Ashcan School

First applied in the 1930s to early twentieth century American urban realist painters such as the Eight, whose members included George Luks, Robert Henri, John Sloan, and William Glackens. Ashcan artists presented ordinary aspects of city life with a particular vitality in opposition to the late nineteenth century aesthetic, which stressed refined painting techniques, appropriate subject matter, and art for art’s sake. Generally considered revolutionary in the United States, the movement had clear precedents in the French nineteenth century avant-garde.