Eight, The

Eight, The. A name of three groups of artists, respectively (1) American, (2) Czech, and (3) Hungarian; they were not connected in any way, but they all originally consisted of eight members, and they were all active in the first decade of the 20th century.

(1) A group of eight American painters who exhibited together in 1908, united by opposition to the conservative National Academy of Design and a determination to bring painting into direct touch with life. The eight members were: Arthur B Davies, William J. Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. They banded together when the National Academy of Design rejected work by Glackens, Luks, and Sloan for its 1907 exhibition. Henri, who was the dominant personality of the group and a member of the Academy's jury, withdrew his own work in protest, and Davies was then asked to organize an independent exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery, New York. This took place in February 1908; it was the only exhibition in which The Eight showed together as a group, but it was subsequently circulated to nine other venues over a period of a year and gained a good deal of publicity for their work and ideals. The members of the group were not unified stylistically (one hostile reviewer referred to the ‘clashing dissonances of eight differently tuned orchestras'), but their predominant theme was contemporary urban life (several of them were part of the broader trend known as the Ashcan School). Their exhibition is regarded as an important landmark in American art; its principle of non-juried selection was taken up in the Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910 (see HENRI), which in turn led the way to the Armory Show of 1913.

(2) A group of progressive Czech artists formed in Prague in 1906 (the name in Czech is Osma). The members, who were essentially Expressionist in outlook, held two exhibitions, in 1907 and 1908. These were poorly received and the group ceased to function, although it never officially disbanded. Filla and Kubišta were the best-known members.

(3) A group of Hungarian painters founded in Budapest in 1909, the first avant-garde group in Hungarian art (the name in Hungarian is Nyolcak). The members were opposed to Impressionism, desiring an art that had a greater sense of order and structure, Cézanne being a major influence. Originally the group was called ‘The Seekers'; the name ‘The Eight’ was adopted in 1911. Károly Kernstok (1873–1940) was the leading figure of the group. It held three exhibitions (1909, 1911, 1912), the first of which prompted an essay by the philosopher Georg Lukács (1885–1971) entitled ‘The Ways Have Parted', in which he wrote that The Eight had made ‘a declaration of war on Impressionism'. John Willett writes that ‘His views are important … first and foremost as showing how the Hungarian middle-class radicals interpreted the new art … to Lukács, who was philosophically and temperamentally against anything so vague as the essences, atmospheres and impressions which he felt had invaded painting, Kernstok and his group were striking a gratifyingly sharp blow on behalf of Order’ (catalogue of the exhibition ‘The Hungarian Avant Garde: The Eight and the Activists', Hayward Gallery, London, 1980). The Eight disintegrated after its third exhibition, but it made an important impact on Hungarian art and prepared the way for other groups, particularly the Activists.