The painter and writer Jack Dowling, at the Ninth Avenue station of the Third Avenue El, near Cooper Union; 1953.

Dowling graduated from Cooper Union in 1957 before going abroad to teach and paint in Italy. In the mid-1960s, Dowling began to gain recognition in New York's art scene.

In 1971, after losing the lease to the East Village loft where he lived and worked, Dowling moved into the Westbeth Artists Housing complex, where he later directed the in-house gallery.