REVIEW: AMERICAN ART



1565,1607 - 1763: SETTLEMENT AND COLONIAL AMERICA

Painting was unimportant; pioneers too busy; handicrafts dominated.

1763 - 1783: REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
1781 - 1789: GOVERNMENT UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
1789 - 1824: THE NEW NATION

American artists greatly influenced by Europe. Portrait painting and
pictures of historical events dominated - West, Copley, Peale, GILBERT
STUART, Trumbull.


1825 - 1849: AGE OF JACKSON
1849 - 1877: SECTIONALISM, CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION

Painters were attracted by the scenery along the Hudson River in the
Catskills. These painters were called the "Hudson River School" - Cole,
Durand, Doughty. Other painters were attracted by the West - Bingham and
GEORGE CATLIN (Indian life).

During the Civil War American artists were again greatly influenced
by Europe. Mary Cassatt painted in the French impressionist style


1877 - 1901: BIG BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, LABOR, FARMERS, REFORM

Winslow Homer painted pictures showing man against nature,
particularly the sea.


1901 - 1913: PROGRESSIVE ERA
1913 - 1921: WILSON AND WORLD WAR I

In 1908 a group of American artists promoted paintings that reflected
modern life. Critics called this group the "Ashcan School."


1921 - 1939: BOOM AND BUST AND A NEW DEAL

Artists began to take themes from specific regions of the U.S. Grant
Wood - "American Gothic"

Abstract expressionism was the most significant movement in modern
American painting. Jackson Pollock was an "action painter."


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1939 - 1945: WORLD WAR II
1945 - 1989+: COLD WAR AND AFTER

Andrew Wyeth - most popular painter of the mid-1900's - painted in
the realistic tradition.

Pop Art began in the late 1950's. They emphasized common objects. Andy Warhol is the dominant painter in this style.

Minimal Art developed in the U.S. in the 1960's. These artists
believed that art should be divorced from emotion, it should be a
composition of color, form, and shape.