American Precursors to ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

Painting of the day #21

In western art, for the first forty years of the 20th century, the further you were away from Paris, meant the further you were from the art world. American art was far from cutting edge. It evolved sluggishly from historical paintings to landscapes and agricultural genre scenes. Compared to what was going on in Europe at the time, overall- American art was pretty fucking boring.

Flashes of brilliance did occur here and there and the artists that provided these flashes were very influential in what was to be the art movement that changed the epicenter of the art world firmly from Paris to New York. Yeaeeeeeaaaaaah motherfucker!

George BellowsStag at Sharkey’s 1909Oil on Canvas36 1/4x48 ¼”

The Cleveland Museum of Art

American Impressionism

American Impressionism was mostly brought over by folks who studied in Europe. Folks like Childe Hassam and Marie Cassat helped popularize it in the US and it became an instant hit, due to the fact that the paintings were calming peaceful works, usually of nature contrasting with the Industrial Revolution and WWI. They served as sort of a mind numbing escapist entertainment in that regard. They were well executed and safe paintings. There was nothing real daring or overly interesting about the works, aside from technical aspects such as color usage, composition, brushwork and blah blah blah.

Childe HassamChurch at Old Lyme Oil on Canvas 1905

John Henry TwachtmanWinter, Gloucester Harbor24x30”Oil on CanvasAlso known for his awesome name.

Thomas Hart Benton THB considered

himself to be a “Regionalist” artist. His palette and brushwork kept him far from Impressionism and his clean theatrical pieces kept him from the later Ash Can movement. Benton’s work seems to be highly influenced by Baroque, with it’s large scale flowing compositions and was more steeped in traditional American genre paintings in both rural and urban settings. An Illinois native, his work was coined by some as “Okie Baroque”. For awhile Benton drew and painted for his duty in the Navy and his work was mainly for the recording of daily life in the ship yards of Norfolk VA. This lead to epic scenes filled with many workers and lots of machinery.

Cut the Line 1944I really wanted to find a size for this, but couldn’t… :(

Benton hated Avante Garde art. He didn’t like anything that was going on in Europe and considered himself very conservative amongst some of his peers in the art world. Eventually he’d produce one of the biggest things in Modern Art…Jackson Pollock.

…well wait… he was his teacher, not his Dad. I didn’t mean produce like that. You know what I mean.

Wreck of the Ol’ 97 Train 1943 29x46”

American Social Realism

American Realism came from a backlash of bullshit sweety-pie American Impressionism that lasted well into the 1930’s (and still is unfortunately created today). Many artists didn’t like this “Kenny G” kind of painting and wanted their art to represent their current day America. Though they got a lot of flack for painting cities without rose colored glasses (and with garbage cans) and portraits of people who weren’t as beautiful as those represented in American Impressionism, Romanticism (don’t get me started) and Art Nouveu; they were highly influential to artists who were also looking for truth in their art.

Thomas Pollock AnshutzThe Ironworkers Noontime1880 Oil on Canvas

Robert Henri was a teacher out of PAFA (Penn Academy of Fine Arts, Phila) who, with some other friends, started the Ash Can School. This was a group of painters who wanted their paintings to be ‘realistically ugly’. Street scenes and realistic urban landscapes were a cornerstone for this movement. Above is a painting by an obviously influential teacher of Henri’s named Thomas Anshutz (who seemed to have been doing this realism thang waaay before Henri.

Ash Can School

Everett ShinnThe Fight

Mixed Media8x13”

Robert HenriSnow in New York Oil on CanvasNat’l Gallery, Wash DC

George BellowsCliff Dwellers, 1913Oil on Canvas40 1/4x 42 1/16LA County Fund :(

John French Sloan"Six o'clock, Winter" 1912

The Ash Can folks refuted naysayers with the argument that ‘life is beautiful, this is what life actually looks like’.

Edward Hopper Hopper, a realist and another member of the Ash Can

School is easily the most famous member to come out of the movement. Hoppers early work was in American Impressionism, but later, his palette darkened and he became intrigued with indoor painting and urban realism.

Rooftops 192612x19

Watercolor on paper

Nighthawks 1942Oil on Canvas33x60”

New York Movie 1939

Oil on Canvas32 1/4x 40 1/8

Automat28x36Oil on CanvasDes Moines Art Center

More Ed Hopper

Wee Gee (OMG a photographer!?)

Wee Gee (Arthur Fellig) wasn’t your run of the mill photographer. He was a fuckin’ bad ass. In the 30’s and early 40’s, the Hell’s Kitchen and Bowery Area’s of NYC were crime ridden. They were terrible w/ murders and all kinds of crap going down. While most people stayed inside at night, Wee Gee (nicknamed after the Oujia board for his psychic like ability to know when/where the shit was going to go down) was hanging out in alleys and nightclubs w/ his camera and a police radio. When an emergency went down, he often beat the fuzz there and took pics. Now that’s some mofo American Realism.

Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber Use Their Top Hatsto Hide Their Faces, January 27, 1942

Simply Add Boiling Water

Girl Jumps out of Car, and was killed, on Park Ave (c. 1940)

END.

PARIS FR

NEW YORK, NY

George BellowsDempsey and Firpo

192451 x 63 1/4 in.

Whitney Museum of American Art 

Here it comes!

LOL