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.” 

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.

The League’s legacy is being celebrated in two exhibitions: One closing this week  and one opening. Shaping American Art: A Celebration of the Art Students League at 150 examines the Art Students League of New York’s rich and complex history and its impacts on the trajectories of American art since 1875. For the last 150 years, the League has been home to artists of every medium and movement. Not immune to the ups and downs of our lived experience, the League has withstood two World Wars, stock market crashes, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and other major upheavals of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. As these events have shaped the institution, the League, in turn, has shaped its artists and the course of American art. More than a citation in an artist’s biography or a footnote to an epoch, the League firmly holds a place in the manifold histories of American art. On view through Saturday, August 16th.  Below: Thomas Hart Benton, Sunday Morning, 1934  

The Art Students League of New York proudly presents its 2025 Juried Selection Exhibitionat Fridman Gallery in the Bowery. This exhibition features juror-selected works from the nearly 100 Student Salons or student showcases that were held at the League between January and May 2025. Displaying a myriad of techniques and styles across mediums, these works are a testament to the caliber of League artists past and present. It is organized by the League’s Assistant Curator Esther V. Moerdler and is on view at the Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery at Art Students League, 215 West 57^th Street, New York, NY Info

“The Juried Selection Exhibition [which opened Tuesday, August 12^th]  has a long and storied history here at the League,” reflects curator Esther V. Moerdler. “We are very excited to be sharing it with a new audience in the Bowery. It is an incredible opportunity for League students to expand their reach and develop their practice, which will hopefully lead to many new opportunities as they continue their careers as artists.” 

The League’s Student Salons is an annual series of exhibitions featuring recent student work across all disciplines taught at the League. The Student Salons are open to any student who chooses to display their work. Juried by invited guests—prominent artists, curators, or scholars within the artworld—the Juried Selection Exhibition presents artwork chosen from the open Student Salons and represents the independent jurors’ favorite student artworks. Here, the best of the best come together in one exhibition, providing a picture of the League today. Left: Kenichi Ikeda, Brooklyn Heights, New York, watercolor on paper

Currently on view at Friedman Gallery, 169 Bowery, New York, NY Info