The John Natsoulas Press is pleased to present the second edition of its original publication about the world-famous 6 Gallery. The 6 Gallery was one of the most iconic spaces in San Francisco where Beat Generation artists and poets shared their ideas and art. Founded in 1954 at 3119 Fillmore Street, the small venue served as focal point for exhibitions, poetry readings, and theatrical events. The six titular founders, Wally Hedrick, Deborah Remington, Hayward King, David Simpson, Jack Spicer, and John Allen Ryan, were committed to the ideas of removing barriers for others to exhibit. Their cooperative structure empowered young artists, including a 17-year-old Joan Brown, to show their work to the public. Other, more established artists like Hassel Smith and James Weeks were equally as eager to exhibit, and the involvement of these and other professors who taught the founders at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute) propelled the 6 Gallery into the limelight. The close ties between artists and poets only strengthened at the 6 Gallery, where Spicer and Ryan brought their cohort of fellow writers. The most famous of all those poetry events, Allen Ginsberg’s reading of Howl, took place on October 7, 1955.
This edition includes full color plates and features extensive photography and ephemera from the 1950s. This publication offers a wholistic understanding of the artists who showed at this essential site of the Beat Movement.
2nd Edition, 2025
151 pages
Authors: John Natsoulas, Bruce Nixon, Steven Rosenzweig, Seymour Howard, John Allen Ryan, Rebecca Solnit, Michael McClure
The John Natsoulas Press is pleased to present the second edition of its original publication about the world-famous 6 Gallery. The 6 Gallery was one of the most iconic spaces in San Francisco where Beat Generation artists and poets shared their ideas and art. Founded in 1954 at 3119 Fillmore Street, the small venue served as focal point for exhibitions, poetry readings, and theatrical events. The six titular founders, Wally Hedrick, Deborah Remington, Hayward King, David Simpson, Jack Spicer, and John Allen Ryan, were committed to the ideas of removing barriers for others to exhibit. Their cooperative structure empowered young artists, including a 17-year-old Joan Brown, to show their work to the public. Other, more established artists like Hassel Smith and James Weeks were equally as eager to exhibit, and the involvement of these and other professors who taught the founders at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute) propelled the 6 Gallery into the limelight. The close ties between artists and poets only strengthened at the 6 Gallery, where Spicer and Ryan brought their cohort of fellow writers. The most famous of all those poetry events, Allen Ginsberg’s reading of Howl, took place on October 7, 1955.
This edition includes full color plates and features extensive photography and ephemera from the 1950s. This publication offers a wholistic understanding of the artists who showed at this essential site of the Beat Movement.
2nd Edition, 2025
151 pages
Authors: John Natsoulas, Bruce Nixon, Steven Rosenzweig, Seymour Howard, John Allen Ryan, Rebecca Solnit, Michael McClure
