In the Midst of the Plague

Harvey Dinnerstein, "Self Portrait," pastel, 1976

Harvey Dinnerstein (1928-) is a realist painter who is working well into his tenth decade. A life-long New Yorker, he attended the Tyler School of Art (Temple University) and later taught at the School of Visual Arts, the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. Although he came of age during the ferment following World War II, he disdained the abstraction movement of that time for an exploration of realism and the human figure. 

Harvey Dinnerstein,"The Plague," pastel, 2020

Just like other artists Mr. Dinnerstein has been profoundly influenced by the covid pandemic of the past couple of years. Although he is well-known as a portraitist and illustrator, Mr. Dinnerstin is also comfortable with allegory, as seen in his pastel from last year, "The Plague," a work that shows us people clinging to a subway post, along with the skeletal hand of Death. 

Dinnerstein's work is in collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and numerous others.

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Harvey Dinnerstein: In the Midst of the Plague