Washington Square, New York City, in art.(Current and coming)

Almost every major city has its cultural heart--a quarter where established and would-be artists, writers, composers, and actors live and work: For many years in New York City this was Washington Square in Greenwich Village.

In its earliest incarnation, from the 1790s through 1825, Washington Square was a potter's field and the site of public executions and corporal punishments. Then, in 1826 the mayor of New York, Philip Hone, declared that the square would become a military parade ground. In 1831 New York University was located in a building on the square, and for a period of about sixty years it leased space to organizations such as the New York Historical Society and some sixty artists, including Samuel F.B. Morse, Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, John Frederick Kensett, and Edwin Austin Abbey. These artists, and a large number from the next generation, set the stage for the role of Washington Square as the city's artistic center. An exhibition entitled Homage to the Square: Picturing Washington Square, 1890-1965, on view at Berry-Hill Galleries in New York City through July 6, chronicles this evolution. It includes approximately ninety paintings, prints, and photographs.

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In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of Washington's inauguration in New York City, a committee came up with the idea of building a temporary wood and stucco arch, which was so admired that ...