The neighborhood South of Union Square is a true crossroads — where art, politics, industry, commerce, the New York elite, and the working class collided to create an eclectic culture and built environment that helped shift the center of the global art world to New York City.

In addition to its namesake social realist art movement — the Fourteenth Street School — the neighborhood South of Union Square and its environs were host to a number of influential artists and movements like Abstract Expressionism, the Ninth Street Five, and “The Club.” One artist that worked and lived in the neighborhood during the postwar period was Robert de Niro, Sr. (May 3, 1922 – May 3, 1993).