The
Arts Students League was established in New York in 1875. It had no
entrance requirements and no set course. With teachers such as Thomas
Eakins, Robert Henri, John
Sloan, Art Young, George
Luks, Boardman Robinson, Howard
Pyle, George Grosz and George
Bellows, it developed a reputation for progressive teaching methods
and radical politics. In 1900 it had nearly a thousand students and
was considered the most important art school in the country.
The involvement of Alfred Stieglitz,
Paul Strand, Myra
Wiggins, Francis Johnson, Edward
Steichen, and Lee Miller with the
Arts Students League also ensured that the organization played an
important role in the early development of photography.
Teachers and students from Arts Students League were involved in the
production of the Marxist journals, The
Masses, The Liberator
and the New Masses. As a result,
people involved with the Arts Students League were investigated by
the House of Un-American Activities Committee
during the 1950s.
By the late 1990s the Arts Students League had 2,200 students from
around the world. Each student signs up for month-long, studio-based
courses that meet seven days a week, morning, afternoon and evening.
The curriculum is determined by the individual student and the methods
of each teacher.
Arts Students League in New York
(1)
Robert Henri, open letter to Art Student
League about Thomas Eakins, (29th October,
1917)
Thomas Eakins was a man of great character. He was a man of iron will
and his will to paint and to carry out his life as he thought it should
go. This he did. It cost him heavily but in his works we have the
precious result of his independence, his generous heart and his big
mind. Eakins was a deep student of life, and with a great love he
studied humanity frankly. He was not afraid of what his study revealed
to him.
In the matter of ways and means of expression, the science of technique,
he studied most profoundly, as only a great master would have the
will to study. His vision was not touched by fashion. He struggled
to apprehend the constructive force in nature and to employ in his
works the principles found. His quality was honesty. "Integrity"
is the word which seems best to fit him. Personally I consider him
the greatest portrait painter America has produced.
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