An Edward Laning Gallery

Edward Laning standing beside a self-portrait,undated

Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son collection

Photograph Study Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum

A LANING GALLERY: His Contemporaries, Critics, and Art Work Speak

Creative Art magazine (cover), March 1933 (Download here)

In the March 1933 edition of Creative Art, James W. Lane did a feature article on Edward Laning. In his opening paragraphs he wrote:

"At a time like the present, the relations of the individual to society is the great problem in the mind of thinking men. Certain American painters, conscious of these new times and new problems, seek to reflect scenes from ordinary life. . . . They people their streets, their parks, subway cars, department stores and "L" stations with human beings intent on some task or pastime. To be quite definite, yet aloof, as a recorder of the unthinking crowds of the city of today is the achievement of Edward Laning, whose Fourteenth Street has recently been acquired for the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum."

Lane concluded his article with thoughts about how Laning's work represented a great synthesis of "the city" and its inhabitants:

"The pure 'cityscapists' glorify modern architecture and industry without human figures. It is pleasant to study an artist, who, though human beings today almost are more dense than dust and almost more discouraging to individualize, does not forget that they are, after all, the stuff of life and that, if properly handled, they can be more significant than any architectural contraptions, no matter how well arranged or abstract."

Exhibit program (cover), Edward Laning, November 4 - 22, 1969, Bernard Danenberg Galleries, Inc. (Download here)

From November 4 - 22, 1969, the Bernard Danenberg Galleries Inc. in New York City presented an exhibit of Laning's oil paintings, watercolors and drawings titled simply, Edward Laning. In his foreword to the exhibit catalog, Lawrence Campbell, Editorial Associate, Art News, referenced an earlier exhibit by Laning:

"Edward Laning occupies a special place in modern American painting. He is a social critic and a propagandist for traditional ways. He paints morality pictures. He is the only American muralist to emerge from the 1930's [sic] with the experience and knowledge to handle a large number of figures and landscapes in a convincing fashion. . . . . One senses that he lives at the eye of a hurricane and watches everything being blown to bits around him. . . . In the works peopled by demons, angels and dumpy New Yorkers or Italians, the menace comes not so much from the alarming situations but from the feeling of Fate arching over the spectator. "

Edward Laning

Two Women, undated

Brown ink on paper, 9" x 6-1/4"

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Edward Laning

Theater Crowd, 1929

National Gallery of Art

Reba and Dave Williams Collection

Etching, 8-13/16" x 11-13/16"

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Edward Laning

Untitled [Seated Woman], 1929

National Gallery of Art

Reba and Dave Williams Collection

Lithograph, 18-15/16" x 12-1/2"

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Edward Laning

Breezy Day on the Avenue, 1930

Collection of John P. Axelrod

Oil on canvas, 8-3/4" x 6-1/2"

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Edward Laning

Prairie Woman, Portrait of Elizabeth Nottingham, 1930

Oil on canvas, 26" x 20"

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Edward Laning

Unlawful Assembly, Union Square, 1931

Whitney Museum of American Art

Gift of Isabel Bishop

Oil & tempera on linen, 14-3/16" x 36"

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Edward Laning

Fourteenth Street, 1931

Whitney Museum of American Art

Museum Purchase

Tempera & oil on canvas, 30" x 40"

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Edward Laning

The Cardinal, ca. 1934

Tempera & oil on canvas, 30-1/4" x 24"

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Edward Laning

On Our Way, ca. 1934

Tempera & oil on canvas , 16" x 11-1/4"

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Edward Laning

Study for Curb Market, ca. 1935 - 1937

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of Mary Fife Laning

Pencil heightened with white on paperboard, 13-1/8" x 14 1/8"

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Edward Laning

The Past as Connecting Threads in Human Life, 1937

Current location: Richmond County Administration Building, Rockingham, NC

Mural, oil on canvas

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Edward Laning

Pantheon, 1937

Ink & wash on paper, 12-3/4" x 9"

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Edward Laning

Study for Seated Matron in Corn Dance, 1937

Drawing on brown paper, 10" x 5-1/2"

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Edward Laning

Corn Dance, Taos, 1937

Oil on canvas, 30" x 40"

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Edward Laning

Camp Meeting, 1937

Wichita Art Museum

Friends of the Wichita Art Museum

Oil on canvas, 33" x 48"

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Edward Laning

Untitled [Walking Rain], 1937

National Gallery of Art

Reba and Dave Williams Collection

Lithograph, 15-5/6" x 22-5/6"

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Edward Laning

Coney Island Beach Scene, 1938

Weatherspoon Art Museum

Gift of his family in honor of Mr. Benjamin Cone's 80th birthday

Oil on canvas, 37-1/4" x 43-1/8"

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Edward Laning

Black Friday: Richard Whitney and the Stock Exchange, 1939

Oil on panel, 30" x 22-1/4"

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Edward Laning

Black Friday, 1939

Black and sepia ink with gouache highlights on paper

14" x 10-1/4"

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Edward Laning

T.R. [Teddy Roosevelt] in Panama, 1939

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of Mrs. Mary Fife Laning

Oil on fiberboard, 33" x 40"

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Edward Laning

The Long Hunters Discover Daniel Boone, 1942

Living New Deal

Current location: William H. Natcher U.S. Courthouse, Bowling Green, KY

Mural; oil on canvas

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STORY OF THE RECORDED WORD, 1940

New York City Public Library, Third floor