Fight & Dance: Social Realism of Eli Levin

Eli Levin a.k.a. Jo Basiste 

Eli Levin (1938 - current) is a realist painter and printmaker. He is prolific in the mediums of egg tempera and watercolor painting, as well as intaglio printmaking. He came to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1964 after being kicked out of the Boston Museum Graduate School for not painting larger, in oil, or in their Matisse-ist style. 

Eli is the son of novelist Meyer Levin and Mable Schamp Doctorate in Chemistry. He was born in Chicago but most of his childhood was in Manhattan. He graduated from Music and Art High School 1956, earned a B.A. in Literature from the New School for Social Research, NYC 1961, where he also studied painting from the model with Raphael Soyer five mornings a week for two years. Earned an M.A. in Art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison 1965, and an M.A. in Humanities from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1991.

He is known in Santa Fe for his bar scenes and strong social commentary taking after the leftist artists of the 1930’s. 

Besides painting he is also known for running a weekly drawing group for nearly fifty years that continues to this day as well as co-founding the Santa Fe Etching Club in 1981, plus teaching, writing many art reviews, and a few art books.

Museum and Private Collections 

Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C. 

National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. 

Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ 

Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM 

Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM 

Highlands University Foundation, Las Vegas, NM 

Harwood Foundation, Taos, NM 

Holt/Smithson Foundation, Santa Fe, NM 

New Mexico University Museum, Albuquerque, NM 

Museum of Fine Arts, Cleveland, Ohio 

Arizona State University Fine Arts Museum 

University of West Virginia Fine Arts Museum 

Dr. Robert Bell and Dr. Stirling Puck  

The Honorable Senator Bingaman 

Art Historian Linda Nochlin 

It is with great pleasure that we announce his show “Fight and Dance: Social Realism of Eli Levin”. This show will be classic Eli bar scenes and social realism from the working world.

Join us for the Opening Reception Friday, May 10th from 5-8pm at Susan Eddings Pérez Gallery at 717 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501. This exhibition will be showing until June 7th. All are welcome.