Harvey Dinnerstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1928-04-03)April 3, 1928 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 21, 2022(2022-06-21) (aged 94) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Education | High School of Music & Art[1] Art Students League of New York Tyler School of Art |
| Known for | Painting, Drawing |
| Movement | Classical Realism |
| Spouse | Lois Behrke Dinnerstein |
| Relatives |
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| Awards | Honorary Doctorate,Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts |
Harvey Dinnerstein (April 3, 1928 – June 21, 2022) was an American figurative artist and educator. A draftsman and painter in therealistic tradition, his work includedgenre paintings, contemporary narratives, complex figurative compositions, portraits, and intimate images of his family and friends.[2]
Dinnerstein was born inBrooklyn, New York. His father, Louis, was a pharmacist and his mother, Sarah (Kobilansky) a homemaker.[3] At 14 he entered theHigh School of Music & Art. He studied withMoses Soyer,Yasuo Kuniyoshi, andJulian E. Levi at theArt Students League of New York. From 1947 to graduation in 1950, Dinnerstein studied at theTyler School of Art atTemple University inPhiladelphia. He was drafted into the Army and served atFort Monmouth, New Jersey.[4] Upon his return toNew York City in the early 1950s, he was one of a group of recent Tyler graduates who resisted the prevailing style ofAbstract Expressionism in order to paint in a figurative mode.[1]
In 1955, Dinnerstein made his solo debut in New York with an exhibition at the Davis Galleries in Manhattan. ANew York Times reviewer likened his "deft and subtle figure drawings" to works by French artistÉdouard Vuillard.[4] Inspired by theMontgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1956, Dinnerstein traveled south to document theCivil Rights upheaval through a series of drawings. This interest in cultural and moral issues continued to inform drawings and paintings that recorded the social unrest of the 1960s.Esquire magazine sent him to Washington in 1968 to document thePoor People's Campaign.
From 1965 to 1980 Dinnerstein taught at theSchool of Visual Arts in New York City, and from 1975 to 1992 at theNational Academy of Design,[1] of which he was elected a member in 1974. He taught at the Art Students League from 1980 to 2020. He received an Honorary Doctorate from theLyme Academy College of Fine Arts inOld Lyme,Connecticut, in 1998.
Dinnerstein participated in numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States. His work is in the permanent collections of theButler Institute of American Art, theMetropolitan Museum of Art, theWhitney Museum of American Art,Museum of the City of New York, National Academy of Design,National Museum of American Art, and thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
His bookHarvey Dinnerstein: An Artist at Work was published in 1978 byWatson-Guptill.
Dinnerstein was the husband of Lois (Behrke) Dinnerstein, an art historian; the older brother of figurative artistSimon Dinnerstein, and the uncle of concert pianistSimone Dinnerstein. He died at a hospital inBrooklyn from complications of a fall on June 21, 2022, at the age of 94.[4]
