{"data":{"id":"493","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":493,"topgoose_id":2023,"tms_id":493,"display_name":"William Glackens","sort_name":"Glackens William","display_date":"1870–1938","begin_date":"1870","end_date":"1938","biography":"\u003cp\u003eWilliam Glackens was one of a circle of Philadelphia newspaper illustrators who, under the tutelage of the painter \u003ca href=\"/artists/597\"\u003eRobert Henri\u003c/a\u003e, moved to New York at the turn of the century and formed part of the revolutionary group of urban realist painters known as the Ashcan School. Like his colleagues in the group, Glackens rejected the refined themes of genteel society promoted by the conservative art academies, turning instead to street life and pop culture as subjects for his art. Inspired by the proliferation of new entertainment forms during the years before World War I, Glackens used loose, impressionistic brushwork to chronicle an optimistic, democratic world of lighthearted enjoyments.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/475\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHammerstein’s Roof Garden\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e portrays an evening at a fashionable New York nightspot—a roof garden used for open-air entertainment when rising summer temperatures forced indoor theaters to close. Opened by theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein on West 42nd Street, Hammerstein’s Roof Garden presented vaudeville acts that included exotic Spanish dancers, cycling jugglers, and tightrope walkers. Only at the turn of the century did it become acceptable for respectable women to attend amusements of this sort, and here they sit side by side with men. The arena is lit by a filigreed tangle of electric lights, a recent invention that had made nighttime theater possible. The scene, therefore, is not simply a lively night at the theater but a record of changing social norms and the exhilarating impact of new technology on everyday life.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500018884","wikidata_id":"Q1339934","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:57:39.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-12T07:03:42.671-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/493/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/493/exhibitions"}}}}