George Luks
American, (1867–1933)
George Luks' lack of sentimentality and his understanding of the cruder and coarser strata of civilization made him one of the most powerful realists of the Ashcan School, the group of painters who were tremendously influential in creating realism in twentieth century American painting.
Luks' habit of embroidering or even manufacturing his past makes it difficult to trace his life. The son of two amateur painters, he was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1867. His father was a doctor. In 1884, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. He then proceeded to Europe to study in Dusseldorf, Paris and London.
In 1894, Luks joined the art department of the Philadelphia Press. He covered the Cuban front as artist correspondent for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in 1896. He also did comic strips and caricatures. With Everett Shinn, William Glackens, John Sloan and their mentor Robert Henri, Luks became one of the famous Eight. This group was later known as the Ashcan School, for the darkness of their palette and the urban dinginess of their subject matter. Luks drew his technique from Frans Hals and Rembrandt, and his subjects from the city streets.
He continued to work as a newspaper artist, the equivalent of today's news photographer. As one by one his fellow artists left Philadelphia for New York City, he joined the New York World as a cartoonist. Simultaneously, Luks developed into an accomplished painter, working swiftly and with great energy. His street urchins, wrestlers and coal miners were painted with brutal vitality and uncompromising affection. The Wrestlers (1905, location unknown), perhaps his most widely reproduced work, illustrates both his ability to capture with absolute clarity the essence of a moment, and his reckless and slapdask approach to technique and anatomy.
In 1908, with Maurice Prendergase, Ernest Lawson and Arthur B. Davies, Luks and the other members of his group exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in New York City, a show which was intended as a rebuke to the conservative art establishment. This show by The Eight became a rallying point for the forces of change, which eventually resulted in the Armory Show of 1913, in which Luks also exhibited. Ironically, the Vigor and new ideas of the modernist foreign painters who participated in the Armory Show overshadowed the American realists who had organized it, and Luks and his friends were passed by.
Luks taught for several years at the Art Students League, and then founded his own school, where the students divided their time between painting under his inspiration and keeping their bellicose master under control. Luks was found dead in a New York street at age 66.
MEMBERSHIPS:
American Painters and Sculptors
National Association of Portrait Painters
New York Water Color Club
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Barnes Museum, Merion, Pennsylvania
Brooklyn Museum
Chattanooga Art Association
Cleveland Art Museum
Delgado Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
Detroit Art Institute
Harrison Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY
Milwaukee Art Institute
Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Gallery, Washington, DC
New York Public Library, New York City
Phillips Gallery, Washington, DC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
American, (1867–1933)
George Luks' lack of sentimentality and his understanding of the cruder and coarser strata of civilization made him one of the most powerful realists of the Ashcan School, the group of painters who were tremendously influential in creating realism in twentieth century American painting.
Luks' habit of embroidering or even manufacturing his past makes it difficult to trace his life. The son of two amateur painters, he was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1867. His father was a doctor. In 1884, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. He then proceeded to Europe to study in Dusseldorf, Paris and London.
In 1894, Luks joined the art department of the Philadelphia Press. He covered the Cuban front as artist correspondent for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in 1896. He also did comic strips and caricatures. With Everett Shinn, William Glackens, John Sloan and their mentor Robert Henri, Luks became one of the famous Eight. This group was later known as the Ashcan School, for the darkness of their palette and the urban dinginess of their subject matter. Luks drew his technique from Frans Hals and Rembrandt, and his subjects from the city streets.
He continued to work as a newspaper artist, the equivalent of today's news photographer. As one by one his fellow artists left Philadelphia for New York City, he joined the New York World as a cartoonist. Simultaneously, Luks developed into an accomplished painter, working swiftly and with great energy. His street urchins, wrestlers and coal miners were painted with brutal vitality and uncompromising affection. The Wrestlers (1905, location unknown), perhaps his most widely reproduced work, illustrates both his ability to capture with absolute clarity the essence of a moment, and his reckless and slapdask approach to technique and anatomy.
In 1908, with Maurice Prendergase, Ernest Lawson and Arthur B. Davies, Luks and the other members of his group exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in New York City, a show which was intended as a rebuke to the conservative art establishment. This show by The Eight became a rallying point for the forces of change, which eventually resulted in the Armory Show of 1913, in which Luks also exhibited. Ironically, the Vigor and new ideas of the modernist foreign painters who participated in the Armory Show overshadowed the American realists who had organized it, and Luks and his friends were passed by.
Luks taught for several years at the Art Students League, and then founded his own school, where the students divided their time between painting under his inspiration and keeping their bellicose master under control. Luks was found dead in a New York street at age 66.
MEMBERSHIPS:
American Painters and Sculptors
National Association of Portrait Painters
New York Water Color Club
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Barnes Museum, Merion, Pennsylvania
Brooklyn Museum
Chattanooga Art Association
Cleveland Art Museum
Delgado Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
Detroit Art Institute
Harrison Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY
Milwaukee Art Institute
Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Gallery, Washington, DC
New York Public Library, New York City
Phillips Gallery, Washington, DC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Artist Objects
Woman in Hat 2006.007
Artist Images