Sloan vision of New York to open at Chazen

He showed a mean slice of life in early 20th century New York City through his prints of tenement districts and their denizens.

John Sloan began his work in 1905 with a groundbreaking 10-set collection of etchings. The complete body of work will be on exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art beginning on Saturday, Jan. 27.

Sloan followed in the artistic footsteps of his mentor, American “Ashcan School” painter Robert Henri. Henri disdained the elaborate, allegorical academic painting of the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied, preferring a more informal style and subject matter.

Sloan, who began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist, today serves as a record of growing extremes of wealth and poverty, the effects of mass immigration, industrialization, and commercialization. Sawdust- floored alehouses, the new movie theaters, penny arcades, dance halls and more proved a fertile field for Sloan. Although of socialist leanings, Sloan always maintained that his art had been “done in sympathy but with no ‘social consciousness,’” he said.

The etchings are on loan to the Chazen from the Caxambas Foundation in Janesville. Also included in the exhibition will be prints by Sloan’s friends including George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, Minna Citron and others.

The exhibition, free and open to all, will run through Sunday, March 25. For a list of related events, visit http://www.chazen.wisc.edu/ or call 263-2246.