Street painters

DEFINITION

A group of painters in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s committed to directness, meaning that little interfered between the process of seeing and the recording and preserving in paint of what the artist saw. The Street-Painter method was for the artist to set up an easel on the street and then paint on the spot what was observed. Because there was no masking of harsh realisties, the movement resembled the early 20th century social- realist Ash Can painters that included Robert Henri and John Sloan.Members of the Street Painters were Tad Day, Ronald DeNota, Jessie Benton-Evans, Simon Gaon, Don Gray, Myron Heise, Kenneth McIndoe, and Philip Sherrod.Gaon and Sherrod were the founders, and began as Street Painters with Times Square as their painting location.They received media coverage, held panel discussions, were reviewed in magazines and newspapers, and held exhibitions including at the Bond Street Gallery, World Trade Center, and Adelphi University.