George Luks, The Café Francis, ca. 1906. Oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in. The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, Museum Purchase

NEW YORK.-More than seventy of the Ashcan School’s most significant canvasses depicting turn-of-the-twentieth century New Yorkers at play, complemented by prints, photographs and ephemera from the renowned archives and collections of the New-York Historical Society, will come to New York as part of the traveling exhibition Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists’ Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, opening November 28 and running through February 10, 2008 at 170 Central Park West at 77th Street, in New York City.

Known for their realistic paintings of the working life of New Yorkers, the Ashcan School is most often identified with its depictions of the grittier side of urban life. However, the paintings in Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists’ Brush with Leisure 1895- 1925 celebrate people of diverse economic backgrounds enjoying their free time. The exhibition includes sections on: cafes; fine and performing arts (including the circus, the theater, and dance and music performances); sports and recreation; parks (including Central and Washington Square Parks); beaches and country pursuits. George Bellows’ famous boxers and John Sloan’s depiction of the still-operating McSorley’s Bar on East 7th Street are among the featured paintings.

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