Jack Levine, an unrepentant and much-admired realist artist whose crowded history paintings skewered plutocrats, crooked politicians and human folly, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 95. His death was announced by the DC Moore Gallery in Manhattan, which represents Mr. Levine.
Mr. Levine despised abstract art and bucked the art world’s movement toward it, drawing inspiration instead from old masters like Titian and Velázquez. He specialized in satiric tableaus and sharp social commentary directed at big business, political corruption, militarism and racism, with something left over for the comic spectacle of the human race on parade.
Skewering Plutocrats and Human Folly
Mr. Levine burst onto the American art scene in 1937 with a scathing triple portrait remarkable for its bravura brushwork and gleeful vitriol. Titled “The Feast of Pure Reason,” it depicted a police officer, a capitalist and a politician seated at a table, their bloated faces oozing malice. Hanging conspicuously in the background was an American flag.
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