“My paintings are an accumulation of improvisations,” Levine observed in a recent conversation. “I keep adding things until the painting is spoiled, then I cover everything up and start over.”

(Remarks in quotes below are from the book Jack Levine by Jack Levine, published by Rizzoli in 1989.)

Major paintings in the exhibition include:

Fêtes Galantes from 1959, which Levine explains as “a reprise of Election Night, but without politicians. It’s just a nightclub full of people who are well-off.” On hand are a cigarette girl and a group of musicians. “I myself wouldn’t be able to bear that gypsy violin in my ear while I was eating.”

“Art with a social message had been de rigueur in the 30s. I knew it was considered passé by the 60s, but I felt that I had a personal commitment to sustain it and come up with topics I felt I needed to do.”

The 1963 painting Witches Sabbath is the result of a wild, free association of imagery focusing on an unspecified governmental committee reminiscent of the McCarthy-era. A goat, a group of pigeons and a pumpkin join the committee on and around a central table.

“Looking back on the 70s, it seems to me as if that political motivation -- that desire to satirize, to tweak the noses of the powers that be -- had died in me. But when I actually look at the work I did then, I realize that I was doing as much painting of that kind as I had ever done.”

For the Sake of Art - Avant Garde, painted in 1969-71, focuses on people leaving the opera at Lincoln Center. “They are very enlightened by what they saw and heard and I am glad for them.”

Bandwagon (Four More Years) from 1973 depicts a group of people who are jubilant at the prospect of four more years of a Richard Nixon presidency. Levine shows them making traditional gestures of contempt at anyone who feels differently.

Levine went to the United Nations and sat in on Security Council meetings in preparation for his 1978 painting Panethnikon. Starting with the idea of “showing all the people of the world” Levine included Brezhnev, Idi Amin, Ibn Saud, and a huge cast of invented first and third world characters.

“I’m not a sociologist, but I have a feeling that what we are now is what we’re always going to be. After World War II, all we needed was more material goods and more high-tech, and we’re getting everything we want.”

In the early 1980s, Levine worked on two major paintings, Armorers and The Arms Brokers, in which he “brought the men together with their toys. These are the arms brokers -- the biggest game in town. They are the people in this world who really matter.” Armorers is included in the exhibition.

Singer Frank Sinatra is pictured in his element with a group of Rubenesque dancing girls in 1984’s Orpheus in Vegas. “Although he’s not my cup of tea, he’s a very gifted entertainer, and he helps make the point about beauty and money.”

The exhibition will feature additional paintings, including self portraits from the 1940s and 2004, the religious portraits Yehuddah (Judah) and Nehemiah from the late 1950s, and a selection of drawings and prints.

Jack Levine grew up in Boston’s South End, the youngest of eight children born to Lithuanian immigrant parents. By the age of 21, he was employed in the newly formed Works Progress Administration and his WPA paintings Card Game and Brain Trust were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. The following year, MoMA acquired Levine’s painting The Feast of Pure Reason and he achieved national recognition. The painting is still considered one of Levine’s seminal works: a bitter commentary on what the young artist perceived to be the unholy alliance between cops, politicians, and criminals. Levine’s first one-man show was held at New York’s prestigious Downtown Gallery in 1939.

This meteoric rise was interrupted by a three and a half year stint in the Army during World War II. A mid-1940s self portrait titled In the Service is included in the exhibition. After the war Levine married artist Ruth Gikow and moved to New York City. In 1952, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art organized a major retrospective of his work which traveled widely until closing at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1955. During the 1950s and 60s, Levine continued to produce some of his finest works, including the painting that is often regarded as his magnum opus, Gangster Funeral, now in the collection of the Whitney. Between 1960 and 1975, Levine turned to topics ranging from the American Civil Rights movement and prison conditions in Franco’s Spain to a series on the theme of the Judgment of Paris. In 1978, a comprehensive retrospective of his work, organized by the Jewish Museum, traveled throughout the country. The Brooklyn Museum of Art presented a solo exhibition of Levine’s etchings and lithographs in 1999.

An award winning documentary film titled Jack Levine: A Feast of Pure Reason was produced and directed by David Sutherland in 1985. Filmmaker William Powers has been at work over the past year on a new documentary about Levine which will culminate with the current exhibition and will include footage of the artist discussing the works in the show.

“I still believe that I have some mission in life to say what I think about the world. And let the avant-garde go hang.”

DC Moore Gallery specializes in twentieth century and contemporary art. The gallery is located on the eighth floor of 724 Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 5:30. Press viewings can be arranged prior to the exhibition. For more information, for photographs, or to arrange a viewing, please call Sandra Paci at 212-247-2111.