(Visual) Art in the USA
18th Century Painting ► Influenced
by Europe, although trying to express American reality ► Portraits: Gilbert Stuart ► History painting: John Trumbull ► Genre painting (everyday life): John Lewis Krimmel
Portraits: Gilbert Stuart Portrait of George Washington (1796)
History painting: John Trumbull The Declaration of Independence (1795)
Genre painting (everyday life): John Lewis Krimmel The Blind Fiddler (1814)
19th Century Painting: The Hudson River School (1820-1875) ► ► ►
► ► ► ►
America’s first well-known school of painting Landscapes Influenced by Romanticism (idealized portrayal of nature, Transcendentalism, God in nature) and by “Cultural Independence”: Desire to develop an art distinct from Europe. Influenced by English painters like Turner and Constable Origin: Upstate New York, Hudson River Valley, Catskill Mountains Later: Western landscapes (origin of the mythic notion of the American West) Founder: Thomas Cole. Other important painters: Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran.
Thomas Cole
The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton) (1836)
Thomas Moran
Yellowstone Canyon (1870)
Albert Bierstadt An Indian Encampent (1861)
(Later influence) Winslow Homer Artists Sketching in the White Mountains , 1868
American Impressionism Eleanor Holding a Shell, 1902, by Frank W. Benson
Ashcan School ► Rebellion
against Impressionism ► Robert Henri: “To hell with the artistic values” (1908) ► A group of painters also known as “The Eight” (Robert Henri, George Bellows, John French Sloan…) ► Realism: depiction of sordid aspects of city life (boxing, prostitutes, drunks…) ► Realism stayed longer in the US than in Europe (Great Depression, Naturalism in literature) ► Later practicioner: Edward Hopper ► More realism: Norman Rockwell (illustrator)
George Bellows, Both Members of This Club (1909)
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Nighthawks, 1942
Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930
Edward Hopper, Morning Sun, 1952
Norman Rockwell (Popular painter and illustrator, realistic, genre painting) The Roadblock
Norman Rockwell The Connoiseur, 1962
American Modernism ► ► ► ► ► ►
Center in Paris Cubism, surrealism, avant-garde Surrealism, Dada (Dalí, Duchamp):Georgia O’Keefe Precisionism (“Cubist realism”, industrial themes): Charles Demuth Photography: Alfred Stieglitz (gallery owner), Man Ray. Architecture: (skyscrapers) Chicago School (functional design, modern materials, “less is more”), Frank Lloyd Wright, “International Style” (Mies Van der Rohe, Gropius, Bauhaus)
Georgia O'Keeffe (Santa Fe, Southwest, Surrealism) Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills , 1935
Charles Demuth (Precisionism, “Cubist realism�, industrial themes): Chimney and Watertower, 1931
Alfred Stieglitz (gallery owner), Winter 5th Avenue, 1892
Man Ray (Dada, Surrealism, Paris) Portrait of Gertrude Stein with painting by Picasso
Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania (1939)
Abstract Expressionism ► ► ► ► ► ► ►
Art center of the world after WWII: New York City Abstract Expressionism: first American movement to exert major influence internationally Use of abstract art to express feelings, emotions, what is within the artist. Politically neutral. Instinctual, intuitive, spontaneous arrangements of space, line, shape and color. Large size of canvases. Strong and unusual use of brushstrokes and experimental paint application. Main artists: Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, among others. Two “submovements”: Color Field Painting Action Painting
Jackson Pollock, Number 5, 1948
Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950, (Size) Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Jackson Pollock painting. Action Painting: paint is spontaneously dribbled or splashed onto the canvas (‘dripping’), rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist
Willem De Kooning Woman, I. 1950-52. (Amalgam of female archetypes, Paleolithic figures, Reverence/Fear of the power of the feminine)
Mark Rothko, No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange) 1949
(Color Field Painting: large fields of flat, solid color, spread across or stained into the canvas, creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane; fight bw. Fields, the infinite)
Robert Motherwell Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, 1971
Pop Art ► It
uses popular culture and icons, like comics or advertising, to make ironic comments about it. ► Propaganda of American culture ► Reaction against abstract expressionism ► Use of color ► Roy Lichtenstein ► Andy Warhol ► Jasper Johns
Roy Lichtenstein Whaam! (1963). On display at Tate Modern, London.
Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup I (1968)
Jasper Johns (Neo-dadaist) Three Flags (1958)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (Graffitti, Neo-expressionist)
“Performance art” and “Happenings” Chris Burden during the performance of his 1974 piece Trans-fixed where he was nailed to the back of a Volkswagen
“Conceptual art� (the concept takes precedence over traditional aesthetics), Installations, Robert Rauschenberg, Portrait of Iris Clert
Post-modern Architecture Robert Venturi: “Less is a bore� Comerica Tower in Detroit by John Burgee and Philip Johnson.
Post-modern Architecture The Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava.
Post-modern Architecture Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels by Rafael Moneo.
Links ► Wikipedia ► Museum
of Modern Art (New York): www.moma.org (reproductions, comments, zoom)