The Ten (Expressionists)

The Ten, also known as The Ten Whitney Dissenters, were a group of New York–based artists active from 1935 to 1940. Expressionist in tendency, the group was founded to gain exposure for its members during the economic difficulty of the Great Depression, and also in response to the popularity of Regionalism which dominated the gallery space its members sought.

Work exhibited by The Ten included figurative art; however some of its members later rose to prominence as abstract artists. Although short-lived, The Ten were a seminal group, noted by art historians in connection with its members Ilya Bolotowsky, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko.

The tradition of artists jointly exhibiting work outside major venues extends at least as far back as Impressionism; this was typically done to circumvent the dominance of academic art and its associated institutions. Following their repeated rejections from the Salon, the Impressionists formed their own society in 1873—the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs ("Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers")—and began holding independent exhibitions in Paris. In the same vein, an American group of Impressionist artists known as "The Ten" formed in 1897 to exhibit independently of the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design, showing regularly in New York and other East Coast cities from 1898 to 1918. Further, another American group known as The Eight showed at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908, similarly to work around the National Academy of Design after certain of its members were not accepted for the Academy's spring 1907 show. Due to overlapping membership and their then-controversial depictions of urban scenery and the life of the working poor in New York, The Eight were closely associated with, but distinct from, The Ashcan school.

During the mid 1930s, the gallerist Robert Ulrich Godsoe organized a variety of shows to promote American modern art. Head of the exhibition division of the WPA Federal Art Project and director of the Uptown Gallery as of May 1934, Godsoe opened his own gallery in late 1934/early 1935, dubbing it "Gallery Secession" (or: Secession Gallery) after the German and Austrian Secession movements of the 1890s. The Secession was short lived however, closing the following summer. According to Joseph Solman, it was during this period that he and a group of fellow artists who had exhibited with Godsoe—including Ilya Bolotowsky, who had not—decided to leave and organize their own exhibitions, naming themselves "The Ten". Despite having taken the same name as the earlier Impressionist group, Solman recalled that the name was chosen simply because "it sounded good", and not as homage to the earlier group. The name was non-literal; at the time of founding there were only nine members, though "the group considered that a tenth man could be easily found at a later date". The size of the group was also motivated by the exhibition opportunities it opened up. The Ten's second show was held at the Municipal Art Gallery, which adopted a policy based on that used for the MacDowell Club exhibitions: any self-organized group of eight to twelve artists could show their work. Similarly, the city government had announced plans for the Municipal Art Gallery to exhibit self-organized groups of ten to fifteen artists.

In Solman's account, the decision to start a new group was motivated in part by Godsoe's indiscriminate curation, which he felt diluted the quality of the shows:

He began to overrun the gallery with too many painters, some of whom we consider too slight or specious for the character of the place. When Godsoe did nothing in response to our quiet pleas and protests, a group of us seceded from Secession.

— Joseph Solman

Although Godsoe's account of the founding has taken on the status of a standard version, fellow member Yankel "Jack" Kufeld remembered things differently, stressing Godsoe's organizing role as the catalyst for the group's formation: