The covers of The Masses, 1911-1917
Published monthly in the United States from 1911 until 1917 – when Federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription during World War I – The Masses was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics, which was idealized among a circle of young activists and intellectuals in Greenwich Village – a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, that was known in the late 19th to mid 20th centuries as the bohemian capital.
Founded by Piet Vlag, an eccentric socialist immigrant from the Netherlands, the illustrated socialist monthly published reportage, fiction, poetry and art by the leading radicals of the time and, although the periodical’s birth coincided with the explosion of modernism, the magazine mostly included and featured visual artists from the Ashcan school – defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century; well known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York’s poorer neighborhoods.
The Masses carved out a unique position for itself within American left print culture, being more open to reforms, like women’s suffrage; and at the same time, fiercely criticized more mainstream leftist publications for insufficient radicalism and vehemence over central issues, like the labour struggle and what, according to its editors, was evidently the cause of World War I: imperialist international finance capital.
Ideology apart, here on Pilgrim’s pages we pay homage to some unique covers from The Masses, displaying them in appreciation of their talent and innovation in design.
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Ashcan School
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Ashcan School artists & friends at John French Sloan’s Philadelphia Studio, 1898
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Ashcan School artists, c. 1896, l to r, Everett Shinn, Robert Henri, John French Sloan
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Thomas Pollock Anshutz, The Farmer and His Son at Harvesting, 1879. Five members of the Ashcan School studied with him, but went on to create quite different styles.
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Robert Henri, Snow in New York, 1902, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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Everett Shinn, Cross Streets of New York, 1899, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
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William Glackens, Italo-American Celebration, Washington Square, 1912, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
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John French Sloan, McSorley’s Bar, 1912, Detroit Institute of Arts
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George Luks, Houston Street 1917, oil on canvas, Saint Louis Art Museum
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Edward Hopper, The El Station, 1908, Whitney Museum of American Art
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George Bellows, Both Members of This Club (1909), National Gallery of Art. Bellows was a close associate of the Ashcan School.
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Jacob Riis, Bandit’s Roost 1888, (photo), considered the most crime-ridden, dangerous part of New York City.
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Arthur B. Davies, Elysian Fields, oil on canvas, The Phillips Collection Washington, DC.
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Maurice Prendergast, Central Park, New York 1901, Whitney Museum of American Art
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