American (1903-1981)

Louis Schanker was an important early American modernist painter. He was best known for his work of the 30's and 40's done in a semi-abstract mode that was influenced by European modernism.He had his first solo in 1933 and first exhibited at the Whitney in 1936. Today the Whitney holds ten of his works. He was a founding member of American Abstract Artists, dedicated to fostering public understanding of Abstract Art.

Schanker was a radical among radicals. His "conglomerations of color-patches, among other things", wrote the sympathetic art critic Emily Genauer in 1935, "are bound to alienate no small part of the gallery-going public." However, the work proved popular in the New York art scene.

 In 1938, Schanker joined Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and other artists in a group known as ''The 10.'' They He protested against the prevailing currents of regionalism and realism in American art.