Fourteenth street school

An informal term, it describes a group of New York City painters in the early 1950s whose studios were in the vicinity of Fourteenth Street and Union Square. They shared affiliation as students and/or teachers at the Art Students League, commitment to urban realism, and the influence of the Ashcan School of painting of the 1920s and 1930s. Kenneth Hayes Miller was the leader, and others were Isabel Bishop, Raphael Soyer, Reginald Marsh, Edward Laning and Moses Soyer. The studio location offered abundant subject matter for these artists, whose canvases reflected the cultural diversity and "lively spectacle of humanity" on the streets around them. In August, 2011, the University of Virginia Art Museum opened an exhibition focusing on this group. Sources: "Antiques & Fine Art", 2012, http://www.antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=859; http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=15853