New York City Life: Prints by John Sloan

Lovely exhibition at the Barber Institute of Fine Art in Birmingham of John Sloan’s prints of New York shown to compliment the Saul Bellows show.

 
Sloan moved to New York in 1904 and these etchings were published as a portfolio in 1905-6 and show his first encounters with the city from 5th Avenue to Chelsea. They were an old fashioned style at the time and have a flavour of Hogarth’s observation of life.
 
The labels were excellent on the pictures with quotes from Sloan’s diaries and other contemporaries and it was a nice touch to show them with two books that he had illustrated.
 
I loved a picture called “Connoisseurs of Prints” as I can feel myself taking up a similar pose to those in the picture but you then realised that you are not sure if the eminent gentlemen are looking at the pictures or the ladies bottoms. My favourite was one of a woman reading the paper in a dishevelled room with a child playing on the bed. Do we judge her for the chaos or praise her for finding time to read in a busy life.
 
Closes on 16 September 2018

 

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