"Adam and Eve"

Original etching on archival paper by Jack Levine. Condition is very good; strong impression. Done in 1963. The etching is housed in a contemporary matte black frame. Under glass. Overall framed measurements are 24.5 by 17.25 inches. Provenance: A Sarasota, Florida estate.

Publication
Printed by Emiliano Sorini; published by Associated American Artists
Full sheet; not trimmed. 22 by 15 inches
Edition 74/100 in pencil lower left margin. Pencil signed by artist lower right margin

Jack Levine
American, 1915–2010
A painter and printmaker best known for political and social commentaries, Jack Levine drew inspiration from satirical German expressionist artists, such as George Grosz and Oskar Kokoscha, and took stylistic cues from the paintings of Titian, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Goya. Rejecting the formal qualities and ideologies of contemporary art movements, Levine caricatured 20th-century issues—inequality, big business, militarism, racism, political corruption, and human folly—to express disappointment in American culture. His painting Welcome Home (1946), which features an armchair general flanked by businessmen and socialites, was denounced by President Eisenhower and caught the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1959. During a trip to Europe after World War II, Levine was exposed to the mannerist style of El Greco, and he started creating figures with exaggerated, distorted, taffy-like faces to suggest the effects of excessive power.
Collected by a major museum
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)Whitney Museum of American ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of ArtNational Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenArt Institute of ChicagoJewish Museum.