Description
American artist Jack Levine was born on January 3, 1915, in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who were Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. After art studies in Boston, Levine became recognized as a social realist painter. He satirized contemporary society and politics in works like “The Feast of Pure Reason” and “Finger of Newt.” At the age of 95, Levine died in New York City on November 8, 2010.
Social Realism in the 1930s
During the Great Depression, Levine participated in the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration, an agency that employed artists to produce works of public art. Two of Levine’s paintings—”Card Game” and “Brain Trust”—were part of a showing of WPA art that was held at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art in 1936.