American Art Collaborative

Jack Levine, a painter and printmaker devoted to the representation of inequalities of the twentieth century, proclaimed that “to paint is to be a keeper of the flame and to do something with it.” The son of a Lithuanian immigrant family, Levine was born in 1915 in Boston’s South End. It was this urban chaotic stage that provided him with much of his best-known visual material, including ruthless portrayals of immoral leaders who abused their positions of power. Although Levine’s style has been admired for its blend of Social Realism and Boston Figurative Expressionism, he never associated himself with either movement, instead aligning himself with the Old Masters. The Senator exemplifies Levine’s close study of these artists by virtue of its sharp, sure marks, dramatic lighting, and expressive distortion.