Ashcan artists depict leisure.(Current and coming)(Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists' Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925)

Around the turn of the twentieth century a group of American artists (Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Ernest Lawson, Maurice B. Prendergast, and Everett Shinn) were disappointed by the conservative nature of traditional exhibition venues such as the National Academy of Design. In reaction, they formed a loose association known as the Eight with the hope of finding alternative locations in which to show their work. They first exhibited together in 1908 at New York City's Macbeth Galleries, and some years later, in 1916, they and several of their followers were dubbed the Ashcan school--a name associated with the gritty urban subject matter for which they are largely known. However this moniker is somewhat of a misnomer, for the Ashcan artists also painted sunnier subjects: individuals enjoying leisure activities, such as watching or engaging in sporting events (horse racing, tennis, golf, boxing, wrestling, polo, croquet, ice skating, roller skating, sledding, and baseball); the theater; dining or drinking in saloons and restaurants; shopping; dancing; and relaxing in parks and at beaches. Other aspects of entertainment, such as the cinema, vaudeville shows, carnivals, and the circus, were also fair game for these artists and the next generation as well.

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A traveling exhibition entitled Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists' Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925 presents seventy paintings by twenty-two artists. Organized by the ...