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Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York
Swing Time accompanies an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, June - September 2013. Introduces new audiences to Reginald Marsh's art while also providing a fresh perspective for those familiar with his work. The book showcases 1930s social-realist painting and documentary photography Include essays by leading scholars of American history, English literature, theater, American studies, photography. Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York is the first major assessment of the work of 'American Scene' artist Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) in over 30 years. Focusing on 60 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sketches, drawn from public and private collections across the U.S., it puts Marsh's exuberant depictions of urban daily life within the context of 1930s America and the work of fellow artists such as Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Walt Kuhn, Guy Pene du Bois, Walker Evans and Arthur Rothstein. This striking volume looks at Marsh's fascination with New York street life around his 14th Street studio; the burlesque shows of Lower East Side and the Bowery, advertising hoardings and store displays, and the funfairs of Coney Island. He recorded these in numerous pencil sketches and photographs which formed the basis of his paintings and prints. Together, they tell a complex and contrasting visual story of New York City in this tumultuous time of social tension and economic uncertainty.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2012
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May 2, 2019
There have been many attempts to neatly tie Reginald Marsh to various movements of American painting from the Fourteenth Street School to the Regionalist; and yet that with which he was really most closely aligned, in spirit if not always in style, was the Ashcan School whose influence peaked a decade or more before Marsh created his most significant work. Like John Sloan and George Bellows before him, Marsh was mesmerized by the teeming life that filled the streets of New York City. Though himself of upper class origins (born in Paris to an upper middle class family and educated at Yale), Marsh was always attracted to the lower classes - subway riders, burlesque strippers, Bowery bums, and Coney Island musclemen. These were his subjects of choice in a city suffering through the worst years of the Depression.
Several years ago, I saw an excellent retrospective at the New York Historical Society entitled Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York that had been curated by Barbara Haskell of the Whitney Museum. It was one of the few major exhibits that had been devoted to the artist following his death in 1954. On view were many of his best known works as well as those of other artists who were active during the same period. The exhibit was accompanied by a catalog which I recently purchased at a considerable discount at the Strand Bookstore on 12th Street, very near the Union Square location where Marsh once had his studio.
In developing his distinctive style, Marsh did not follow the Ashcan artists or other American realist painters such as Thomas Eakins but instead looked to old masters whose works he had seen and copied on his travels through Europe. His great breakthrough came when he was introduced, by his friend Thomas Hart Benton, to the egg tempera process. Used extensively by medieval and early Renaissance artists for panel painting, tempera had the great advantage of drying quickly, thus allowing Marsh to work continuously apply brushstrokes on a given work without the necessity of first allowing the layers beneath to stand and dry. As for the content, Marsh's work was distinguished by crowding figures into the foreground against cityscape backgrounds. With this technique, Marsh was able to convey the frenzied rush that filled the streets and sidewalks of New York.
The catalog contains several short but highly relevant essays. The first of these, by Barbara Haskell herself, provides an overview of the artist's work and places him securely in the period of his greatest productivity. It also furnishes the biographical details needed to understand his highly complex personality. Even though Marsh's upper class background gave him entry to high society (his first wife was the daughter of Bryson Burroughs, at the time curator of painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), he was never at home in such a milieu and resolutely refused to paint those who were. Taking the position that "well-bred people are no fun to paint," Marsh was repelled by the artificial manners of the rich and claimed, "People of wealth spend money to disguise themselves." One has to assume that this is, at least to an extent, a reaction against his father's career as a society painter.
The most interesting essay is "Keeping the Carnival in Town" by Jackson Lears who details the manner in which the "anything goes" license traditionally granted revelers during carnival season became a permanent fixture in New York City during the Depression years. Another essay by Sasha Nicholas investigates Marsh's use of photography to capture detail for his paintings while one by Lance Mayer and Gay Myers provides and in depth analysis of the materials and processes used by Marsh to create his works.
One unfortunate omission from both the exhibit and catalog is any example of Marsh's graphic work. Marsh was an extremely accomplished etcher and explored in his graphic work the same themes, and very often the same subjects, as in his paintings. It could be argued that certain scenes seeking to convey a sense of stark realism actually work better in graphic form as in the 1932 Bread Line - No One Has Starved, the only graphic work that is reproduced in the catalog. A number of other etchings, as well as engravings and linocuts, are contained in the 1976 study The Prints of Reginald Marsh by Norman Sasowsky.
Several years ago, I saw an excellent retrospective at the New York Historical Society entitled Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York that had been curated by Barbara Haskell of the Whitney Museum. It was one of the few major exhibits that had been devoted to the artist following his death in 1954. On view were many of his best known works as well as those of other artists who were active during the same period. The exhibit was accompanied by a catalog which I recently purchased at a considerable discount at the Strand Bookstore on 12th Street, very near the Union Square location where Marsh once had his studio.
In developing his distinctive style, Marsh did not follow the Ashcan artists or other American realist painters such as Thomas Eakins but instead looked to old masters whose works he had seen and copied on his travels through Europe. His great breakthrough came when he was introduced, by his friend Thomas Hart Benton, to the egg tempera process. Used extensively by medieval and early Renaissance artists for panel painting, tempera had the great advantage of drying quickly, thus allowing Marsh to work continuously apply brushstrokes on a given work without the necessity of first allowing the layers beneath to stand and dry. As for the content, Marsh's work was distinguished by crowding figures into the foreground against cityscape backgrounds. With this technique, Marsh was able to convey the frenzied rush that filled the streets and sidewalks of New York.
The catalog contains several short but highly relevant essays. The first of these, by Barbara Haskell herself, provides an overview of the artist's work and places him securely in the period of his greatest productivity. It also furnishes the biographical details needed to understand his highly complex personality. Even though Marsh's upper class background gave him entry to high society (his first wife was the daughter of Bryson Burroughs, at the time curator of painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), he was never at home in such a milieu and resolutely refused to paint those who were. Taking the position that "well-bred people are no fun to paint," Marsh was repelled by the artificial manners of the rich and claimed, "People of wealth spend money to disguise themselves." One has to assume that this is, at least to an extent, a reaction against his father's career as a society painter.
The most interesting essay is "Keeping the Carnival in Town" by Jackson Lears who details the manner in which the "anything goes" license traditionally granted revelers during carnival season became a permanent fixture in New York City during the Depression years. Another essay by Sasha Nicholas investigates Marsh's use of photography to capture detail for his paintings while one by Lance Mayer and Gay Myers provides and in depth analysis of the materials and processes used by Marsh to create his works.
One unfortunate omission from both the exhibit and catalog is any example of Marsh's graphic work. Marsh was an extremely accomplished etcher and explored in his graphic work the same themes, and very often the same subjects, as in his paintings. It could be argued that certain scenes seeking to convey a sense of stark realism actually work better in graphic form as in the 1932 Bread Line - No One Has Starved, the only graphic work that is reproduced in the catalog. A number of other etchings, as well as engravings and linocuts, are contained in the 1976 study The Prints of Reginald Marsh by Norman Sasowsky.
August 3, 2013
The art here is amazing, but much of the text is written too much for an insider art-history audience (for me, the exceptions are Jackson Lears' essay on the cutural-historical context, and - oddly enough - Lance Mayer and Gay Myers' piece on the techniques and materials, which is informative despite being quite technical). I'd give 5 stars for the art, 1 for the text.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews