The Ten Whitney Dissenters
Schanker was influential in many artist groups and organizations which developed in the 1930’s. The Ten Whitney Dissenters was formed in 1935. Many of the group, like Schanker, were young artists just returning from Paris and wishing to bring individuality, abstraction and expressionism to American galleries and museums.
Schanker died in 1981, at the age of 78, in New York City. At a memorial service for family and friends, Ilya Bolotowsky, a longtime friend and fellow artist spoke of The Ten. Bolotowsky spoke of how he had envisioned the formation of a new group of likeminded artists who believed that the American art establishment was too conservative. He said that he had wanted Schanker to work with him and recruit artists because he trusted him, he was well liked in the artist community and because of his wide circle of friends. In a letter to Schanker he had sketched out the rules for the group. 
A page from Schanker’s sketchpad lists the original members of the group in his own hand. They included: Lou Schanker, Ilya Bolotowsky, Ben-Zion, Marcus Rothkowitz, Adolph Gottlieb, Joe Solman, Nahum Tschacbasov, Lou Harris, Ralph Rosenborg. A tenth guest artist, Yankel Kufeld, participated in many shows to round out the group. (Marcus Rothkowitz later shortened his name to Mark Rothko.
In the catalog from a show at Mercury Gallery in 1937 their mission is described as, “a protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and literal painting.”
More insights into The Ten can be found in the interview with Bernard Braddon and Sidney Schectman, owners of Mercury Gallery. Conducted by Avis Berman at New York, New York, October 9, 1981 for Smithsonian, Archives of American Art.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/braddo81.htm
They were variously described as expressionist, radical, cubist, and experimentalist. Schanker and Bolotowsky were in the awkward position of having their works included at the Whitney simultaneously with The Ten exhibits. The group demonstrated a social consciousness by mounting an exhibit for the American League Against War and Fascism to benefit Spanish children. In addition to the Mercury Gallery they exhibited at the Montross, Bonestell and Georgette Passedoit galleries in Manhattan and the Galerie Bonaparte in France. http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/abstract/ten.html
Art News, 1937
Exhibitions of The Ten
December 16, 1935 - January 4, 1936: "The Ten: An Independent Group" at the Montross Gallery, 785 Fifth Avenue, NY
Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, Adolph Gottlieb, Louis Harris, Jack Kufeld, Marcus Rothkowitz [Mark Rothko], Louis Schanker, Joseph Solman, Tschacbasov
January 1936: Municipal Art Gallery (Exhibition and gallery opened January 7, 1936)
November 10 - 24, 1936: Galerie Bonaparte, 12 Rue Bonaparte, Paris, France
December 14, 1936 - January 2, 1937: Montross Gallery
Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Gatch, Adolph Gottlieb, Louis Harris, Jack Kufeld, Mark Rothkowitz [Mark Rothko], Louis Schanker, Joseph Solman
May 1937: Georgette Passedoit Gallery
Lee Gatch, Adolph Gottlieb, Jack Kufeld, Joseph Solman, Ilya Bolotowsky, Louis Schanker, Ben-Zion, Louis Harris, Mark Rothkowitz [Mark Rothko]
November 5 - 26, 1938: "The Ten: Whitney Dissenters" exhibition at the Mercury Galleries
Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, Adolph Gottlieb, John D. Graham, Louis Harris, Earl Kerkam (guest), Ralph M. Rosenborg, Marcus Rothkowitz [Mark Rothko], Louis Schanker, Joseph Solman.
October 23 - November 4, 1939: Bonestell Gallery
Ben - Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, David Burliuk, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths (guest), Jean Liberte (guest), Ralph Rosenborg, Marcus Rothkowitz (Mark Rothko), Louis Schanker, Joseph Solman.
In addition to the above exhibitions, The Ten held an exhibition and auction in Brooklyn to benefit Spanish children for the American League Against War and Fascism on December 3rd, 4th and 5th, 1937 at 85 Clark Street.