Art Students League of New York
New York, NY
212-247-4510
League Masters Then
In their quest for a meaningful education,
many of America's most outstanding twentieth-century artists sought out
one particular school. For most, it was simply the place to go if one wanted
to study with the best artists of the day, such as William Merritt Chase,
Robert Henri, John Sloan or Hans Hofmann. This mecca, The Art Students League
of New York, is now in its 125th year. Celebrating that anniversary, the
school has organized an exhibit of works by artists who once taught or studied
in its famed studios. League Masters Then will be on view from November
3 through 26, 2000, in the League's second-fioor gallery. (left:
Rockwell Kent, When the Sun Shines, 1926-27, oil on canvas, 30 x
40 inches, Private Collection, Courtesy Babcock Galleries, New York.)
Saluting
the school's rich history, the exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings
and sculptures by such notables as Rockwell Kent, John Henry Twachtman.
Isabel Bishop, Jose de Creeft, Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, Stuart Davis,
Milton Avery. Will Barnet and Robert Rauschenberg. Organized by a group
of current instructors and students, the exhibit drew from the collections
of individuals, including several current instructors, the inventories of
major galleries in New York and the League's own permanent collection. (left:
Raphael Soyer, Couple in Armchair, 1935, oil on canvas, © 1935
Estate of Raphael Soyer, Courtesy Forum Gallery, New York)
Unique
in its approach to art education, the League has maintained from the start
an atelier system that guarantees instructor autonomy within the studio
and diverse options for its students, who register for classes on a monthly
basis. "If results are the measure of an art school's achievement,
then the League has been doing something right for over a century and a
quarter," said H. Max Horbund, League president. "Founded by art
students who wanted to choose their own instructors, the League is a daring
experiment that succeeded with documented results." Horbund continued,
"Quintessentially American in its respect for choice, the League's
way of nurturing artists has produced a roster of talent that is the envy
of the world." (left: Thomas Hart Benton, Self-Portrait,
1972, lithograph, © T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trust
/ VAGA, New York, NY)
League
Masters Then offers glimpses of a few well-known
artists' work before they achieved fame. A still-life by a young Georgia
O'Keeffe, represents her successful studies with William Merritt Chase as
it was awarded a scholarship prize by the League in 1906. Jackson Pollock's
Deposition, a figurative oil painting done during his time at the
League, 1930 - 33, reflects the influence of his teacher then, Thomas Hart
Benton. Adolph Gottlieb, who studied at the League in 1920, is represented
by one of his pictographic works from the early 1940s. From the same decade,
a transitional work by Mark Rothko represents a stage in the development
of his signature format of stacked fields of color. (left: Adolph
Gottlieb, The Alchemist's Fluid, 1946, oil on canvas, © Adolph
and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)
The school's outstanding history of sculpture instruction
will be celebrated with works by William Zorach, David Smith, Dorothy Dehner
and others. Notable printmakers alsn taught and worked there, represented
by images created by Martin Lewis, Peggy Brook Bacon, Armin Landeck and
George Grosz. A brilliant landscape by Rockwell Kent, a League instructor
in the late 1920s, has been reproduced in a commemorative poster for the
exhibition.
Read more about the Art
Students League of New York in Resource
Library Magazine.
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line
to see enlargements.
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited above please see America's Distinguished
Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
This page was originally published in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information. rev. 4/6/11
Search Resource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2011 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
In their quest for a meaningful education,
many of America's most outstanding twentieth-century artists sought out
one particular school. For most, it was simply the place to go if one wanted
to study with the best artists of the day, such as William Merritt Chase,
Robert Henri, John Sloan or Hans Hofmann. This mecca, The Art Students League
of New York, is now in its 125th year. Celebrating that anniversary, the
school has organized an exhibit of works by artists who once taught or studied
in its famed studios. League Masters Then will be on view from November
3 through 26, 2000, in the League's second-fioor gallery. (left:
Rockwell Kent, When the Sun Shines, 1926-27, oil on canvas, 30 x
40 inches, Private Collection, Courtesy Babcock Galleries, New York.)
