The Artistic Journey of Anton van Dalen: A Reflection on Urban Transformation

The Artistic Journey of Anton van Dalen

Anton van Dalen was a socially conscious artist whose profound connection to his environment was reflected in his work. A dedicated pigeon keeper and a longtime aide to the renowned illustrator Saul Steinberg, van Dalen called the Lower East Side home for over half a century. Throughout his time there, he meticulously documented the neighborhood’s transformation from a state of dereliction to one of gentrification through his paintings, drawings, and sculptures.

One of his most celebrated creations was a performance piece titled “Avenue A Cut-Out Theater.” This unique work featured a three-foot-tall cardboard model of his residence at 166 Avenue A. The model was populated with hand-painted and photographed cutouts representing a diverse cross-section of urban life, including police officers in riot gear, junkies, homeless individuals, sex workers, hawks, pigeons, and dogs. He also included elements like a burned-out car, churches, temples, and community gardens, capturing the essence of his surroundings.

During performances, often conducted for students in his home studio, van Dalen would reach into the model, extracting the cutouts and arranging them on a table or on the floor. He vividly narrated the story of a neglected part of the city that he felt resembled a war zone—much like his native Holland during World War II—when he arrived in the late 1960s. His narrative chronicled the metamorphosis of the area into a haven for affluent residential and commercial developers.

Reflecting on his work, critic David Frankel described a performance by van Dalen in 2015 in Artforum: “The box also gave him something of the quality of the old-time itinerant musician or carny with a hurdy-gurdy or box of puppets on his back — in other words, someone unfixed and mobile, making a self-contained kind of art that he can produce easily wherever he goes.”

Wendy Olsoff, co-founder of the PPOW Gallery in Manhattan, expressed her admiration for van Dalen’s work, saying, “It was magical, like seeing Calder’s Circus,” referring to the miniature circus created and performed by the sculptor Alexander Calder. The PPOW Gallery has proudly hosted three solo exhibitions showcasing van Dalen’s innovative artistry.