Sep 26 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2679 -

Sale 2679 - Lot 203

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

PAT BATES (DATES UNKNOWN)


Entrance to Paradise Garage. Circa 1980.
Photostat, the image measuring 28x26¾ cm, 11x10½ inches, the sheet slightly larger.

This photostat print by the artist Pat Bates is a unique glimpse of the empty entrance to the vaunted discotheque Paradise Garage. This is the only photograph of Paradise Garage salvaged by Bates after her studio burned and she lost her entire artistic output. Paradise Garage was an epochal New York City nightclub, central to developments in modern dance, pop music, club culture, and gay life in New York in the late 1970s and 1980s. The Garage, as it was also known, has been credited for its influence on the development of the modern dance club; unlike other clubs of its time, Paradise Garage was the first to prioritize dancing, and put the DJ at the center of attention. Performers included Diana Ross and a young Madonna. The club's name derives from its origins as a parking garage. Its business model was largely inspired by David Mancuso's private invitation-only DJ parties at The Loft in New York, which was not open to the public, and served no liquor or food. Paradise Garage's DJ Larry Levan and his contemporaries, Frankie Knuckles and Nicky Siano, were early proponents of the genre that became known as House music.