George Luks
Encyclopedia
George Benjamin Luks, was an American realist
artist and illustrator
. His vigorously painted genre paintings of urban subjects are examples of the Ashcan school
in American art.
, to Central European immigrants. His father was a physician and his mother was an amateur painter and musician. The Luks family (George, his parents and five siblings) eventually moved to Pottsville, in Southern Pennsylvania near the coal fields. In this setting, he learned at a young age the importance of compassion by watching how his parents helped the coal miners' families, and many believe that this is the reason why lower class New Yorkers were often Luks's subject matter. Luks studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before he traveled though Europe where he attended several art schools. Later he went to Düsseldorf where he lived with a distant relative, a retired lion-tamer. He abandoned Düsseldorf for the more stimulating spheres of London and Paris. He then returned to Philadelphia in 1893 where he was an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press where he met John Sloan, William Glackens
, and Everett Shinn
. They would meet at the studio of Robert Henri
, an artist who emphasized the depiction of ordinary life, shunning genteel subjects and painting quickly. The group became known as the "Philadelphia Five". In 1896, Luks moved to New York and began his art career there as the premier humorist artist for the New York World. During his time as an illustrator there, he lived with William Glackens. Glackens, along with Everett Shinn and Robert Henri, encouraged him to paint seriously, and Luks developed an interest in painting "New York Street Life". The Philadelphia Five eventually became "The Eight
."
motivated Henri's followers to form their own independent exhibiting group. Consisting of Robert Henri, George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies
, Ernest Lawson
, and Maurice Prendergast
, the group exhibited as "The Eight" in January 1908. Their exhibition was one of the most important events in the development of twentieth-century American art. Although the styles of "The Eight" differed immensely, what unified the group was their advocacy of exhibition opportunities free from the jury system, as well as each of their desires to use painting techniques that were not sanctioned by the Academy. "The Eight" expanded into what is now known as the Ashcan School
of artists.
Luks made many paintings of working class subjects and scenes of the urban street. "Hester Street" (1905, in the Brooklyn Museum, New York) captures the Jewish court through Luks's vigorously painted representation of immigrant shoppers, pushcart peddlers, casual strollers and curious onlookers of the ethnic variety that characterized metropolitan, turn-of-the century New York. Luks's work typifies the 'real-life' scenes painted by the Ashcan School artists. It was very important for the artists associated with the Ashcan school to depict real life. They wanted to capture a moment in time. Due to the chaos that was depicted, these realists
works of art makes the viewer feel involved in the space. Hester Street demonstrates the ability Luks had to capture expressions, gestures as well as background details that portrayed everyday life in New York City.
The Ashcan School successfully challenged academic art institutions. Like many members of The Eight, Luks was a professor of art, first at the Arts Student League and later at a school he established himself. As noted, the Ashcan School was not an organized group. The first known use of the "ash can" terminology in describing the movement was by Art Young
, in 1916, but the term was applied later not only to The Eight, but also to such artists as Edward Hopper
(a student of Henri), George Bellows
(another student of Henri), Mabel Dwight and others such as photographer Jacob Riis
, who portrayed urban subject matter, also primarily of New York's working class neighborhoods. (Hopper's inclusion in the group [which he forswore] is ironic: his depictions of city streets are almost entirely free of the usual minutiae, with not a single incidental ashcan in sight.)
In 1905, Luks painted what would become one of his most famous works as well as an Ashcan School icon, "The Spielers", which is now in the Addison Gallery of American Art
. Two young girls make up this painting. Their happy faces contrast with their grimy hands. George Luks successfully portrays lower-class children's ability to enjoy life despite their circumstances. He painted the truth, as he saw it. In regard to color, Luks said himself when interviewed, "I'll tell you the whole secret! Color is simply light and shade. You don't need pink or grey or blue so long as you have volume. Pink and blue change with light or time. Volume endures."
Although Luks is most well known for his depictions of New York City life, he also created landscapes the city provided, such as The New York River, New York 1910. His visual perception
was very fine and emphasized character through the use of his vivid color. An example of his later work, Society Girl (c. 1920s), interpreted wealth, and the importance of society which was an important aspect in portrait painting seen as far back as in the works of John Singleton Copley
. The Cafe Francis 1906, has more impressionist aspects than his usual dark scenes of lower-class urban life. For example, Sulky Boy (1908, Phillips Collection
, Washington D.C.) depicts the son of a doctor at Bellevue Hospital who treated Luks for alcoholism. It was noted that Luks was more concerned with depicting the boy's demeanor rather than the accurate representation of the surroundings.
1908- George Luks was included in the exhibition of "The Eight" in January 1908.
1913- Luks had had six works included in the 1913 Armory Show.
1997- George Luks Exhibition, Owen Gallery, 19 East 75th Street, October 25 to December 17, 1997.
2007- Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists’ Brush with Leisure, 1895–1925, The Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
The Spielers, 1905, Addison Gallery of American Art
The Rag Picker, 1905
Hester Street, 1905, Brooklyn Museum
The Cafe Francis, 1906, Butler Institute of American Art
Woman with Macaws, 1907, Detroit Institute of Arts
Sulky Boy, 1908, Phillips Collection
in Washington D.C.
The Guitar (Portrait of the Artist’s Brother with his Son), 1908, Westmoreland Museum of American Art
The New York River, New York 1910
Nursemaids, High Bridge Park
American realism
300px|thumb|[[Ashcan School]] artists & friends at [[John French Sloan]]'s Philadelphia Studio, 1898American realism was an early 20th century idea in art, music and literature that showed through these different types of work, reflections of the time period...
artist and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. His vigorously painted genre paintings of urban subjects are examples of the Ashcan school
The Eight
The Eight may refer to:*Ashcan School, an American school of painters*The Eight , a Hungarian art movement*The Eight ...
in American art.
Early life
Luks was born in Williamsport, PennsylvaniaWilliamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. In 2009, the population was estimated at 29,304...
, to Central European immigrants. His father was a physician and his mother was an amateur painter and musician. The Luks family (George, his parents and five siblings) eventually moved to Pottsville, in Southern Pennsylvania near the coal fields. In this setting, he learned at a young age the importance of compassion by watching how his parents helped the coal miners' families, and many believe that this is the reason why lower class New Yorkers were often Luks's subject matter. Luks studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before he traveled though Europe where he attended several art schools. Later he went to Düsseldorf where he lived with a distant relative, a retired lion-tamer. He abandoned Düsseldorf for the more stimulating spheres of London and Paris. He then returned to Philadelphia in 1893 where he was an illustrator for the Philadelphia Press where he met John Sloan, William Glackens
William Glackens
William James Glackens was an American realist painter.Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later moved to New York City, where he co-founded what came to be called the Ashcan School art movement...
, and Everett Shinn
Everett Shinn
Everett Shinn was an American realist painter and member of the Ashcan School, also known as 'the Eight.' He was the youngest member of the group of modernist painters who explored the depiction of real life...
. They would meet at the studio of Robert Henri
Robert Henri
Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
, an artist who emphasized the depiction of ordinary life, shunning genteel subjects and painting quickly. The group became known as the "Philadelphia Five". In 1896, Luks moved to New York and began his art career there as the premier humorist artist for the New York World. During his time as an illustrator there, he lived with William Glackens. Glackens, along with Everett Shinn and Robert Henri, encouraged him to paint seriously, and Luks developed an interest in painting "New York Street Life". The Philadelphia Five eventually became "The Eight
The Eight
The Eight may refer to:*Ashcan School, an American school of painters*The Eight , a Hungarian art movement*The Eight ...
."
"The Eight"
The rejection of one of Luks's paintings from the 1907 exhibition of the National Academy of DesignNational Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
motivated Henri's followers to form their own independent exhibiting group. Consisting of Robert Henri, George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies
Arthur B. Davies
Arthur Bowen Davies was an avant-garde American artist and patron.-Biography:He was born in Utica, New York and studied at the Chicago Academy of Design from 1879 to 1882...
, Ernest Lawson
Ernest Lawson
Ernest Lawson was a Canadian-American painter and a member of The Eight, a group of artists which included the group's leaders Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks, and William J. Glackens...
, and Maurice Prendergast
Maurice Prendergast
Maurice Brazil Prendergast was an American Post-Impressionist artist who worked in oil, watercolor, and monotype...
, the group exhibited as "The Eight" in January 1908. Their exhibition was one of the most important events in the development of twentieth-century American art. Although the styles of "The Eight" differed immensely, what unified the group was their advocacy of exhibition opportunities free from the jury system, as well as each of their desires to use painting techniques that were not sanctioned by the Academy. "The Eight" expanded into what is now known as the Ashcan School
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
of artists.
Ashcan School
Luks made many paintings of working class subjects and scenes of the urban street. "Hester Street" (1905, in the Brooklyn Museum, New York) captures the Jewish court through Luks's vigorously painted representation of immigrant shoppers, pushcart peddlers, casual strollers and curious onlookers of the ethnic variety that characterized metropolitan, turn-of-the century New York. Luks's work typifies the 'real-life' scenes painted by the Ashcan School artists. It was very important for the artists associated with the Ashcan school to depict real life. They wanted to capture a moment in time. Due to the chaos that was depicted, these realists
American realism
300px|thumb|[[Ashcan School]] artists & friends at [[John French Sloan]]'s Philadelphia Studio, 1898American realism was an early 20th century idea in art, music and literature that showed through these different types of work, reflections of the time period...
works of art makes the viewer feel involved in the space. Hester Street demonstrates the ability Luks had to capture expressions, gestures as well as background details that portrayed everyday life in New York City.
The Ashcan School successfully challenged academic art institutions. Like many members of The Eight, Luks was a professor of art, first at the Arts Student League and later at a school he established himself. As noted, the Ashcan School was not an organized group. The first known use of the "ash can" terminology in describing the movement was by Art Young
Art Young
Arthur "Art" Young was an American cartoonist and writer. He is most famous for his socialist cartoons, especially those drawn for the left wing political magazine The Masses between 1911 and 1917.-Early Years:...
, in 1916, but the term was applied later not only to The Eight, but also to such artists as Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
(a student of Henri), George Bellows
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City, becoming, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".-Youth:Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio...
(another student of Henri), Mabel Dwight and others such as photographer Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis
Jacob August Riis was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific...
, who portrayed urban subject matter, also primarily of New York's working class neighborhoods. (Hopper's inclusion in the group [which he forswore] is ironic: his depictions of city streets are almost entirely free of the usual minutiae, with not a single incidental ashcan in sight.)
In 1905, Luks painted what would become one of his most famous works as well as an Ashcan School icon, "The Spielers", which is now in the Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art
The Addison Gallery of American Art, as a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art...
. Two young girls make up this painting. Their happy faces contrast with their grimy hands. George Luks successfully portrays lower-class children's ability to enjoy life despite their circumstances. He painted the truth, as he saw it. In regard to color, Luks said himself when interviewed, "I'll tell you the whole secret! Color is simply light and shade. You don't need pink or grey or blue so long as you have volume. Pink and blue change with light or time. Volume endures."
Although Luks is most well known for his depictions of New York City life, he also created landscapes the city provided, such as The New York River, New York 1910. His visual perception
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
was very fine and emphasized character through the use of his vivid color. An example of his later work, Society Girl (c. 1920s), interpreted wealth, and the importance of society which was an important aspect in portrait painting seen as far back as in the works of John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts, and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects...
. The Cafe Francis 1906, has more impressionist aspects than his usual dark scenes of lower-class urban life. For example, Sulky Boy (1908, Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
, Washington D.C.) depicts the son of a doctor at Bellevue Hospital who treated Luks for alcoholism. It was noted that Luks was more concerned with depicting the boy's demeanor rather than the accurate representation of the surroundings.
Personality
Luks was a born rebel. He prided himself on being the "bad boy" of American Art, and downplayed Henri's influence on his artistic development. Luks was a heavy drinker, and his friend, one-time roommate and fellow member of "The Eight", William Glackens, often had to undress him and haul him to bed after a night of drunken debauchery. Although many sources confirm this tendency, they also equally characterize him as one with a kind heart who befriended people on the street who often became his subjects for his works of art. An example of this is The Rag Picker (1905), in which Luks depicted exquisite details of the elderly homeless person who knew all too well of the harsh realities of the street. Luks's friends adored him because of his humor and the way he inspired them. They understood and accepted his unusualness.Exhibitions
1904- An exhibition at the National Arts Club of works by Luks, Glackens, Henri, Sloan, Davies and Prendergast opened in early January 1904.1908- George Luks was included in the exhibition of "The Eight" in January 1908.
1913- Luks had had six works included in the 1913 Armory Show.
1997- George Luks Exhibition, Owen Gallery, 19 East 75th Street, October 25 to December 17, 1997.
2007- Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists’ Brush with Leisure, 1895–1925, The Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
Death
Luks was found dead by a police officer in October, 1933 after he had died in the early hours of the morning after a bar room brawl. Ira Glackens, the son of William Glackens, wrote of his recollection of Luks's death, stating that the papers proclaimed George was found dead at the doorway when he had planned on going to paint the dawn, when in actuality, the harmless old man had been beaten to death by one of the other customers at the bar. In reference to his funeral, it was crowded by family and past and present friends. He was buried in an eighteenth-century embroidered waistcoat that was one of his most important and valuable possessions. According to newspaper reports, Luks funeral took place in New York City on Broadway 31-Oct-1933. His body was then transferred for burial via the Reading Railroad, Philadelphia PA to Royersford PA on the 11:25 train. A brief ceremony took place and he was buried with his late parents, Mr. & Mrs. Emil Luks. Fernwood Cemetery.Selected list of artworks
The Butcher Cart, 1901The Spielers, 1905, Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art
The Addison Gallery of American Art, as a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art...
The Rag Picker, 1905
Hester Street, 1905, Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
The Cafe Francis, 1906, Butler Institute of American Art
Butler Institute of American Art
The Butler Institute of American Art, located on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, was the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art. Established by local industrialist and philanthropist Joseph G. Butler, Jr., the museum has been operating pro bono since 1919...
Woman with Macaws, 1907, Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
Sulky Boy, 1908, Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
in Washington D.C.
The Guitar (Portrait of the Artist’s Brother with his Son), 1908, Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Westmoreland Museum of American Art
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is an art museum in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, devoted to American art, with a particular concentration on the art of southwestern Pennsylvania....
The New York River, New York 1910
Nursemaids, High Bridge Park