The New-York Historical Society June 21, 2013 - September 01, 2013
With his calligraphic brushstrokes and densely cluttered, multi-figured compositions, Reginald Marsh recorded the vibrancy and energetic pulse of New York City. In paintings, prints, watercolors and photographs, he captured the animation and visual turbulence that made urban New York life an exhilarating spectacle. His work depicted the visual energy the city, its helter-skelter signs, newspaper and magazine headlines and the crowded conditions of its street life and recreational pastimes.
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Twenty Cent Movie, 1936. Egg tempera on composition board, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase 37.43 © 2011 Estate of Reginald Marsh / Art Students League, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Reproduction, including downloading this work, is prohibited by copyright law without written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
His subjects were not glamorous or affluent New Yorkers, but those in the middle and lower class—Bowery bums, burlesque queens, Coney Island musclemen, park denizens, subway riders and post-flapper era sirens. Marsh was fascinated by the crass glamour, gaudiness and sexuality these city inhabitants exhibited in public, as well as by the humanity expressed by those living under severe economic and social duress. His technical combination of choppy brushwork and thinly applied tempera created the effect of a continual surface flickering, which causes the eye to move without rest from place to place across the painting. Marsh heightened this sense of agitated and accelerated movement by means of asymmetrically framed scenes and avoidance of an obvious focal point. The result was a sequential unfolding of episodes across his canvas surfaces, which evoked the transience, motion and vitality of New York City in the 1930s.
The New-York Historical Society has released a coffee table book on Marsh’s life and work, “Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York.” Splashed with large renditions of his colorful works and edited by Whitney Museum curator Barbara Haskell, the $55 “Swing Time” will be followed next summer by a retrospective exhibit at the Historical Society.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/vivid-30s-new-york-city-live-swing-time-article-1.1187658#ixzz2ONklIyxL
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Minsky’s Chorus, 1935. Egg tempera on composition board, 38 x 44 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Hudson Bay Fur Company, 1932. Egg tempera on muslin mounted to particle board, 30 x 40 in. Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898–1954), BMT Fourteenth Street, 1932. Egg tempera, 60 × 36 in. (152.4 × 91.4 cm). Private collection. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898–1954), Lucky Daredevils (The Thrill of Death), 1931. Egg tempera on panel, 30 × 36 in. (76.2 × 91.4 cm). Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Vivian O. and Meyer P. Potamkin Collection, Bequest of Vivian O. Potamkin. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Pip and Flip, 1932. Egg tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 48 1⁄4 x 48 1⁄4 in. Terra Foundation for American Art. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), In Fourteenth Street, 1934. Egg tempera on composition board, 35 7/8 x 39 3/4 in. Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Star Burlesque, 1933. Egg tempera on masonite, 48 x 36 in. Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reginald Marsh (1898–1954), Harlem, Tuesday Night at the Savoy, 1932. Tempera on board, 36 × 48 in. (91.4 × 121.9 cm). Private Collection. © 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Isaac Soyer (1902-1981), Employment Agency, 1937. Oil on canvas, 34 1⁄4 x 45 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Sheldan C. Collins © Soyer Estate.
Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), Blossom Restaurant, 103 Bowery, October 24th, 1935, from FAP series Changing New York, 1935. Gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. Museum of the City of New York.
