The early life of William Gropper—cartoonist, muralist, painter—was bleak. His parents, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, worked from paycheck to paycheck in the garment industry despite the fact that his father was university educated. His favorite aunt died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a catastrophe that saw 146 people, mostly women, locked in a burning sweat shop with no escape. Consequently, the young artist was anti-establishment; in 1920, he gave Cuba a try. Gropper returned to the U.S. a year later and took a job at The Liberator, where he gravitated toward communism. He also contributed to several left-wing publications, including The Revolutionary Age and The New Masses. In the late 1930s, Gropper began to focus on the dangers of fascism, and after the Holocaust he produced paintings of Jewish life. Gropper died in 1977. This exhibition features paintings on subjects that range widely, from ballerinas to coal miners to a ghastly looking board of executives. —Elena Clavarino

The gallery is located in a private space in New York and is open by appointment