Edgar Levy
American, 1907 - 1975
Edgar Levy is remembered as an artist of firm convictions, as well as a lively and articulate thinker. Levy was an unusually inquisitive man. As a young student he secured an attendant’s job at the Harlem Hospital Autopsy Room in order to study anatomy. Later in life he studied advanced mathematics at Columbia and attended international scientific conferences in Europe. Levy’s lively intellect and interest in art led him to study at the Art Students League under Jan Matulka. There he formed life long associations and friendships with George McNeil, Dorothy Dehner, Irene Rice Pereira, David Smith and Lucille Corcos. He also met and was influenced by John Graham. Over the years his closest friend was David Smith, with whom he occasionally shared studio space. Levy married the gifted painter Lucille Corcos and they moved to Brooklyn Heights where their circle of friends included Adolph Gottlieb, Smith and Dehner, Louis Shanker and Mark Rothko. Levy exhibited “by invitation” with “The Ten.” Initially one of the progenitors of Abstract Expressionism, Levy eventually rejected its premises and pursued his own alternative courses. In the 1930’s however, Levy produced an important body of work which holds significance for the development of Abstract Expressionist art. Selected Collections: University of Michigan Art Museum Hirshhorn Museum Wooster Art Museum Ball State University, Indiana Corcoran Gallery of Art
