The Eight and the Ashcan School - Essay Example

The Ashcan artists and their impact on the art. 2007 Outline: A) New York as a of changes. B) “The Ashcan school” and "the Eight." C) Opposition to the academic art. The Armory Show. D) New York as an attraction to Ashcan artists. The subject matters of Ashcans: 1. People in all their versatility; 2. depiction of the ordinary and realities of everyday life; 3. the urban life scenes; 4. immigrants’ life; 5. women’ role depiction; 6. entertainment industry; 7. masculinity depiction. E) Unconventional for Ashcan artists subjects. F) Conclusion The early 20th century was time of rapid changes - railroads and the first electric subway line in New York City, the expansion of the telephone and telegraph, the start of the automobile industry, first successful airplane flight, and innovations in science and medicine. During this time the way of surviving was seen in moving to city. At the turn of the twentieth century New York was a busy place where thousands of immigrants landed every day. It was a shipping, manufacturing, and business centre. It also was a city of contrasts where past and present merged in a single inseparable unity. “This was a city of social shifts, cultural transformations, even changing geography.” 1 It is not only that commercial and residential boundaries of New York changed but perceptions and public views were undergoing rapid changes. It was a favorable milieu for the formation of popular culture. New York was growing in size, its population was diversifying. Many ethnic groups mixed together contributing to creation of new forms of artist expression, reflecting changing social relationships.2 The early 20th century witnessed a radical change in American painting. This was not a change in attitude toward painting but in attitude toward life. It was a journalists revolution originating from Philadelphia.3 New York City with financial growth explosion, office work for women and the sweatshops for immigrants – all these conditions brought young newspaper illustrators to develop their careers as fine artists in New York getting away from the conservative, static art establishment of Philadelphia. 4 The rapidly changing scenes of New York as it is were captured by artists who are better known as "the Eight": Robert Henri, Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, and George Luks. “These artists framed a contemporary realism that explored the drama, humor and exoticism of life in the turbulent metropolis.” 5 “The Ashcan school” which united "the Eight" and a number of other artists took roots in Philadelphia under the leadership of Henri. In Philadelphia, Henris rebellious nature made him "a catalyst, an enthusiast ... with the pioneers contempt for cant and aestheticism" for a cohort of young artists. 6 America was still highly conservative concerning academic art. Repressive academic practices dominated art circles. If an artist wanted his works to be exhibited or sold, he needed to be a member of the National Academy of Design which promoted beaux-arts technique and neo-classical historicism ‘discriminating against all innovative concepts, controversial subject matter, and progressive styles of painting.’ 7 The National Academy was not open to liberal and modern ideas of the artists who professed no-prize, open policy which, as the latter deemed, fostered creative atmosphere. Rude realism, which was in the focus of the Ashcan artists’ attention, was opposed by academics. It is no wonder that the term "Ashcan School" introduced by the art critic and historian Holger Cahill comes from the meaning of ash can as a garbage can. 8 In 1904 Henri and his four pupils Sloan, Glackens, Shinn and Luks who were newspaper illustrators migrated to New York - the "shock city," with its skyscrapers, subways, theaters and nightclubs. All of them were newspaper or magazine illustrators but for Henri. That’s why they ‘brought a journalists concern for topicality and a sharp eye for fleeting detail to their interpretations of the city in flux.’9 The painters had a reporters eye which observed the city of a change which was New York. They ‘breathed the atmosphere of the city desk’ painting ‘the waterfront, the slum, the saloon, the restless life of sidestreet and alleys.’ This was a war to the waning decorum of the last century.10 It is true that the vital ingredient in the artists success was journalism. The same is true for their literary counterparts who moved from journalism to writing novels and short stories in a spirit of realism - Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and Stephen Crane. 11 Robert Henris painting reputation was often not considered when it was about his ‘influential leadership and inspirational tutelage.’ He devoted himself more to portraiture. His canvases convey reverence for all mankind in all its diversity. He interprets human life with a freedom and vitality. His expressive line, color, and rapid, animated brushwork render fresh characterizations and the discrete personalities.12 Henri’s Dancer in a Yellow Shawl (1908) is a vivid example of his blend of genre painting and portraiture. He was a master of ‘emphatic brushstrokes, theatrical subject, and contrasting lights and darks.’13 Henri, being a leader and thus a teacher, promoted the search of subject in everyday life. He urged his pupils to look for subjects on the streets of New York City. His models were common people whom he met in New York streets and parks. Among others who formed the Ashcan school was George Bellows. The style of Ernest Lawson, Arthur B. Davies, and Maurice Prendergast works is incompatible with The Eight artists. However, they were all united by one thing – ideological opposition to academic art and longing for independence of progressive art. Though the artists were not stylistically uniform the common feature which united all of them was devotion to artistic independence and a free exhibition of their works.14 Though some works of “The Eight” artists were exhibited at the Academys annual exhibitions, the majority of artists preferred independently organized alternative exhibitions. The Ashcan was not a formal organization. Though, it was a powerful tool to undermine the conservative National Academys approach towards artistic matters. They were creators of a new standard allowing unrestricted freedom of expression. The Ashcan artists were interested in the urban lifestyles and particularly attracted by the inhabitants of the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village. Of course, high art opposed the subjects which the Ashcan artists chose for the depiction and this group of painters rebelled against academic art, featuring everyday life scenes – people in the streets, nightclubs, immigrants, sporting events, etc. A 1901 gallery show at the Allan Gallery in New York City included the works of six artists (Henri, Glackens, Davies, Sloan, Luks, and Prendergast) out of eight exhibiting their works. Though the exhibition did not get critical evaluation, the broad press coverage was guaranteed. At 82nd annual exhibition of the National Academy Henri had a conflict with fellow jurors, when painting by George Luks was rejected by the jury. Henri refused to be in jury, withdrew two of his three entries. As a sign of protest he organized an exhibition known as “Eight” at Macbeth Galleries in 1908.15 This was a public proof of Henris rupture with the National Academy. Besides, it was a great financial success. The works were presented to the national audience in the tour to a number of cities - Philadelphia, Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, and Newark.16 The furor created by The Eight exhibition was a serious threat to the Academys Spring Exhibition. No exhibition had ever produced such widespread consequences as the Eight show. Afterwards the painters were considered avant-garde and unacademic if their work resembled the art of The Eight. Henri associates soon got labeled as a newly found American school of painting.17 This was the first break with derivative, eclectic tradition “vaguely cosmopolitan and generally anemic” controlling American art at that period. This was not the first rebellion of the artists against the tyranny of the National Academy - for example, the revolt of “The Ten” in 1898. However, the actions the Eight triggered a long train of consequences.18 The National Academy could not cope with the situation. However, it took efforts to ‘improve art conditions in America.’ The meeting was called to deal with problems of ‘molding public taste, organizing exhibitions, and sending art lecturers around the country.’19 But the tide could not be stopped anymore. In 1910 the first non-jury show was organized and the Society of Independent Artists was created. The Society of Independent Artists was an independent organization which held annual exhibitions, the frequent participants of which were Henri and many his associates. The Society provided a free access to progressive artists, non-restrictive and tolerant venue for progressive art. More important consequence was Armory Show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. This show set a landmark in the American painting discovering to the public works of Post-impressionists and Impressionists, Expressionists, Fauves, and Cubists. As Tapp (2005) writes: “The 1913 Armory Show had ushered in new avenues for art — Cubism, Fauvism, German Expressionism and modernism.” The provocative works presented at the show were shocking to the regular visitors and critics. The show contained approximately 1,300 works, the majority of which were by American artists. European avant-garde was also introduced. 20 The Ashcan School which was a venue of the progressive arts moved the train of independent artists along with other culture representatives of the day such as Theodore Dreiser, John Reed and Lincoln Steffens. They recognized that the city forms a new American way of life –the life of streets and individual people who created American history and initiated cultural changes. These artists with their focus on common people built a democratic view of American culture.21 The constant rapid changes of a big city fascinated the Ashcan artists who ‘probed the drama and humor of daily life in the city.’22 As the author of Art and Life in America Oliver Larkin wrote in 1949: theirs is an art of “types, localities, and incidents to which Americans were conveniently deaf and blind [as subjects for art] . . . drunks and slatterns, pushcart peddlers and coal mines, bedrooms and barrooms.”23 The power and energy of manufacturing, commercial and entertainment hub of the United States, “a city in convulsive and continuous transition, bursting at the seams with high spirits, misery and spectacle”24 attracted Ashcan artists as a magnet.25 The other aspect of the big city which lured artists was people in all their versatility. The Ashcan artists possessed the power to change the stereotypes of the day. The example is George Luks’ Hester Street (1905) which shows ‘Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side in an earnest, unstereotypical manner.’26 The other example is Robert Henris 1904 “Portrait of Willie Gee,” where the artist ‘transcends the very brutal racial stereotypes used so much in his day.’27 A young black boy depicted in the portrait, the son of a slave, does resemble other black people depictions of earlier artists – with bulging eyes and lips looking like apes. This attitude towards black Americans was smashed by Ashcan artist who portrayed ‘dignified image of American youth.’28 Henri’s attitude towards people he pictured is vividly illustrated in the following speech of his: “The people I like to paint are "my people," whoever they may be, wherever they may exist, the people through whom dignity of life is manifest, that is, who are in some way expressing themselves naturally along the lines nature intended for them. My people may be old or young, rich or poor.... But wherever I find them, the Indian at work in the white mans way, the Spanish gypsy moving back to the freedom of the hills, the little boy, quiet and reticent before the stranger, my interest is awakened and my impulse immediately is to tell about them through my own language -- drawing and painting in color.”29 Henri’s favourite form of portraiture is that of children. The nationality did not mean anything for the painter - he was fascinated by different children from New Yorks Lower East Side to Mexican-Americans and Chinese-Americans. The painting of Mary Patton reveals all his skillful manner of execution and interpretation of character. This respect for common people and ability to see extraordinary in the ordinary Henri instilled in his pupils.30 For example, Sloan’s Hairdressers Window is one more depiction of ordinary everyday life. Sloan painted hairdressers shop from his memory under the impact of the amazement which he felt on his way to visit Henri when he saw hairdresser shop. The sign on the shop “Madame Malcomb” is a funny pun. These artists had non-traditional view on art and its subject. Harsh view of the world was embodied in blunt and unpolished realism. They focus on the important issues of the day, the problems which are evident in the society of that time. Immigration, poverty, crime, consumerism and womens rights – all this interested the Ashcans. As Snyder31 writes: “The Ashcan artists explored New York at street level and grasped the new social trends that changed the daily life of the city: immigration, advertising and mass communication, popular entertainment, the development of grand public spaces, the gap between rich and poor, and shifting gender roles.” Everyday happening of New York City were captured on paintings which were given the same unsophisticated titles - The Wrestlers, The Shoppers, and Hairdressers Window, Sixth Avenue. The Ashcan paintings were revolutionary with their realistic portraits of real life. The Ashcan artists attempted to ‘comprehend the complexity of a modern city’ and the ‘stylistic languages derived from the popular media’ made the pictures of New York compellingly real.32 Mecklenburg33 puts it like this: “the Ashcan artists sought to decipher the excitement of a city bypassed conventional panoramas in favor of local landmarks and the people who animated them - a popular bar, a street corner in a red-light district, a newly opened beach, a "club" that sponsored clandestine prize fights.” The turmoil of the big city can be found on almost all paintings of Ashcan artists. The contrast of modern and the past, the chaos of the city and all aspects of urban life - all this appear so alive at the paintings of “The Eight.” Bellows, for example, depicts “the precarious balance between the old and new in Steaming Streets, in which a man pulls at a rearing horse spooked by a smoke-shrouded train.”34 Bellowss early landscape Blue Snow, The Battery (1910) features snow-covered park with crisp, cold blasts of the wind playing in it. Bellows managed not only to capture ‘fleeting moments of an ordinary day and setting’ but create ‘a metaphor for the vitality of the booming city.’35 The other painter skillful in capturing the moment is Glackens. He could record the action within a few seconds with a few, quick strokes of a pencil or charcoal. Lady Adjusts Her Glove, The Laundress, Elephant Trainer, Mother and Son Shopping, Strolling in Washington Square feature individuals from all walks of life. The artist pictures individuals of both sexes and of any age managing to isolate and synthesize the image and rethink them in terms of relationships and spatial considerations.36 John Sloans "Six OClock, Winter" (1912) depicting overcrowded elevated trains in Manhattan establishes ‘the public perception of New York City as the countrys first modern metropolis.’37 This is a dramatic and daring composition. The crowd of people rushing to board the train is illustrated on the blue evening sky. On the foreground by the train there are men and women hurrying home. The composition gives the feeling as if it was created being from within the thong. This was one more peculiar feature of Ashcans- no traditional distance between artist and the subject was not observed.38 The painting which is not typical for Sloan who was mainly engaged in picturing images of city streets, Greenwich Village backyards and women of the city, is The Wake of the Ferry II (1907). The picture conveys the melancholy millions of commuters experienced daily on the Staten Island Ferry. The dull blues and green colors and steely water add to this feeling.39 Sloan’s Wet Night on the Bowery and Chinese Restaurant were completely out of time morals. It is no wonder that the ‘vulgar’ picture could not be hung in galleries and exhibited at shows. Sloan was inspired by the life of the workers trying to survive in the jungle of the city. The artist was fascinated by his own neighborhood of Chelsea and Greenwich picturing its parts that could stand for the whole of the city.40 With quick development of city urban problems were growing as well. These problems were particularly acute for immigrants. That’s why many government and private organizations started to address them. In early 20th century the impact of immigration including such issues as health, religion, employment in the United States was in the focus of artists as well. As Century41 expressed it eloquently: “… the experience of the Ashcan artists replicated the experience of the immigrants themselves: learning to navigate through overcrowded neighborhoods filled with strangers, poverty and crime.” The other problem was the generation gap which was really huge. While the older generation of early immigrants stuck to traditions of their native countries, their children were exposed to different cultures which immigrants brought with them.42 The Ashcan artists also depicted the collision of Old World and American ways. In the work of Glackens immigrant neighborhoods featured contain subtle clues to changing values. In Far From the Fresh Air Farm the contrast is between Americanized women and Old-World mother sharing the sidewalk. We see how the life of women is changing and how young immigrants change old American ways.43 William Glackens depicts immigrant communities not as unchanged Old World cultures but reveals ‘the collision between cultures, the daily tensions and difficulties of assimilation as immigrants negotiate the physical and psychical boundaries of past and present, old and new, European immigrant and American citizen.’44 Washington Square paintings show the public interaction of people from different ethnic and class groups. In Glackens’ March Day, Washington Square (1912) an immigrant woman is passed by well-dressed group of promenaders walking in the opposite direction. In many other pictures figures depicted can be recognized as immigrants. However, many of them occupy an ambiguous position between the two extremes – that of wealthy Americans and the first-generation immigrants suggesting of gradual process of assimilation in everyday life.45 The Columbus Day celebration captured on two paintings of Glackens Parade, Washington Square and Italo-American Celebration, Washington Square shows the process of Americanization. Through a number of small details Glackens renders assimilationist function of the parade. The artist brings to the spotlight the class mobility – he pictures Italian leaders and important citizens in a carriage, on horseback, and leading the colors. Italians are features as respectable American citizens taking interests in American life and democratic institutions.46 The place of a woman in the society has been changing as well. Women at least unmarried ones enjoyed freedom of their own earnings. Young working women had their own money to shop. Shopping in large stores with glass windows displaying its wares became a favorite pastime. Womens labor became important for many industries particularly garment one. Women with their own earnings also made up a certain market, for example, for ready-to-wear clothes industry. Women longed to greater social and political equality.47 Voyeuristic views of women of the city can be found on the paintings of John Sloan.48 Sloan took great interest in independent women and their new lifestyle. Renganeschis Saturday Night is portrayal of a new social phenomenon for that time - young women out for a night on the town. Through subtle clues the viewers understand that these are working-class women at leisure away from their parents.49 Sloan was very attentive to women’s role in urban society. He painted women of different social groups and of different ages. He pictured women as alluring objects or objects of visual pleasure. Sloan ‘examines a woman as an object of fascination.’ 50 The most peculiar feature of his works is picturing women in the act of looking.51 Sloan’s muse was often a vivid woman, not necessarily innocent. The artist departs from traditional depicting of femininity. His subject is a working woman. For ‘the bad taste’ Sloan paid the price of being unpopular and losing the possible revenues.52 The entertainment industry was also at full vigor - roof-garden spectacles, vaudeville theaters, nickelo on arcades, the Broadway stage and movies.53 Theaters, music halls and other entertainments, all the bustling street life of Manhattan was vividly featured by Shinn in his paintings, pastels and drawings. City’s glamour, excitement and its pathos are skillfully rendered through Shinn’s works. His depiction of New York life betrays provincial boy’s affection for urban pleasures.54 The nightclub performers, vaudevillians, theater, orchestra, dance are the main themes of Shinn’s works. The Blue Girdle and Vaudeville is a colorful example of Shinns early works where he employs entertainment theme.55 One of Shinns most remarkable drawings the snow scene of "Broadway, Late in the Afternoon, After the Matinee," 1899 illustrates a raw dynamism of the street scenes of New York life. Generally his works are characterized by shadowy interiors with brilliant flashes of color. That’s why he depicts mainly theater and the music hall or crowded street life where again slums and people create street theater.56 Shinn’s skills appear in the ability to see the subjects from ‘unusual vantage points, with dramatic lighting, in numerous theatrical subjects’ as well as ‘… to capture dramatic tension, heightened with spotlights and the dimmed illumination over the audience.’57 Entertainment theme is present at the painting of Luks picturing young people at amateur night who try to break into vaudeville. Henris Salome was rejected by a National Academy of Design for daring eroticism blurring the boundaries between high and low culture.58 Relative freedom of women contributed to loosening of moral standards which became the subject of vehement debates at the dawn of the century. The problem of prostitution comes to the focus of public attention as well to the attention of artists. In their works artist address the problem of women for amusement by crowds of men. This theme is vividly illustrated by George Scarbrough in The Lure or in painting Haymarket by Sloan. Sloan depicts innocent girls blind with the glitter of lights unaware of the danger.59 The changing practices of independent women and role reversal finds its reflection in humoristic cartoons and stereographs featuring men busy with house chores and women reading newspapers and smoking cigarettes.60 In this situation men needed to prove their masculinity. For example, Jack London offered a vision of masculinity ‘expressed in terms of struggle against animals, the elements, and other men.’61 On the other hand, box became the way to overcome conflicting attitudes about perceptions of men. At the beginning of a new century a big business was vitally promoted and attracting incredible sums of prize money. This bore corruption and indignant attitude towards fighters who were maimed and even killed. This situation again finds reflection in the newspapers and magazines stories which put the morality of prizefighting under question. All this doubtful practices led to professional boxing being outlawed by Roosevelt who was a passionate fan of the sport.62 Ashcan artists believed that art should reflect the harsh facts of his society. For, example, the Ashcan artists bring illicit prizefighting to the limelight. Luks, Glackens, Bellows evoke different sides of boxing - the physical power and determination versus brutality and frenzied fans.63 Bellows’ were the most ‘intensely vivid and memorable images.’ His famous boxing painting “Stag at Sharkeys," (1909) depicts the time of illegal prizefighting in New York and is ‘the definitive representations of the pugilistic life.’64 Though the major subjects of the Ashcan school artists were inspired by the city and its inhabitants, they did not restrict themselves to only urban life depiction. For example, Arthur B. Davies’ nude female figures have little to do with the realism of Ashcan school. Lawson painted New York and the Harlem River scenes using a hazy, Impressionist technique.65 The works of Prendergast are difficult to categorize as some paintings have a specific style while others are completely different from the prevailing artistic trends of the time. During the productive years of his career Prendergast often found perfect subjects in parks. Maurice used a patchy, decorative style to paint park visitors.66 Urban and seaside parks on the pictures often show ‘a park bench or an orange-red umbrella, New England barbors, villages, and rocky shores; and finally children at play and women by the seashore.’ Later before death Prendergast was drawn to abstract art. He departed with his favorite subject in order to ‘celebrate color, form, light, and composition.’67 At some point of the career Sloan also turned to other subjects which were uncommon for Ashcan artists. From 1914 he started painting New England landscapes. Later when he moved to New Mexico in 1920s he continued painting landscapes and got interested in Native American art. By the 1940s he was interested in freelance illustrating and turned his attention to nudes. His color preferences also changed. While his early paintings are performed in earth tones, later works contain more color.68 Shinn’s late works are also far from early urban scenes. He turned to sketchy canvases of nudes in boudoirs, or clowns on and off stage. Shinn abandons the tough realism of early 1900s and focuses on more decorative, imaginary, and escapist subjects.69 At the dawn of the twentieth century the American society was undergoing many changes in all spheres of life. Actually it was a century of rapid changes. The artists couldn’t stand aside from the processes undergoing in society. Despite the pressure of academic art, the Ashcan artists reflected these changes and were recorded in history for their innovative approach towards subject matter and independent actions. “The Ashcan school” which united "the Eight" and a number of other artists was a force which brought to the public forbidden topic of urban life – life of ordinary people, immigrants, life of New York at night, changing female and male roles. These were ‘low’ subjects, not accepted by the National Academy of Design. The Ashcans resisted the opposition depicting sweeping social changes. Robert Henri changed the image of blacks, Everett Shinn unveiled night life, George Bellows showed the other side of masculinity, William Glackens revealed the processes of immigrant assimilation, George Luks featured immigrant life on the Lower East Side, John Sloan pictured ordinary people in different settings. These are artists who recorded the history of urban life with all its contradictory and gregarious moments. Through the eyes of these painters we can see ‘the human dimension of life in New York at the turn of the century.’70 the works of these artists tell the story of people who lived, worked, suffered and enjoyed life. They created a new view of American culture. Besides Ashcan artists paved the way to new styles of paintings. They ushered in new avenues for art — Cubism, Fauvism, German Expressionism and modernism. References Bolz M. D. The Ashcan artists take on New York. Smithsonian. Vol. 26. 1996, p28 Century D. Taking to the Streets to Remake American Art: New York Historical Society Spotlights Ashcan School. Forward. N.Y.: Vol.C, Iss. 31077;  1996, p. 9 Coco M. J. Re-Viewing John Sloans Images of Women. Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2. 1998, pp. 81-97 Homer W. I. Robert Henri and His Circle. New York: Hacker Art Books. 1988 Hughes R. The Epic Of The City. Time v147, 1996, p 62-63 Keny M. J. Ohio Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. 1994 http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa280.htm retr. 26 Apr. 2007 Kramer H. Cultural Exchanges. Art & Antiques, 01958208, Vol. 27, Issue 8, 2004. Kramer H. Shadows in the City. Art & Antiques vol. 24, num. 3. 2001, pp. 152-5 Keiffer J. http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/everett_shinn_1876.htm retr., 26 Apr., 2007 Ledes, A. E. Impressionists painting labor. The Magazine Antiques (1971) 168 no 6 18, 20 D 2005 Ledes A.E. William Glackens. The Magazine Antiques (1971) 164 no 6 22 D 2003 Ledes A. E. Prendergast paints the city beautiful. The Magazine Antiques (1971) 163 no5 30, 32 My 2003 a) Leeds V. A. The Independents: The Ashcan School & Their Circle from Florida Collections Cornell Fine Arts Museum (June 1996). American Art Review. Vol. VIII, N. 2, 1996, pp. 96-107. Leeds V.A. The Portraits of Robert Henri: Context and Influences. American Art Review, Volume VII, Number 2,. 1995, pp. 92-97. Mecklenburg M. V. New York City and the Ashcan school - American art movement. Magazine Antiques. Nov, 1995 Naves M. Glackens, Sloan & friends: The Ashcan artists New York. New Criterion, Vol. 14, Issue 10, 1996. Pohlad B. M. Ashcan School St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. 20020129. FindArticles.com. 28 Apr. 2007.://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100062 retr. 27 Apr. 2007 Porter D. William J. Glackens, Painter: A Tribute to C. Richard Hilker, Patron. 2001 Shaw-Eagle J. Ashcan painters made the ordinary into art - National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. Insight on the News. Jan., 1996   Snyder W. R. Journalism, Art and Metropolitan Life in The Urban Lifeworld. Contributor. by Peter Madsen, Richard Plunz. London: Routledge. 2002. Stenz M. Notes on the Ethnic Image in Ashcan School Paintings http://dsc.gc.cuny.edu/part/part4/ash.html retr. 27 Apr. 2007 Schwartz Constance Old New York and Artists of the Period: 1900-1941 - The Ashcan Tradition. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa662.htm retr. 27 Apr. 2007 Sweeney J.J. Ashcans instead of power puffs. New York Times. (1857- current file) Feb 20, 1955; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2003) Tapp, S. B. Making Waves. Art & Antiques, 01958208, Vol. 28, Issue 9, 2005. Tsuda, M. When New York met The Ashcan Artists. Christian Science Monitor, 08827729, Vol. 88, Issue 70, 1996. Weintraub L. Women as Urban Spectators in John Sloans Early Work. American Art, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2001, pp. 72-83 Wight S. F. Milestones of American Painting in Our Century: Introd. by Lloyd Goodrich. New York: Chanticleer Press.1949 Zurier R., Snyder R. W.,. Mecklenburg V. M Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York. Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 1997, pp. 89-92 Read More