Art Students League 215 West 57th Street

The Art Students League of New York is an

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

in the American Fine Arts Society in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study full-time, there have never been any degree programs or grades, and this informal attitude pervades the culture of the school. From the 19th century to the present, the League has counted among its attendees and instructors many historically important artists, and contributed to numerous influential schools and movements in the art world. The League also maintains a significant permanent collection of student and faculty work, and publishes an online journal of writing on art-related topics, called LINEA. The journal's name refers to the school's motto '' Nulla Dies Sine Linea'' or "No Day Without a Line", traditionally attributed to the Greek painter Apelles by the historian

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, who recorded that Apelles would not let a day pass without at least drawing a line to practice his art.

History

19th century

Founded in 1875, the League's creation came about in response to both an anticipated gap in the art instruction program of classes at New York's National Academy of Design for that year, and to longer-term desires for more variety and flexibility in education for artists than it was felt the Academy provided. The breakaway group of students included many women, and was originally housed in rented rooms at 16th Street and

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

. When the Academy resumed a more typical but liberalized program in 1877, there was some feeling that the League had served its purpose, but its students voted to continue its program, and it was incorporated the following year. Influential board members from this formative period included painter Thomas Eakins and sculptor

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculpture, sculptor of the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Iris ...

. Membership continued to increase, forcing the League to relocate to increasingly larger spaces. The League participated in the founding of the American Fine Arts Society (AFAS) in 1889, together with the Society of American Artists and the Architectural League, among others. The American Fine Arts Building at 215 West 57th Street, constructed as their joint headquarters, has continued to house the League since 1892. Designed in the French Renaissance style by one of the founders of the AFAS, architect Henry Hardenbergh (in collaboration with W.C. Hunting & J.C. Jacobsen), the building is a designated New York City Landmark and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. In the late 1890s and early 1900s an increasing number of women artists came to study and work at the League many of them taking on key roles. Among them was Wilhelmina Weber Furlong, accompanied by her husband Thomas Furlong. The avant-garde couple served the league in executive and administrative roles and as student members throughout the American modernism movement. Alice Van Vechten Brown, who would later develop some of the first art programs in American higher education, also studied with the league until prolonged family illness sent her home. The painter Edith Dimock, a student from 1895 to 1899, described her classes at the Art Students League: In his official biography, ''My Adventures as an Illustrator'', Norman Rockwell recounts his time studying at the school as a young man, providing insight into its operation in the early 1900s.

20th century

The League's popularity persisted into the 1920s and 1930s under the hand of instructors like painter Thomas Hart Benton, who counted among his students there the young

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

and other

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

artists who would rise to prominence in the 1940s. In 1925 to celebrate their golden jubilee (fifty years), the League organized an exhibition which included the work of members, students and instructors. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney gave a reception at which Charles Dana Gibson was toastmaster. Between 1942 and 1943, many of the League's students joined the armed forces to fight in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the League's enrollment decreased from 1,000 to 400, putting it in danger of closing in mid-1943. In response, five hundred artists donated $15,000, just enough to keep the League from closing. In the years after World War II, the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

played an important role in the continuing history of the League by enabling returning veterans to attend classes. The League continued to be a formative influence on innovative artists, being an early stop in the careers of Abstract expressionists, Pop Artists and scores of others including Lee Bontecou, Helen Frankenthaler, Joseph Glasco, Al Held, Eva Hesse,

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

, Donald Judd, Knox Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Cy Twombly and many others vitally active in the art world. In 1968, Lisa M. Specht was elected first female president of the League. The League's unique importance in the larger art world dwindled somewhat during the 1960s, partially because of higher academia's emergence as an important presence in contemporary art education, and partially due to a shift in the art world towards minimalism,

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, conceptual art, and a more impersonal and indirect approach to art making.

21st century

, the League continues to attract a wide variety of young artists, and its focus on art made by hand, both figurative and abstract, remains strong. Its continued significance has largely been in the continuation of its original mission, which is to give access to art classes and studio access to all comers regardless of their means or technical background.

Other facilities

From 1906 until 1922, and again after the end of World War II from 1947 until 1979, the League operated a summer school of painting at Woodstock, New York. In 1995, the League's facilities expanded to include the Vytlacil campus in Sparkill, New York, named after and based upon a gift of the property and studio of former instructor Vaclav Vytlacil.

Notable instructors and lecturers

Since its inception, the Art Students League has employed notable professional artists as instructors and lecturers. Most engagements have been for a year or two, and some, like those of sculptor George Grey Barnard, were quite brief. Others have taught for decades, notably: Frank DuMond and George Bridgman, who taught anatomy for artists and life drawing classes for some 45 years, reportedly to 70,000 students. Bridgman's successor was Robert Beverly Hale. Other longtime instructors included the painters Frank Mason (DuMond's successor, over 50 years), Kenneth Hayes Miller (40 years) from 1911 until 1951, sculptor Nathaniel Kaz (50 years), Peter Golfinopoulos (over 40 years), Knox Martin (over 45 years), Ronnie Landfield (over 30 years), Martha Bloom (over 30 years) and the sculptors William Zorach (30 years), and Jose De Creeft, Will Barnet (50 years) from the 1930s to the 1990s, and Bruce Dorfman, who is the longest continually-teaching instructor in the League's history (over 60 years). Other well-known artists who have served as instructors include: * Lawrence Alloway * Charles Alston * Will Barnet * Robert Beauchamp * Alice Beckington * George Bellows * Thomas Hart Benton, * Isabel Bishop * Arnold Blanch * Homer Boss * Louis Bouche * Robert Brackman * George Bridgman * Alexander Stirling Calder * Naomi Andrée Campbell * John F. Carlson * Robert Cenedella * Charles Shepard Chapman * Jean Charlot * Edward Leigh Chase * William Merritt Chase * Dionisio Cimarelli * Timothy J. Clark * Walter Appleton Clark * Sylvie Covey * Kenyon Cox * Jose De Creeft *

John Steuart Curry John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 – August 29, 1946) was an American painter whose career spanned the years from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting rural life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart B ...

* Stuart Davis * Dorothea H. Denslow * Edwin Dickinson * Sidney Dickinson * Frederick Dielman * Harvey Dinnerstein * Arthur Wesley Dow * Edward Dufner * Frank DuMond * Frank Duveneck * Thomas Eakins * Daniel Chester French * Dagmar Freuchen * Lucia Fairchild Fuller * Wilhelmina Weber Furlong * Michael Goldberg * Stephen Greene * George Grosz * Molly Guion * Lena Gurr * Philip Guston * Robert Beverly Hale * Hans Peter Hansen * Lovell Birge Harrison * Ernest Haskell *

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionis ...

* Robert Henri * Eva Hesse * Charles Hinman * Hans Hofmann * Harry Holtzman * Jamal Igle * John Christen Johansen * Burt Johnson * Wolf Kahn * Morris Kantor * Rockwell Kent * Walt Kuhn * Yasuo Kuniyoshi * Gabriel Laderman * Ronnie Landfield * Jacob Lawrence * Hayley Lever * Martin Lewis * James Little * George Luks * Paul Manship * Reginald Marsh * Fletcher Martin * Knox Martin * Jan Matulka * Earl Mayan * Mary Beth Mckenzie * William Charles McNulty * Edward Melcarth * Willard Metcalf * Leo Mielziner * Kenneth Hayes Miller * Fred Mitchell * F. Luis Mora * Robert Neffson * Kimon Nicolaïdes * Maxfield Parrish * Jules Pascin * Joseph Pennell * Jane Peterson * Richard C. Pionk * Larry Poons * Richard Pousette-Dart * Vojtěch Preissig * Abraham Rattner * Peter Reginato * Frank J. Reilly * Henry Reuterdahl * Agnes Millen Richmond * Boardman Robinson *

* Kikuo Saito * Nelson Shanks * William Scharf * Susan Louise Shatter * Walter Shirlaw * John Sloan * Hughie Lee-Smith * Isaac Soyer * Raphael Soyer * Theodoros Stamos * Anita Steckel * Harry Sternberg * Augustus Vincent Tack * George Tooker * John Henry Twachtman * Vaclav Vytlacil *

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

* J. Alden Weir * Jerry Weiss * William ZorachProminent former members of the Art Students League
Art Students League website. Retrieved online, December 26, 2011

Notable alumni

The list of Art Students League of New York alumni includes: * Pacita Abad * Harry N. Abrams * Herbert E. Abrams * Edwin Tappan Adney * Olga Albizu * Karin von Aroldingen * Ai Weiwei * Gladys Aller * William Anthony * Edmund Archer * Nela Arias-Misson * David Attie *

Milton Avery Milton Clark Avery (; March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965Haskell, B. (2003). "Avery, Milton". Grove Art Online.) was an American Modern art, modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City. He wa ...

* Norio Azuma * Elizabeth Gowdy Baker * Thomas R. Ball * Hugo Ballin * Will Barnet * Nancy Hemenway Barton * Saul Bass * C. C. Beall * Romare Bearden *

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

* Theresa Bernstein * Brother Thomas Bezanson * Thomas Hart Benton * Ilse Bischoff * Isabel Bishop * Jerzy Bitter * Meredith Bixby * Dorothy Block * Leonard Bocour * Harriet Bogart * Abraham Bogdanove * Lee Bontecou * Henry Botkin * Louise Bourgeois * Harry Bowden * Stanley Boxer * Louise Brann * D. Putnam Brinley * Emma L. Brock * James Brooks * Carmen L. Browne * Jennie Augusta Brownscombe * Edith Bry * Dennis Miller Bunker * Jacob Burck * Feliza Bursztyn * Theodore Earl Butler * Paul Cadmus * Alexander Calder * Chris Campbell * John F. Carlson * Kathrin Cawein * Robert Cenedella * Paul Chalfin * Ching Ho Cheng * Minna Citron * Margaret Covey Chisholm * Walter Appleton Clark * Kate Freeman Clark * George Henry Clements * Henry Ives Cobb, Jr. * Claudette Colbert * Willie Cole * John Connell * Sylvie Covey * Russell Cowles * Allyn Cox * Ellis Credle * Richard V. Culter * Mel Cummin * Frederick Stuart Church * Joan Danziger * Andrew Dasburg * Charles C. Dawson * Adolf Dehn * Dorothy Dehner * Sidney Dickinson * Burgoyne Diller * Helen Savier DuMond * Ellen Eagle * Marjorie Eaton * Alice Righter Edmiston * Sir Jacob Epstein * Marisol Escobar * Joe Eula * Philip Evergood * Peter Falk * Frances Farrand Dodge * Ernest Fiene * Irving Fierstein * Louis Finkelstein * Ethel Fisher * Wilhelmina Weber Furlong * Helen Frankenthaler * Frederick Carl Frieseke * Wanda Gág * Dan Gheno * Charles Dana Gibson * William Glackens * Joseph Glasco * Elias Goldberg * Michael Goldberg * Shirley Goldfarb * Peter Golfinopoulos * Adolph Gottlieb * Blanche Grambs * John D. Graham * Enrique Grau * Nancy Graves * Clement Greenberg * Stephen Greene * Red Grooms * Chaim Gross * Lena Gurr * Bessie Pease Gutmann * Channing Hare * Minna Harkavy * Marsden Hartley * Julius Hatofsky * Ethel Hays * Gus Heinze * Al Held * Carmen Herrera * Eva Hesse * Al Hirschfeld * Itshak Holtz * Lorenzo Homar * Winslow Homer * Thomas Hoving * Paul Jenkins (United States painter), Paul Jenkins * Burt Johnson * Donald Judd * Joan Kahn * Matsumi Kanemitsu * Deborah Kass * Alonzo Myron Kimball (artist), Alonzo Myron Kimball * Ruth Kligman * Torleif S. Knaphus * Belle Kogan * Lee Krasner * Anne Kutka, Anne Kutka (McCosh) * Ronnie Landfield * Adelaide Lawson * Arthur Lee (sculptor), Arthur Lee * Lucy L'Engle * Alfred Leslie *

* Dorothy Loeb * Tom Loepp * Michael Loew * John Marin * Reginald Marsh * Knox Martin * Donald Martiny * Mercedes Matter * Louisa Matthiasdottir * Peter Max * John Alan Maxwell * Roderick Fletcher Mead *Hildreth Meière * Evelyn Metzger * Felicia Meyer * Eleanore Mikus * Emil Milan * Lee Miller * David Milne (artist), David Milne * F. Luis Mora * Walter Tandy Murch * Reuben Nakian * Louise Nevelson * Barnett Newman * Isamu Noguchi * Sassona Norton * Frank O'Connor (actor, born 1897), Frank O'Connor * Georgia O'Keeffe * Mary Orwen * Roselle Osk * Tom Otterness * Betty Waldo Parish * Clara Weaver Parrish * Betty Parsons * David Partridge (artist), David Partridge * Phillip Pavia, * Roger Tory Peterson * Bert Geer Phillips * I. Rice Pereira *

* Fairfield Porter * Edith Mitchill Prellwitz * Henry Prellwitz * Robert Rauschenberg * Man Ray * Charles M. Relyea * Frederic Remington * Priscilla Roberts * Norman Rockwell * Esther Rolick * Louise Emerson Ronnebeck * Herman Rose * James Rosenquist * Sanford Ross * Mark Rothko * Glen Rounds * Luis Alvarez Roure * Peter Rubino * Morgan Russell * Abbey Ryan * Sam Savitt * Concetta Scaravaglione * Louis Schanker * Mary Schepisi * Edith Schloss * Katherine Schmidt * Emily Maria Scott * Ethel Schwabacher * Joan Semmel * Maurice Sendak * Ben Shahn * Nelson Shanks * Nat Mayer Shapiro * Henrietta Shore * Jessamine Shumate * David Smith (sculptor), David Smith * Tony Smith (sculptor), Tony Smith * Vincent Dacosta Smith, Vincent D. Smith * Robert Smithson * Louise Hammond Willis Snead * Armstrong Sperry * Otto Stark * William Starkweather (artist), William Starkweather * Frank Stella * Joseph Stella * Inga Stephens Pratt Clark * Harry Sternberg * Clyfford Still * Soichi Sunami * Katharine Lamb Tait * Minerva Teichert * Val Telberg * Robert Templeton (artist), Robert Templeton * Patty Prather Thum * George Tooker * Kim Tschang-yeul * Wen-Ying Tsai * Luce Turnier * Cy Twombly * Jack Tworkov * Edward Charles Volkert * Charles Wadsworth (artist), Charles Wadsworth * Adele Watson * Emmett Watson (illustrator), Emmett Watson * Nan Watson * Alonzo C. Webb * Sybilla Mittell Weber * Davyd Whaley * Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney * Adolph Alexander Weinman * J. Alden Weir * Jerry Weiss * Stow Wengenroth * Pennerton West * Anita Willets-Burnham * Ellen Axson Wilson * Gahan Wilson * Louise Waterman Wise * Sarah A. Worden * Alice Morgan Wright * Russel Wright * Koho Yamamoto * Art Young * Marie Zimmermann * Philip Zuchman * Iván Zulueta

References

External links

Art Students League of New YorkLinea
including some notable alumni

retrieved December 14, 2007

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frHWcLbLUr4 "On the Front Lines: Military Veterans at The Art Students League of New York"]
Art Students League records, 1875-1955
from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art {{Authority control Art Students League of New York, Art schools in New York City American artist groups and collectives Arts organizations based in New York City Art Students League of New York people, Culture of Manhattan Education in New York City Modern art Arts organizations established in 1875 Educational institutions established in 1875 1875 establishments in New York (state) Cultural history of the United States