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The Anomalous Baird Jones (1955–2008)

Few people personify the free-wheeling, polymorphous spirit of fin-de-siècle downtown New York as well as the idiosyncratic curator, club party promoter, photographer, author, and celebrity gossip Baird Jones.

The Night Time Is The Right Time: N.Y.C. Nightclub Ephemera, 1980s

By the 1980s dozens of new nightclubs and bars including Area, Danceteria, Mudd Club, and Paradise Garage consciously strove to be part of the art world by presenting new music, art, film, video, fashion, and performance.

Tunnel, Jimmy DeSana, Invitation for “Art Un-Censored,” 1987

$200

Invitation for “Art Un-Censored” at TUNNEL, 1987. Offset print on card stock, 8.5 x 5.5 inches.

A nightclub “protest” against the decision by the Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts to “fig leaf” the genitals in Jimmy DeSana’s photographic self-portrait, Rope, part of an “East Village art” exhibition curated by Baird Jones. After the show closed, DeSana’s photograph was brought to the Tunnel, where crowds were invited to see nightclub impresario Rudolf “remove the ugly cover-up and let beauty shine in its full splendor!”