Cedar Tavern

Original neon sign from Cedar Tavern, white and clear neon tubes, metal painted red, white and gray, with modern wrought iron stand, 144.5 inches in circumference, 16 inches in diameter, 15 inches wide and height of 72 inches in stand; paint chipped throughout, oxidation and general wear, holes on side of sign from original mounting.

Salvatore Scarpitta

to come
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The original neon sign from the legendary Cedar Tavern, drinking spot and debating club of the Abstract Expressionists, the New York School Poets, the Beats, and others.  The roster of clients who drank and argued, caused scenes, and were thrown out of the Cedar Tavern in the 1950s is lengthy and impressive, and includes Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Joan Mitchell, Larry Rivers, Robert Motherwell, Jack Kerouac, Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, LeRoi Jones, and their friends, lovers, and hangers-on.  Jed Perl writes in New Art City, his study of the downtown art scene in the mid-twentieth century, ".... the philosopher and playwright Leon Abel recalled that when he visited the Cedar Tavern, the legendary artists' watering hole, there was a sense of 'ideas in the air,' and he believed you could not really understand what was happening in New York until you allowed yourself to feel the pull of those ideas" (p. 22).  The bar was located at 24 University Place, at the very center of the Abstract Expressionists stomping grounds.  The drinks were cheap and the joint was, as Perl describes it, "a plain-as-plain-can-be place, just a bar and some tables and booths, no decoration to speak of, murky and crowded, with people spilling out onto the street in the evening" (p. 88).  Although the bar was always rowdy, only two of its well-known patrons were eventually banned from the place: Jackson Pollock, for kicking down the men's room door; and Jack Kerouac, for urinating in an ashtray. 

Larry Rivers described the Cedar Tavern as "the G-spot of the whole art scene" (quoted in Lehman, The Last Avant Garde, 1998). Mike Goldberg remarked "The Cedar Bar was a macho place. A lot of us had been in the service. Even the few women there were tough cookies" (quoted in Ferguson, In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O'Hara and American Arts, Exhibition catalogue, LA Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999).

It would be hard to overestimate the place the Cedar Tavern holds in the cultural life of post-war America.  By the time the bar was forced to move in 1963, the painters and the poets had moved on.  The bar's owners gave the neon sign to artist Salvatore Scarpitta (1919-2007) and it has remained in his family ever since.  The sign is instantly recognizable to students of contemporary art through the many photos of famous patrons standing below it, talking the night away.