The New Ashcan School

The Bellow's show at the Frick got me thinking about some of my favorite artist's today. Bellow's was part of "the Ashcan School", a group of early 20th century American painters. These artist's rejected a lot of the formalities of the academy and tried to make work that represented, celebrated and was relevant to people.

They also tried to take control in other ways. "In 1908, as a protest against prevailing restrictive academic exhibition procedures the "Eight" organized a history-making exhibition that became a symbol of rebellion in American and modern art. The show was revolutionary in that it was the first exhibit that was self-organized and self-selected by a group of related artists, without a jury and prizes."

Anyway, there seems to a big group of artist's today,looking for new ways to do that; Swoon, Barry McGee and Zoe Strauss come to mind.