Jack Levine Bio

Jack Levine: 1915 – 2010

Jack Levine was born in Boston in 1915.  Early renderings of his tough, immigrant South End neighborhood drew the attention of his teachers at the Boston Museum of Fine Art.  His talent inspired Dr. Denman Ross of Harvard University to offer tutelage, studio space and weekly stipends to help nurture his development.  Levine’s drawings earned him a first exhibition at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum in 1932 when he was seventeen.

Mr. Levine’s style was unique, raw and explosive.  He became well known for his unflinchingly satirical eye and merciless portrayals of crooked politicians, corrupt cops, and other players on the urban stage.  A formidable grasp of art history and technique enabled him to achieve qualities of opacity, transparency and luminosity that recalled the Old Masters he studied and greatly admired.  By the late 1930’s Levine’s brand of Social Realism and Expressionism set him apart from his contemporaries and established him in the top rank of American painters.

While employed by the WPA (1935-1937), his paintings Card Game and BrainTrust were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1936.  A year later both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum acquired major Levine paintings –The Feast of Pure Reason and String Quartet.  The artist’s first one-man exhibition was held at New York’s Downtown Gallery in 1938.

Prompted by the sorrow at the death of his father in 1939, Mr. Levine expanded the scope of his work as he explored religious and biblical themes.   After a stint in the Army in 1942, Levine married the artist Ruth Gikow.  They settled in New York City where Mr. Levine continued to live and work until his death.  In 1952 Mr. Levine was the subject of a major retrospective, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Phillips Collection, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

A second retrospective of Levine’s work opened in 1979 at the Jewish Museum in New York and then traveled to four other American Museums.  In the 1980’s Levine was the subject of the David Sutherland documentary film Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason and a monograph Jack Levine on Jack Levine published by Rizzoli Books.  An exhibition of Mr. Levine’s latest paintings was held in New York City at the Midtown Payson Gallery in the spring of 1993.  Mr. Levine was recently elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Printmaking became an important facet of Levine’s work in the 1960’s.  Using painterly techniques of layering and building up of image upon image within a work, Levine adds further character and depth to his prints by combining techniques of etching, drypoint, mezzotint and aquatint. These prints display the full range of Levine’s imagination and give us another way to experience the impact of his sophisticated commentary on our collective social, political and spiritual lives.

“I am primarily concerned with the condition of man.  The satirical direction I have chosen is an indication of my disappointment in man, which is the opposite way of saying that I have high expectations for the human race.”     -Jack Levine

BORN

1915, Boston, Massachusetts

DIED

2010, New York, New York

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Jack Levine, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ongunquit, ME, 2011

Jack Levine, DC Moore Gallery, NY, NY, 2010

Jack Levine: Works on Paper, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2006

Jack Levine at 90, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, 2005

Jack Levine: America’s Living Master, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2004

A Voice of Conscience: The Prints of Jack Levine, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, 1999

Jack Levine: Commitment & Ambivalence, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, 1998

Jack Levine, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1994

Jack Levine, Midtown Payson Galleries, New York, NY, 1993

Jack Levine, Museum of Art of Ogunquit, Ogunquit, ME, 1992

Jack Levine:  Etchings and Lithographs, St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA, 1992

Jack Levine:  An Overview 1930-1990, Midtown Payson Galleries, NY, 1990

Jack Levine: Retrospective Exhibition 1979-80, The Jewish Museum, NY, 1979. Traveled to: Norton Gallery and School of Art, West

Palm Beach, FL, 1979; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis,TN, 1979; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL, 1979; Portland,

OR, 1979,  Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MN, 1979-80

Kennedy Galleries, NY, 1972, 1975

Jack Levine: Opera Graphica, Galleria d’Arte il Gabbiano, Rome, 1968,

Jack Levine: Retrospective Exhibition, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, 1968

Jack Levine: Dreigroschenfilm, Galeria Coliri, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1968

Instituto Nacional de Bellas Arts, Mexico City, 1960

49th Annual Exhibition: Paintings by Jack Levine, Randolph Macon Women’s College, Lynchburg, VA, 1960

Colby College, Waterville, ME, 1956

The Allan Gallery, NY, 1953

Jack Levine Retrospective Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, 1952.  Traveled to: The  Currier  Gallery of Art,

Manchester, NH, 1952; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO, 1953; Akron Art Institute, OH, 1953;

The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, 1953; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 1955

Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, MA, 1950

The Downtown Gallery, NY, 1939, 1948

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

The Feast of Pure Reason: Expressionism in Boston, Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA, 2010

Revealing Images, Midtown Payson Galleries, New York, NY, 1997

Ruth Gikow and Jack Levine, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1997

Modernism and American Painting, Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, AL, 1993

National Academy of Design,168th Annual Exhibition,1993

The Art of Protest, Benton Gallery, Southampton, NY, 1993

In The Classical Vein: Works from the Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 1993

An American Experience, The Barbara Scott Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, FL, 1992

Figurative Works from the Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 1992

Museum of Modern Art, NY, Art of the Forties, 1991

Men of Rebellion: The Eight and their Associates, Phillips Collection, 1990

Chagall to Kitaj:  Jewish Experience in the Art of the 20th Century, Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Center, London, England, 1990

20th Century American Realism from the Blum Collection, Aetna Institute Gallery, Hartford, CT, 1988

The Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, NY, Two Hundred Years of American Art, Traveled to: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts,

Montgomery, AL; The R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, LA; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Sunrise

Museums, Charleston, West VA; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX;

Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK, 1987-1988

The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Modern American Realism, The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 1987

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, The Figure in Twentieth Century American Art, 1984

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, IA, Twentieth Century American Masters, 1911-1957, 1982

The Jewish Museum, NY, The Schulman Collection of 20th Century American Art, 1985

Decordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, Expressionism in Boston: 1945-1985, 1985.

Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, American Masters of the Twentieth Century. Traveled to: Terra Museum of American Art,

Evanston, IL, 1982

Rutgers University Art Gallery, Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American Painting, 1940-1960, 1982

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park MD, 1982

The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, American Figure Painting 1950-1980, 1980

Representations of America, co-organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

Traveled to: Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 1977-78; Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, 1978,

Palace of Art, Minsk, 1978

The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, Jewish Experience in the Art of the Twentieth Century, 1975-76

The American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, Annual Ceremonial and

Exhibition of Works by Newly Elected Members, 1974

The Museum of Modern Art, The Artist as Adversary, 1971

Whitney Museum of American Art, The 1930’s:  Painting and Sculpture in America, 1968

Vatican Museum, Rome, American Graphics Exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Vatican Museums, 1967

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Two Hundred and Fifty Years of American Art, 1966

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Three Centuries of American Painting, 1965

Galleria George Lester, Rome, Paintings, Jack Levine, The Judgment of Paris; Collages, Nathan Oliveira, 1964

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Paintings from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1963-64

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, England, The Dunn International: An Exhibition of Contemporary Painting.

Traveled to Tate Gallery, London, 1963

ART : USA : NOW: The Johnson Collection of Contemporary American Paintings, organized by S.C. Johnson and

Son, Inc. Traveled to U.S. cities, Europe, and Japan for five years, 1962-66

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Nate and Frances Spingold Collection, 1960

Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum and Its Friends:  Eighteen Living American Artists Selected by the Friends of the

Whitney Museum, 1959

American Painting and Sculpture, organized by the U.S. Department of State; opened in Moscow, U.S.S.R., 1959

Association of Museums in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 American Artists, sponsored by the Whitney Museum of American Art and American

Federation of the Arts, New York, NY, 1959

Fulbright Painters, organized by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and traveled to 20 U.S. cities; opened at the Whitney

Museum of American Art, New York, 1958-59

Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, I Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado, 1958

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 20th Century Painting and Sculpture from Philadelphia, Private Collections, 1958

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, First Annual Guggenheim International Award Exhibition, 1957

Modern Art in the U.S.A., organized by the Museum of Modern Art, 1955-56. Traveled to Musee National d’Art Moderno, Barcelona;

Haus des Deutschen Kunsthandwerks, Frankfurt; The Tate Gallery, London, 1956; Gemmetemuseum, The Hague, 1956;

Neue Gallerie in der Stallburg, Vienna, 1956; Kalemagdan Pavilion, Belgrade, 1956

Venice, 27th Biennale di Venezia, 1956

Seattle Art Museum, WA., Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, 1953

Whitney Museum of American Art, Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection. Traveled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, 1952

Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, Brazil, I Sao Paulo Bienal, 1951

The Art Institute of Chicago, 60th Annual Exhibition:  Paintings and Sculpture, 1951.  Also represented in the Art Institute of Chicago’s

annual exhibitions of 1959 and 1964

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Painting Today, 1950

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, American Painting in Our Century. Traveled to 5 U.S. institutions, 1949- 50

University of Illinois, Urbana, Contemporary American Painting, 1949-50

American Industry Sponsors Art, organized by the U.S. Department of State. Traveled to five U.S. cities, 1947-48

The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Anniversary Exhibition, 1947

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 30 Massachusetts Painters in 1947, 1947

National Academy of Design, New York, NY, Second Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Drawing, 1946

The Tate Gallery, London, American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, 1946

Encyclopedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting, organized by Encyclopedia Britannica,

Inc., Chicago, IL, opened at the Art Institute of Chicago and traveled to 36 U.S. cities, 1945-48

Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, WI, Masters of Contemporary American Painting, 1943

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings, 1943 (also 1947, 1959)

The Museum of Modern Art, Americans 1942, 18 Artists from 9 States. Traveled to The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1942

City Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, Thirty-Sixth Annual American Exhibition: Trends in American Painting of Today, 1942

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Artists for Victory: Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, 1942

Pennsylvania Academy Annual Exhibitions, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951,1952, 1954, 1956,1957, 1958, 1962, 1964,

1966, 1967, 1968

The Museum of Modern Art, Thirty Five Under Thirty Five, (traveled to eight other U.S. institutions), 1940-41

The Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with the WPA Federal Art Program, Four American Traveling Exhibitions, 1940

Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Survey of American Painting, 1940

135th Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, 1940

Carnegie Institute Annual Exhibitions, 1939, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1955

American Art Today, New York World’s Fair, 1939

Tenth Anniversary Exhibition: Art in our Time, The Museum of Modern Art, 1939

Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1945, 1948,

1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967

Three Centuries of American Art organized by the Museum of Modern Art, exhibited: Musee du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1938

International Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, 1938

Twelve Young American Painters, The Downtown Gallery, NY, 1937

New Horizons in American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1936

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

Addison Gallery of American Art, Philips Academy, Andover, MA

The Art Institute of Chicago, IL

The Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME

DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Lincoln, MA

Des Moines Art Center, IA

Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, KS

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, NY

Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, Lynchburg, VA

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MN

The Montclair Art Museum, NJ

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL

Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of Modern Art, Utica, NY

Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, NY

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ

The Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Portland Art Museum, OR

Reed College, Portland, OR

Reynolda House, Winston-Salem, NC

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA

Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA

Seattle Art Museum, WA

Sheldon Swope Art Gallery, Terre Haute, IN

Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland

University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA

University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Lincoln, NE

Vatican Museums, Rome

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

The Wichita Art Museum, KS

William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

FILMS:

Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason, produced and directed by David Sutherland, 1985.

Jack Levine by Zina Voynow, Peter Robinson, and Herman J. Engel, 1963, produced by Zina Voynow.