Who Were “The Immortal Eight”?

The Ashcan School emerged from a variety of complex social and political factors. The influx of immigrants into the cities created a new urban culture, the onslaught of the Industrial Era, (that pitted workers against employers in a fight for fair wages and safe working conditions), and the politics of the Progressive Era all made the climate ripe for a new artistic movement; one that demanded a truthful and more inclusive portrayal of the realities of urban life.

The driving force behind this controversial group of artists known as the Immortal Eight was a desire to portray the realities of everyday life, even those that were not so pleasant.  They painted a diverse and complex world and forced an often unwilling audience to face a picture of reality that they would rather not see.  

Famous Quotes From a Few of the Eight

Robert Henri, 1865 – 1921

“Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. All the past can help you.” - Robert Henri,

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_henri.html

George Bellows, 1882 – 1925

"Strength-- a great, broad, bulging muscular strength with all its imperfections and crudities, its advantages and its disadvantages largely thrown at you in the raw, so to speak, by apparent sincerity of purpose."

Source: Charles L. Buchanan, "George Bellows: Painter of Democracy”, Arts and Decoration IV (August 1914: 370)

William Glackens, 1870 – 1938

"If historians of the future wish to know what [the] America of city streets was like at the turn of the century, they only have to look at these drawings. Glackens mirrored life and reported it realistically."

Source: Everett Shinn, “Glackens as an Illustrator”, American Artist IX (Nov. 1945:22.)

George Luks, 1867 – 1933

Luks grew up in the coalmines of east-central Pennsylvania.  He enjoyed life to the fullest.  Luks once claimed, "I can paint with a shoestring dipped in pitch and lard.  Technique, do you say?  My slats!  Say, listen you -- it's in you or it isn't.  Who taught Shakespeare technique? Guts!  Guts!  Life!  Life!  That’s my technique."

Source: Perlman, Painters of the Ashcan School: The Immortal Eight, (1979).

Use the following links to learn more about the Ashcan Eight.

http://www.sohoart.com/ashcan.htm

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/ashcan.html

http://www.virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofart/hallofartmovements/ashcanschool.net/

http://wwar.com/masters/movements/ash_can_school.html

The following link describes how the socialist magazine titled The Masses helped to forge an alliance between art and politics.

Click here to view John Sloan’s depiction of the Ludlow Massacre on the cover of The Masses.

Once at the site, click on Year 1914 on the left menu and then click on the month of June.