Life's Pleasures, The Ashcan Artists' Brush with Leisure 1895-1925

Rating All Ages Genre non fiction Publisher Merrell

This is a well put-together book that contains numerous, beautiful prints by a group of painters called "The Eight." They exhibited paintings depicting the lower classes of society in a 1908 show. Eventually their work was termed "Ashcan" art, which misleads one to think it must focus on dirty, scenes of alleys lacking in beauty and taste. In truth, very few paintings are like that. Rather, they depict diverse scenes of everyday life in a wide range of settings (ranging from earthy boxing rings to romantic seaside vacation spots) that comprise modern urban America of the early 20th century.

The book devotes a few pages of text to each of the artists and includes numerous pictures of their work both in the text section as well as in the picture plates section. The art itself looks and feels very Impressionistic, so fans of that style (whose numbers are legion) are sure to find many of these paintings much to their taste. This book is good addition to an art book collection especially for bringing some lesser known but interesting artists to your awareness.