Gordon Newton

Newton was a central figure in Detroit's Cass Corridor art community, a group of artists who lived and worked in the neighborhood bordering Wayne State University in the late 1960s and '70s. Their work emerged from their experience of the city, which was undergoing dramatic upheavals and changes: racial unrest, deindustrialization, and white flight. The drawings Newton made in steno pads as part of his daily drawing practice demonstrate his continued engagement with the urban landscape, which he approached with a mix of observation and imagination.