130th Anniversary / Art Students League of New York

Tuesday, 20 September 2005 09:59

NEW YORK.-Seventeen New York art galleries will honor the Art Students League of New York by mounting exhibitions celebrating its 130th anniversary. The shows will run for varying periods during September, October and November, presenting work by artists who taught or studied at “the League.” Both instructors and alumni of the League were among the luminaries of 20th-century American art. A young Georgia O’Keeffe studied painting there with William Merritt Chase. Jackson Pollock and Fairfield Porter worked with Thomas Hart Benton, and David Smith and Burgoyne Diller enrolled in a class taught by modernist Jan Matulka. Ira Goldberg, the League’s Executive Director, was moved by the positive response the League received from the community of New York art galleries. He remarked that, “Throughout its history, the League has been associated with some of the greatest names in American art, many of whom have been represented by the finest galleries in the City. We are proud to have a good number of those galleries sharing in the celebration of the League’s 130th anniversary, with wonderful exhibitions that focus on the League artists they represent, including current and former instructors as well as our famous alumni. " For its part, the League will mark the occasion of its 130th year with The League Then and Now, an exhibition of outstanding student work – early and recent – from its permanent collection, complemented by archival photos and ephemera. Georgia O’Keeffe’s still life that earned her a scholarship in the William Merritt Chase class in 1908 will be displayed, as will Norman Rockwell’s charcoal sketch illustrating “The Deserted Village,” done when he was 17. Other artists represented include Eugene Speicher, Jan Matulka, Augustus Vincent Tack and Will Barnet.

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