Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A large and colorful erotic and very well executed 1930s art deco-era fine art oil painting by the Lithuanian-American artist Jack Levitz. A Jewish immigrant who settled in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Levitz’s social realist/Ashcan school style recalls George Luks and Everett Shinn. This oil on canvas shows a seedy New York City burlesque hall, with a […]
Artist: Jack Levitz
Working within the gritty and near-apocalyptic style of the ashcan school, Paul Raphael Meltsner captures here the shimmying decadence of movement that defined Depression-era burlesque, as well as the art form’s manner of dehumanizing both performer and patron. Though brazenly showcasing her human form, the dancer in the foreground hides her face from the canvas, and the audience recedes into the merest suggestion of faces represented merely as forms. This is a moving and masterful artwork, reminiscent of the works of Everett Shinn, a contemporary of Meltsner’s.
Artist: Paul Meltsner
