John Brook (born 1924)
Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs
Karl Zerbe, Carl Pickhardt, Reed Champion, Kahil Gibran, John Northey, Esther Geller, Thomas Fransioli, Ture Bengtz, Giglio Dante, Maud Morgan, Lawrence Kupferman
The galleries of Boston's Institute of Modern Art (now the Institute of Contemporary Art) provide the setting for this image of eleven artists featured in a 1947 group exhibition showcasing Massachusetts painters. Influenced by such artists as Karl Zerbe (in doorway on left), a teacher at the museum school, many of these painters worked in a style reminiscent of German Expressionism. A review of the show in ARTnews celebrated the exhibition as a sign of a brighter, more progressive cultural future for the city, although Boston would remain in the long shadow of the New York art scene.
Gelatin silver print, circa 1947
Variant published December 1947
ARTnews Collection, New York City
National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution