Underground Together: The Art and Life of Harvey Dinnerstein Hardcover – September 1, 2008

Harvey Dinnerstein is one the Elder Masters of the senior generation of still active American painters. By my own definition, I would draw the lower boundaries at about the mid-1930's, the age of the multi-talented Jim Dine, and the upper limits at, well, no upper limits, but not much more than Will Barnet, who, last year, celebrated his hundredth birthday. (Harvey D. was born in 1928).This is quite significant for his life and work. It means that he was a child in the Great Depression, a teen-ager in World War 2, a draftee during the Korean War, and a young man during the uprising of the Black Civil Rights movement.
each played its part in molding his persona, as did later events in Vietnam.
This book is excellent. The essays are illuminating; the artist's comments on some particular pictures are useful;
but, the absolute core is comprised of the pictures, particularly when viewed through a large diameter magnifying glass. Then they look almost as they do in the gallery. They are the heart of the volume, the most singular attribute for one previously acquainted with Dinnerstein's work or for one entering the volume cold-turkey, The pictures, and, in addition, two or three sentences of text, which point up the fact that his subject matter is life in his time and place, overwhelmingly the common people of Brooklyn and New York City, and a few other venues. In other words, his commitments and outlook are derived from the principles preached by Robert Henri taught him by the generation of those who followed: go out and look at your own people, the life of your own times and the diverse ways of the folk.
However, knowing ones subject in not enough. One must also know how to transform ones own perceptions into a painting by means of painting techiques. Those techniques most influential for him, were those of the classic tradition; for the most part, his distinctly modern art, was deviant from the perspective of the abstract expressionists, surrealists, minimalists, conceptualists, and other approaches his generation forged or accepted, his model was the best of what the traditions of figurative art had to offer him. For that, such teachers as Moses Soyer, were excellent guides, not, as he writes here, for any particularities of technique taught, but rather for being a living embodiment of the humanistic approach. While I had seen paintings of Dinnerstein's before (at his dealers in NYC), it was while leafing through the pictures in the book before reading and while studying them while reading, that I was struck by the classic traditions which informed them. The text makes this point very clearly; however, you should have no trouble picking it up for yourself.
So, the book is beautifully produced by Chronicle Books of San Francisco, has two excellent essays, one by another core New Yorker, Pete Hamill; and, the pictures are clear illustrations of the basic components of his approach. I strongly urge this book upon all the art-interested readers.

Brooklyn artist Harvey Dinnerstein has been painting portraits since the 1960s, focusing largely on the diversity of races and urban sub-cultures found in the polyglot city of New York. From his earliest days as a painter Dinnerstein has been a steadfast realist, even though abstract art was all the rage in the era and the place where he began his career. Now entering his eighties, this book is the first retrospective on Dinnerstein seen for 30 years.

The book "Underground Together: The Art and Life of Harvey Dinnerstein" starts with some informative biographical chapters on Dinnerstein, before moving to an enjoyable survey of his oil paintings, sketches and pastels. What makes Dinnerstein distinctive as an artist is his pick of subject matter. Unlike some other portrait artists, he has neither sought nor been consumed by commissions from business leaders and influential families. Dinnerstein selects unlikely subjects from the back streets of New York and leans towards African Americans, orthodox Jews, bearded musicians, scarfed migrants, sloppy students and latter-day hippies. Modelling in his studio, these candid figures look back from the paintings towards the viewer with suspicious, weary, or intense stares. The paintings are sympathetic, albeit idealised portrayals. Dinnerstein has some feeling for the spirit of these people.

Dinnerstein's most ambitious works are streetscapes. At times he has thrown himself into allegorical crowd scenes, but unfortunately these attempts come off looking contrived and camp. Far more engrossing are his melancholy depictions of ordinary life, like commuters slumped inside stuffy subway carriages, or navigating the city by bus, or wandering the streets through rain and cold. Artists are often at their best when they perceptively convey the grittiness and mayhem of their times. Dinnerstein is an exemplar of an artist who has had his eyes open to the changes in American life, while other artists have cocooned themselves in abstract, expressionist, or fantasy worlds.

The book reproduces the artworks at a good size. Included among the many plates of finished paintings are additional images of sketches, grey tonal underpaintings on canvas and photographs of the artist at work balancing brushes and mahl stick. It is gratifying to find that Dinnerstein has provided a few paragraphs of background for some of the featured paintings, to explain where he scouted out his subjects, what fired his interest, or how he set about staging the composition.

Until now Dinnerstein's work has been little known outside New York, although this book will now bring greater exposure to this unfashionable traditionalist. I bought this new release from Amazon on the strength of the coverart, knowing nothing of the artist, with total disregard for the old maxim about books and their covers. I am pleased with this impulse buy. This is an abridged version of my review at Art Book News at blogspot.

Dinnerstein is a national treasure. He is a wonderful artist as well as a teacher. The book is well written and has many high quality reproductions. If you have an interest in figurative art then this is a must have. Thanks