If you’ve ever taken a workshop, a course, attended an exhibition or a lecture, you can’t help but sense that The League, as it’s known, is different. Walking into this historic structure, which is maintained to a high degree of spit and polish, you get that it’s a place that matters to the cultural life of New York City. You also get a sense of its renegade origins.

The League was founded in 1875 by a group of artists who broke away from the only art school in the city at that time—the school of the National Academy. The NA was an elite, conservative membership organization, and studies began with drawing from plaster casts, then from the model, and only then, with painting in oils. 

Above: The Art Students League of New York (ASL) has become synonymous with its building, the American Fine Arts Society (AFAS). But in 1892, when the AFAS first opened, the ASL was just one constituent of the building, which it shared with the Society of American Artists and the Architectural League of New York. It was not until 1941, when the ASL bought out the stock from the National Academy of Design and the Architectural League of New York, that it became the sole shareholder. 

In 1875 the NA's only life drawing instructor, Lemuel Wilmarth, followed by a number of his students, broke away to form a new place to study when the Academy cancelled drawing classes due to a shortage of plaster casts. In a lively account Jonathan Miller Spies writes, “Wilmarth offered his instruction for free, and students passed the hat to rent classrooms [on Union Square]. A young Theodore Robinson suggested a name: The Art Students League. They printed up a pamphlet detailing their ambitions, and sent a copy to the Academy.” 

The founding artists’ commitment to independence, accessibility and creative freedom would become the League's hallmark, even as the school continued to grow. In 1892, having far outgrown the Union Square space, the League moved into its permanent headquarters on 57th Street. The League’s Henry J. Hardenbergh-designed building was designated a New York City landmark in 1968 and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980. Above: Frank Vincent DuMond in an antique drawing class at the Art Students League, c. 1892. Archives of the Art Students League of New York.

At its founding, the League was a collection of autonomous studios under the direction of individual creative authorities without interference from administration, a tradition that continues to this day—and ensures that students are able to choose among a wide range of modes of expression. Based on the 19th century French atelier system, the League’s structure enables a pluralistic and inclusive education that cultivates the technical and intellectual skills of aspiring artists. Below: Women’s life drawing class at the Art Students League, c. 1903. Archives of the Art Students League of New York 

Fast forward to the 20^th century, ASL continued to influence the development of American art in the postwar years. Robert Rauschenberg met Cy Twombly and Knox Martin at the League in the late 1940s. Helen Frankenthaler studied at the League and Jacob Lawrence taught at the League. As Abstract Expressionism gave way to Pop art and Minimalism, aspiring American artists continued to explore their craft at the League. A young Eva Hesse studied at the League in the mid 1950s, returning to the League’s outpost in Woodstock, New York in the 1960s….Developing a friendship with Georgia O’Keeffe, Yayoi Kusama decided to come to the League in 1958, and Kusama would later share a studio and become close friends with Hesse. In the 1980s, Chinese artist and activist Ai WeiWei studied at the League with Bruce Dorfman and Knox Martin from 1983 to 1986. Below: Kenneth Hayes Miller, himself a product of an ASL education, became an instructor in 1911. He is pictured here with students in 1949. Archives of the Art Students League of New York.

Today, the League remains an institution run by artists in support of artists, from absolute beginners to seasoned artists who enjoy the camaraderie of a cohort. There is no set curriculum, even in the two-year Certificate Program. In addition to courses, workshops and open sketch sessions, the League also offers various development programs for practicing and aspiring artists. Among the resources within the building is the small but exceptional library with a minuscule reading room lined with a changing array of books selected for their relevance to what’s going on in the city and the art world in general. The Art Supply Store carries much of what you would need for classes. Café Atelier on the third floor invites students and visitors to snack or dine or bring their own. Its walls are hung with changing exhibitions of works from the League's Collection. The Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery hosts changing exhibitions and a lecture series, with weekly Student Salons filling the space from January through May each year. Above: Drawing class, 1940. Archives of the Art Students League of New York

The League’s legacy, 150 | Art Students League, is being celebrated by several exhibitions, with 150 Years of Influential Instructors closing this Friday, February 28 at Lincoln Glenn Gallery: 17 East 67th Street, Suite 1A.

Opening on March 7, The Art Students League of New York at The New York Historical  showcases works by League affiliates with featured paintings drawn from The Historical’s promised gift of 130 scenes of New York City from art collectors and philanthropists Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld. The exhibition, curated by Wendy Nlani E. Ikemoto, vice president & chief curator, in collaboration with Ksenia Nouril, gallery director and curator, and Esther Moerdler, curatorial assistant, at the Art Students League, is part of a larger city-wide, cross-institutional, year-long celebration programmed by the Art Students League. Below: The League's Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery

While upcoming exhibitions are in the planning stages, The League website is also in development. For now, there is a wealth of information in the newsletter, LINEA / Studio Notes From The Art Students League of NY.

The Art Students League of New York, 215 West 57^th Street, New York, NY Info

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