PAINTERS OF AMERICAN LIFE: THE EIGHT 

March 8 - June 15

Celebrating the anniversary of the group’s famous 1908 exhibition at Macbeth Galleries in New York, the exhibition will include representative work by all members of the original Eight: Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan.

On February 3, 1908, Macbeth Galleries in New York opened a show of works by eight living American artists that became the talk of the town. Thousands of visitors crowded into the galleries, even lining up outside in the morning to get in, all trying to catch a glimpse of paintings by Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice B. Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. When the show closed on February 19, The Eight, as they soon came to be known, had become a minor sensation.

The Eight successfully staged an independent group show and launched the modern ritual of artistic rebellion in twentieth-century America. In the past, artists submitted their works to academic juries and experts before the public got a chance to see them. The Eight did away with the established hierarchy and sought a direct channel to
reach audiences and market their work. They deliberately garnered the attention of the press which helped them orchestrate their exhibition as a media event. This form of independent group exhibition became a hallmark of modern art.

2008 marks the centennial of the 1908 show and is an appropriate occasion to revisit The Eight, a milestone in the history of American art. Like many other group exhibitions that formed in the course of the twentieth century, The Eight was a temporary gathering of artists that
soon dissolved. But it was also unique and historically important, in that the group included artists who worked in such disparate styles. Unlike other independent modern movements, The Eight did not pursue an exclusive program or aesthetic. After one hundred years, the group still stands out as a fascinating chapter in the history of modern art in America.