-By William O'Connor At the beginning of the 20th century the
art world had transformed from the Victorian academic salons to
embracing the new Modernism. Artists like Matisse, Picasso and
Duchamp were filling the galleries of Europe and the 1913 New
York Armory Show would set the style for the new century. Amid
this cultural turmoil existed a small school of artists living
in New York that for most of the next century would go mostly
ignored, overshadowed by their Modern contemporaries. Painting
in a realistic manner the subjects of the urban setting around
them, depicting the squalor and dirt of the city, they became
known as the Ashcan School. One of the leaders of this artistic
movement was George Bellows (1882-1925). Studying at the New
York School of Art with other American artists such as Rockwell
Kent and becoming the contemporary of other Ashcan painters like
John Sloan, Bellows' paintings illustrated the stark and raw
streets of New York City, reminiscent of the French Realist,
Daumier. A new retros