Influential Instructors: Historical Teachers at the Art Students League

Alice Neel The Family, 1982 Lithograph in colors on Arches paper Sheet 31 1/2 x 27 inches AP 20/25 Signed and dated lower right and numbered "AP 20/25" lower left in pencil
Alice Neel
The Family, 1982
Lithograph in colors on Arches paper
Sheet 31 1/2 x 27 inches
AP 20/25
Signed and dated lower right and numbered "AP 20/25" lower left in pencil

After jointly presenting an exhibition of artists belonging to the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) this past spring, Lincoln Glenn and Graham Shay galleries return to recognize the contributions of some of the historical instructors of the Art Students League. From Frank Vincent DuMond to Adolph Gottlieb, Paul Manship to Charles Alston, Charles Hawthorne to Wolf Kahn, Guy Pene du Bois to Augustus Saint-Gaudens instructors of the Art Students League have had a profound influence in molding American art. It was founded in 1875 due to artists’ increasing dissatisfaction with the National Academy’s conservative and traditional leaning. During its noted history, the League has served as an institution run by artists in support of artists. The present exhibition displays a wide array of genres, periods, media, and artists associated with teaching “League” classes in celebration of its 150th anniversary.

 

The League opened at 108 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 16th Street, and held its first classes in half a room on the building’s top floor. The school, which offered life drawing classes every day of the week, was membership-based. There were no grades, no set courses, and no degrees offered. Instead, the League was run like a French atelier, promising small classes and granted the instructor a studio and the freedom to teach whatever he deemed appropriate. As membership continued to increase, the League relocated to increasingly larger spaces. In recent years, the legacy of the school remains, as the League continues to educate a wide variety of young artists, both professional and amateur.

 

Some of the other faculty represented in the exhibition includes Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Al Loving, Kikuo Saito, Chaim Gross, William Zorach, Everett Shinn, Jose de Creeft, Theodore Stamos, Max Weber, and Jacob Lawrence. The exhibit will explore the variety of artistic expressions of Arts Students Legue Instructors, through over a century of artistic production.

 

Lincoln Glenn’s exhibition will be on display January 16 - February 28 at 17 East 67th Street, and the gallery will be open to visitors from 10 am – 6 pm on Mondays-Saturdays. The exhibition will be accompanied by a complimentary catalogue with an essay by Jonathan Spies. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 16th from 5:30-7:30pm.

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