shortly before the inaugural opening. Prince accounts for an artist’s proof of By Richard Prince, A photograph of Brooke Shields, By Garry Gross rendered in lieu of $150 to a drummer-plumber in exchange for fixing his toilet.^[3] Schulman notes the legal risk climate and the project’s intentionally private staging in the catalogue that situates Spiritual America within the heyday of the Lower East Side art scene, and an oral history provided by Fine in 2022 revisited a crowded opening, a price of US$150 for the print, and no sales at the time.^{[2][1][1][4][4] [2]}

Spiritual America hosted four exhibitions/events during its run:^[1]

• Oct. 28, 1983 — By Richard Prince, a Photograph of Brooke Shields by Gary Gross (single work; appointment‑only after opening).^[1][2]
• Nov.–Dec. 1983 — Peter Nadin: Still Life(paintings). Visitors brought fruit; Nadin read poems from his book Still Life.^[1][2]
• Dec. 31, 1983 — New Year’s Eve event (temporary red‑paper wall murals by Walter Robinson; removed the next day; no surviving installation photos).^[1]
• Feb. 1–21, 1984 — POP (works by Jeff Koons, Sarah Charlesworth, Louise Lawler, Allan McCollum, a Cindy Sherman film‑still image, and Richard Prince). Fine advocated for including Koons; day‑of silver paint applied to walls/floor caused wet‑paint mishaps due to cold weather.^[1][2]

• Schulman, Sandra (2015). Spiritual America: The Catalog 1983–1984. New York: Slink Productions. ISBN 978-1511417693.

A bookseller listing documents Gross’s self‑published brochure Little Women, associated with the Brooke Shields session.^[5]

The storefront at 5 Rivington Street has subsequently hosted pop‑up exhibitions that reference the 1983–84 project and its history.^[6] In a later deposition regarding Spiritual America Four, Prince stated that he would not object to others copying and selling the work, framing this view as consistent with his approach to appropriation.^[7]

In an October 2025 Vanity Fair article, Prince is quoted reflecting on the limits of such protests given that artists rarely control who owns their works once they circulate in collections.