Sunrise196424 x 48 "
Frame: 24 1/2 x 48 5/8 x 1 1/4 "Oil on MasoniteGift of David L. Davies2008.4.1601539002480P4.1998.26Jack SavitskyPaintingsCopyright for this work is under review.Inscribed on back: ...SUNRISE by Jack Savitsky 64/ Lansford Pa/ 18232/SUNRISE IN THE COAL REGION./I WENT TO SCHOOL./I WENT TO CHURCH./I WENT TO WORK./AND ON PAY DAY, I WENT OUT AND GOT DRUNK./ Jack Savitsky 1964LansfordLansfordUnited StatesPennsylvaniaPaintingsLansford
PAINTING“Sunrise in the coal region. / I went to school. / I went to work. / And on pay day, I went out and got drunk.” So wrote Jack Savitsky on the back of this deceptively cheerful work. A huge blazing sky compresses the scene below, a row of identical houses flanked by church and school and a line of figures marching dutifully to the day’s unchanging routine. Savitsky was born in Silver Creek (now New Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, to immigrant parents from Russia and Poland. His father worked in the rich anthracite mines, and for Savitsky life was difficult, dirty, and dangerous from an early age; he started work as a slate picker at the age of twelve and joined the miners soon thereafter. After years of labor in the region, he settled in Lansford, where he eventually found work in the No. 9 Coaldale Colliery. He saved enough money to purchase a red brick house, where he lived with his wife and their son. Over the course of thirty-two years underground he developed many ailments, including black lung and emphysema; when the mine closed in 1969, he retired. Savitsky always had an interest in art, but it was during his retirement that he seriously began to draw and paint.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Sunrise," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgPennsylvania artist Jack Savitsky's Sunrise is dominated by a glorious golden sun whose deeply textured and patterned rays occupy three-quarters of the composition. In the balance of the work, Savitsky painted a town much like his own—twenty-six identical dwellings laid out in a row and bounded at each end by a church and a school. In the foreground, a symmetrical band of grass sways toward a central axis, and a ribbonlike procession of figures—old and young men and women, along with children and a few dogs, all in profile—follows a man in a horse-drawn wagon. This painting exemplifies the artist's mature style—a cartoonlike shorthand of outlined forms in pencil, pen, and paint filled in with clear, unmixed colors—which evolved from an earlier, more naturalistic mode of expression. Savitsky's terse inscription on the back suggests that narrowness of routine in Lansford: "Sunrise in the coal region. I went to school. I went to work. And on pay day, I went out and got drunk."
Savitsky was born in Silver Creek (now New Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, to immigrant parents from Russia and Poland who settled in eastern Pennsylvania in the latter part of the nineteenth century. His father worked in the rich anthracite mines, and for Savitsky life was difficult, dirty, and dangerous from an early age; he started work as a slate picker at the age of 12 and joined the miners soon thereafter. After years of labor in the region, he settled in Lansford, where he eventually found work in the No. 9 Coaldale Colliery. He saved enough money to purchase a red brick house, where he lived with his wife, Mae Spack, and their son, John Jr. Over the course of thirty-two years underground, he developed many ailments—black lung and emphysema among them—and when the mine closed in 1969, he retired. While he always had an interest in art, it was only during his retirement that he began to draw and paint, first as recreation and later as a way to make money.P4.1998.2619641964 2008 4 16 PAINTING“Sunrise in the coal region. / I went to school. / I went to work. / And on pay day, I went out and got drunk.” So wrote Jack Savitsky on the back of this deceptively cheerful work. A huge blazing sky compresses the scene below, a row of identical houses flanked by church and school and a line of figures marching dutifully to the day’s unchanging routine. Savitsky was born in Silver Creek (now New Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, to immigrant parents from Russia and Poland. His father worked in the rich anthracite mines, and for Savitsky life was difficult, dirty, and dangerous from an early age; he started work as a slate picker at the age of twelve and joined the miners soon thereafter. After years of labor in the region, he settled in Lansford, where he eventually found work in the No. 9 Coaldale Colliery. He saved enough money to purchase a red brick house, where he lived with his wife and their son. Over the course of thirty-two years underground he developed many ailments, including black lung and emphysema; when the mine closed in 1969, he retired. Savitsky always had an interest in art, but it was during his retirement that he seriously began to draw and paint.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Sunrise," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgPennsylvania artist Jack Savitsky's Sunrise is dominated by a glorious golden sun whose deeply textured and patterned rays occupy three-quarters of the composition. In the balance of the work, Savitsky painted a town much like his own—twenty-six identical dwellings laid out in a row and bounded at each end by a church and a school. In the foreground, a symmetrical band of grass sways toward a central axis, and a ribbonlike procession of figures—old and young men and women, along with children and a few dogs, all in profile—follows a man in a horse-drawn wagon. This painting exemplifies the artist's mature style—a cartoonlike shorthand of outlined forms in pencil, pen, and paint filled in with clear, unmixed colors—which evolved from an earlier, more naturalistic mode of expression. Savitsky's terse inscription on the back suggests that narrowness of routine in Lansford: "Sunrise in the coal region. I went to school. I went to work. And on pay day, I went out and got drunk."
Savitsky was born in Silver Creek (now New Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, to immigrant parents from Russia and Poland who settled in eastern Pennsylvania in the latter part of the nineteenth century. His father worked in the rich anthracite mines, and for Savitsky life was difficult, dirty, and dangerous from an early age; he started work as a slate picker at the age of 12 and joined the miners soon thereafter. After years of labor in the region, he settled in Lansford, where he eventually found work in the No. 9 Coaldale Colliery. He saved enough money to purchase a red brick house, where he lived with his wife, Mae Spack, and their son, John Jr. Over the course of thirty-two years underground, he developed many ailments—black lung and emphysema among them—and when the mine closed in 1969, he retired. While he always had an interest in art, it was only during his retirement that he began to draw and paint, first as recreation and later as a way to make money.