Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:
Caricature drawings and realist paintings
Date and Place of Birth:
December 20, 1926, Brooklyn, New York
Life:
David Levine was one of the one of the greatest caricaturists in art history, alongside the French artists Honore Daumier and the American humorist Thomas Nast. Known as a "red-diaper" baby, Levine continued his leftist parents' political-engagement though witty renderings of celebrities, politicos and artistes of every stripe - from pop to rock to Republican. His best know work appeared biweekly in the New York Review of Books from 1963 to 2007. Those inimitable huge heads with tiny, telling bodies visually captured the content of the NYRB's academically astute articles.
Levine's command of line was legend and earned him the title the "King of Cross-Hatching." A perfect example of this can be found in his self-portrait, which deftly exhibits all the textures of hair, flesh and cloth that cross hatching allows. Similarily, Levine captured Jackson Pollock's mythic rebellous image, peeing out his subversive art. (A reference to a false anecdote about Pollock that Deborah Solomon set straight in her biography of the Abstract Expressionist.)
Levine was not only a caricaturist, but also a serious painter. His landscapes of Coney Island reflect a deep affection for his hometown, Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn's Pratt Institute educated his mind and skill. Philadelphia's Tyler School of Design expanded it, and the world-famous Abstract Expressionist Hans Hoffman served as the final touch to a long and well-regarded career.
David Margolick wrote in a blog dedicated to David Levine's memory:
The very point of caricature, Levine told me, was to teach. He wanted whomever he drew--but particularly all those politicians and tyrants and scoundrels--to behold themselves anew, warts and all, and in Levine's lexicon "all" encompassed the full panoply of blemishes, physical and characterological. After that, he hoped, they'd repent, or at least pick up a hint of humility. All those thousands of portraits Levine created for the New York Review of Books and others, then, weren't only for fun. They were to heal the world.
Important Works:
- Self-Portrait, 1968
- Jackson Pollock, ND
- Goya at Coney, 1982
Date and Place of Death:
December 29, 2009, New York City
Sources:
http://davidlevineartist.blogspot.com/
David Levine: American Presidents & Selected Paintings at Forum Gallery (video)
David Levine, Biting Caricaturist, Dies at 83
Levine, an Artist Who Drew in Yiddish
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