American family of painters, of Russian origin. Moses Soyer (b Borisoglebsk, Russia, 25 Dec 1899; d New York, 1974) and his twin brother, Raphael Soyer (d New York, 1987), emigrated with their family, including their brother Isaac Soyer (b Tombov, Russia, 20 April 1907; d New York, 1981), to the USA in 1913, eventually settling in New York. The brothers all studied painting in New York at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. Raphael also studied at the Educational Alliance Art School (1914-22), as did Moses (1916-20). Each brother had a successful career as a teacher: Moses was on the staff of the Contemporary Art School and the New School for Social Research (1927-34), where Isaac also taught (1971-81); Raphael taught intermittently at the Art Students League (1933-42). As painters the brothers were prominent in the social realist 'Fourteenth Street School' (see SOCIAL REALISM) that flourished in Greenwich Village, New York, in the 1920s. Raphael's first one-man show, at the Daniel Gallery in New York (1929), was so successful that he was able to devote much of his time to painting. Deserted Manhattan streetscapes were a favourite theme of his early years, and during the Depression he executed numerous studies of unemployed men. By the mid-1930s he had become a leading advocate of realism, not only in his uninterrupted stream of paintings but also in watercolours, lithographs and book illustrations. In Artist's Parents (oil on canvas, 1932; New York, artist's estate) and Dancing Lesson (1926; New York, Jew. Mus.), Raphael depicted his family's middle-class Jewish life in the USA with reverence and nostalgia. His world never ceased to be poignant and peopled with men and women caught in moments of quiet self-absorption, even if depicted at parties or in crowds. His paintings of downtown art gatherings throughout the decades present a vivid record of the art scene in New York. He included himself and his brothers in Portraits at a Party (1973-4; Washington, DC, Hirshhorn) and also painted a Self-portrait (1980; Lugano, Col. Thyssen-Bornemisza). From the early 1960s he exhibited at the Forum Gallery, New York. For many years Moses's work depicted urban social scenes (e.g. Employment Agency, 1935; priv. col., see 1972 exh. cat., no. 9). With Raphael he also participated in the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project and in 1939 painted two murals at Kinglessing Post Office in Philadelphia, PA. The model in the studio was also a central theme in his work, and he allowed each figure to assume a natural pose (e.g. Artist and Model, 1962; New York, MOMA). He exhibited regularly from 1944 at the ACA Heritage Gallery, New York, and a retrospective was held there and at Syracuse University, New York (1972). There is a total humility and honesty in his search for a truth behind or beyond the surface, permitting him to avoid the momentarily fashionable and to obtain a fresh, unpretentious response to the things he knew best; this is shown in his self-portrait with Raphael and Isaac, Three Brothers (1963-4; New York, Brooklyn Mus.). Isaac revealed the drama of ordinary city life and his sympathy for the unemployed in his paintings of transients, pedlars, derelicts and office girls (e.g. Art Beauty Shoppe, 1934; Dallas, TX, Mus. A.). He had one-man exhibitions at the Midtown Gallery, New York (1936), and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1942).
See the Abbreviations for further details.
