Drawings 1977-81

Artist Lee Brozgol’s intricate graphite drawings of New York City’s Lower East Side in the early 1980’s, where he lived and worked. 

Brozgol was a contemporary of famed downtown artists such as Keith Haring, Basquiat, and Martin Wong. Yet, as an outsider among outsiders, Brozgol stayed away from the glitz and glam of the art world.

Upon seeing Brozgol’s visceral drawings, art curator and culture critic Carlo McCormick exclaimed, “Either this guy did every drug there is, or he did none of them!”

These expressive artworks are among a series artist Lee Brozgol created. They are a celebration not of the “who’s who” of downtown art at the time, but the every day people struggling in those streets.

Combining whimsy with the harsh realities of capitalism, and a neighborhood peopled by those largely cast aside, is a theme that runs throughout Brozgol’s work. 

A perpetual iconoclast with a keen eye for beauty and detail, through Brozgol’s lens the Lower East Side of the late 1970’s and early 80’s comes to vivid life.

Select images below, photography by Dario Lasagni and the Estate of Lee Brozgol.