April 8, 1971: A comprehensive exhibition of work by two well-known contemporary artists, David Levine and Aaron Shikler - both natives of Brooklyn - will open on April 25 in the Special Exhibitions Galleries of The Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit will be on view through May 23 and admission is free. Guests of The Brooklyn Museum’s 14th Annual Ball which takes place on April 24 will attend a champagne preview of the Levine/Shikler show as part of the evening’s festivities.
In his introduction to the catalogue of the Levine/Shikler exhibit, Thomas S. Buechner notes, “By showing the work of two artists from similar backgrounds, with the same education and aesthetic convictions, the uniqueness of both personalities becomes immediately evident. The emphasis is on the different ways two men see rather than on the fact that they both see the same thing.”
Noted for his brilliant caricatures which have been compared with Daumier and Max Beerbohm, David Levine styles himself “a painter supported by a hobby.” His ‘hobby’ has adorned the pages and covers of the New York Review of Books, Time, Newsweek, Esquire and the weekly magazine New York and resulted in several collections of caricatures including Man From M.A.L.I.C.E., Pens and Needles, and No Known Survivors. The subjects of Levine’s witty portrayals range from DeGaulle to Joe E. Brown...from Mailer to Mao Tse Tung...with some sharp thrusts en route at LBJ, HHH, RMN, and STA. Some of the choicest of these are included in the current show which also features many of his Coney Island subjects, similar in theme to those published in a volume titled A Summer Sketchbook, as well as a group of landscapes, portraits and figure studies, in both oil and watercolor.
Levine’s work is included in many distinguished private collections including Mrs. Aristotle Onassis, Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, Mr. and Mrs. William S. Paley, and in The Brooklyn Museum, and The Joseph H. Hirschorn Collection. Born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at the Tyler School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia where he and Aaron Shikler first met, and at the Hans Hofmann School. They have remained close friends and colleagues since that time, often sharing the same model. They jointly conduct a weekly art class containing such diverse students as an investment broker, a pediatrician, a book editor, a museum director, a psychiatrist and a member of the public relations staff of Planned Parenthood. Levine has exhibited extensively, including a number of one-man shows at the Forum and Davis Galleries.
Like Levine, Aaron Shikler’s work is deeply rooted in the tradition of realism. Also born in Brooklyn, with similar family background and training, Shikler’s skills and insights are expressed in direct contrast to Levine’s. If line is Levine’s medium, light is Shikler’s. The quiet and elegant portraits for which he is noted reveal the uniqueness of the sitter who is depicted in a luminous atmosphere of light and color. This evocative beauty carries over into the still lifes and figure studies that are included in the exhibition.
Shikler’s most recent work includes the White House portraits of the late President Kennedy and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and some of the studies for these portraits are in the show. He has exhibited extensively both here and abroad and his work has been featured in Newsweek, Horizon, Esquire, and American Artist. Among the collectors of his work are The Brooklyn Museum, Parrish Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while private collectors include H.R.H. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Mr. and Mrs. John Pierrepont, Mr. and Mrs. C. Douglas Dillon, Mrs. Aristotle Onassis and Miss Lauren Bacall. He has been represented by the Davis Galleries since its establishment.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1971, 025-26.
