No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Painting of Jack Levine and the Politics of Criticism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
Extract
Jack Levine's Feast of Pure Reason (Figure 1) established him at the forefront of the New York art world when he was just twenty-two years old. Levine's meteoric rise in the years before the Second World War is evidenced by his inclusion in key exhibitions during that time as well as by critical acclaim in both the art magazines and the popular press. Art News went so far as to dub him the “dazzling newcomer.” In the years following the war, however, the art establishment's consensus on Levine's work went through a dramatic reversal. Just how complete was this turnaround is plainly visible in a review, also in Art News from 1955, where Levine's painting was described as “unlikable … tired, thin and lacking in wit.”
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005
References
Notes
1. Jack Levine, interview by the author, New York City, April 17, 2004.
2. Davidson, Martha, “Levine: Epic Painting in a First One-man Showing,” Art News 37 (01 1939): 12Google Scholar.
3. Farber, Manny, “Jack Levine,” Art News 54 (03 1955): 33Google Scholar.
4. Donovan, Robert J., “President Is Critical of Art for Moscow,” New York Herald Tribune, 07 2, 1959, 6Google Scholar.
5. Art Digest 11 (10 1, 1936): cover pageGoogle Scholar; and Mumford, Lewis, “The Art Galleries,” New Yorker 10 (10 10, 1936): 23Google Scholar.
6. “Twelve,” Time 30 (10 18, 1937): 37Google Scholar.
7. Davidson, , “Levine: Epic Painting,” 12Google Scholar.
8. Donovan, , “President Is Critical,” 33Google Scholar.
9. Kramer, Hilton, “Bloom and Levine: The Hazards of Modern Painting,” Commentary 19 (06 1955): 583Google Scholar.
10. Boswell, Peyton, Modern American Painting (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1939), 11, 69Google Scholar.
11. Ibid., 48.
12. Ibid., 60.
13. Ibid., 79.
14. Hunter, Sam, Modern American Painting and Sculpture (New York: Dell 1959), 160Google Scholar.
15. Ibid., 107.
16. Ibid., 119.
17. Ibid. 119–120.
18. Ibid. 121.
19. Quoted in Lynes, Russel, Good Old Modern: An Intimate Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art (New York: Athenaeum, 1973), 250Google Scholar.
20. Quoted in ibid.
21. Jack Levine, interview by the author, New York City, April 17, 2004.
22. Ibid. When asked by this author if the artist did not appreciate the monumental works of Jackson Pollock, he replied sardonically, “Look, I didn't accept Jesus Christ and I don't have to accept Jackson Pollock.”
23. Cockcroft, Eva, “Abstract Expressionism, Weapon of the Cold War,” Artforum 12 (06 1974): 39Google Scholar. This cold war thesis is expanded on by Guilbaut, Serge in How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983)Google Scholar, and most recently and exhaustively by Saunders, Frances Stoner in Who Paid the Piper: The Cultural Cold War and the World of Arts and Letters (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999)Google Scholar.
24. Kozloff, Max, “American Painting During the Cold War,” Artforum 11 (05 1973):45Google Scholar.
25. Ibid., 144.
26. Mecklenberg, Virginia, “A Controversy in Style,” in Advancing American Art (Montgomery, Ala.: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1984), 35Google Scholar.
27. Quoted in ibid.
28. Hauptman, William, “The Suppression of Art in the McCarthy Decade,” Artforum 73 (10 1973): 48Google Scholar.
29. “Your Money Bought These Paintings,” Look 29 (02 18, 1947), 80–81Google Scholar; and “It's Striking, But Is It Art or Extravagance?” Newsweek 30 (08 25, 1947): 17Google Scholar.
30. Quoted in Hauptman, , “Suppression of Art,” 49Google Scholar.
31. Dame, Lawrence, “Moderns Protest,” Art Digest 22 (04 1948): 33Google Scholar.
32. Hauptman, , “Suppression of Art,” 50Google Scholar.
33. Barr, Alfred, “Is Modern Art Communistic?” New York Times Magazine, 12 14, 1951, 22Google Scholar.
34. Cockcroft, , “Abstract Expressionism,” 38Google Scholar.
35. De Hart Matthews, Jane, “Art and Politics in Cold War America,” American Historical Review 81 (10 1976): 778CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36. Jack Levine, interview by the author, New York City, July 23, 2004.
37. Donovan, , “President Is Critical,” 6Google Scholar.
38. Jack Levine, interview by the author, New York City, July 23, 2004.