NY Historical Society: Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York

Reginald Marsh has become something of an overlooked figure in American art, possibly because his style - a mix of regionalism and realism - is not so much in fashion as it once was.  The current exhibit at the NY Historical Society, Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York, will hopefully do much to correct this neglect.  Certainly, for anyone with an interest in NYC, Marsh was the most important artist to follow the Ashcan School (actually, his teacher at the Art Students' League was John Sloan himself) in depicting the vibrant life of the city's lower classes.

Marsh used the medium of egg tempera and that gives his work not only a sense of flowing motion across the surface of his paintings but also a palette of rich colors that seem not to have faded at all with the passage of time.  In his work, he concentrated on four major aspects of Depression-era NYC: the Union Square neighborhood where he had his studio; the subways; the movie and burlesque theaters; and the Coney Island beach and amusement park.  All four subjects are represented at NYHS by a number of masterful paintings: Ten Cents a Dance (the title presumably taken from the 1931 Rodgers/Hart song), Starr Burlesque, Minsky's Chorus (with a curious bluish green tint given the dancers moving onstage), Harris Theater, Twenty Cent Movie, A Paramount Picture, BMT 14th Street and In 14th Street.  Other works illustrate the hardships of the Depression as well as the resilience of those living through it in paintings such as Holy Name Mission, The Bowery and Tuesday Night at the Savoy, the last notable for its depiction of an interracial crowd intermingling on the dance floor at the famous Harlem nightclub with no apparent self-consciousness.

One unfortunate omission from the exhibit 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.  A number of these etchings, as well as engravings and linocuts, are contained in the 1976 The Prints of Reginald Marsh by Norman Sasowsky.

In addition to Marsh's paintings, the NYHS exhibit features the art of a number of his contemporaries, most notably Paul Cadmus and Raphael Soyer.  There is also a wonderfully moody small oil of a woman sitting alone in a cafe by Yasuo Kuniyoshi.  Beyond that, there are a number of black & white photos from that same period not only by Marsh himself but by such renowned photographers as Berenice Abbott (including her famous Blossom Restaurant), Weegee and Walker Evans as well.  In this regard it is interesting to compare the subway portraits photographed by Marsh with those Evans took using a hidden camera as later published in Many Are Called.  Marsh was a capable photographer but apparently pursued the medium only to provide studies for his paintings. Indeed, one of his photos can clearly be seen as the source for his Hudson Bay Fur Company.  Finally, there is an excerpt from a documentary film, The City, directed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke that captures perfectly the city's bustling crowds and constant motion that are very much the same today as they were in the 1930's.

The exhibit continues through September 1, 2013.