The Arts

One stereotype of the United States is that of a culture where television, sports and other forms of popular entertainment overshadow the arts. In fact, Americans are deeply committed to the arts. Not only do more people today attend arts events than sports events, but almost as many people go to art museums as to pop concerts.

Government hardly supports the arts. Promotion of the arts through private and commercial funding rather than government funding is a firmly established tradition in the United States. Recently, however, the government’s role in supporting the arts has increased. Still, all government arts spending remains small compared with private arts contributions, which exceeded $4 thousand million in 1985.

As American culture evolved, American artists began to create their own art forms. The styles of American art are as diverse as the people. Just as there is no single ethnic group, there is also no single American style. American artists have been inspired by a variety of influences, including folk primitivism and European sophistication. Painters, sculptors, musicians, and innovators in other field have won fame both at home and abroad.

The visual arts

Until the 1940s, America’s visual arts – painting and sculpture – were primarily influenced by European trends. American art developed mainly through subject matter and skills, as artists imitated the established styles of the European masters. The most significant developments in American art emerged in the years following the WWII.

Abstract expressionism, which was began by a group of New York artists in the 1940s, became the first American art movement to command the attention of artists abroad. Revolting against traditional graphic styles, the artists of this movement sought to remake the goals and methods of art. Abstract expressionists rejected traditional subject matter, such as the human body, still life, or rural scenes. Instead, they focused on such things as the utilizations of space, dimension, and surface texture, and the interrelationship of colors. Among the movement’s leaders were Jackson Pollack (1912-1954), who is famous for his turbulent paint-splattered canvases; Willem de Kooning, who used savage brush strokes and intense colors; and Mark Rothko, who is known for the bold blocks of color that dominate his huge canvases.

During this period, American sculptors developed new styles of their own. Alexander Calder (1898-1976) designed the mobile. David Smith (1906-1965) was the first sculptor to work with welded metals.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, young artists reacted to abstract expressionism to produce works of “mixed” media. Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns integrated everyday objects such as photographs and newspaper clippings into their paintings.

The reaction to abstract expressionism continued with a movement called “pop art”. The members of this movement attempted to produce works of art that would reflect the pervasive influence of mass marketing, mass media, and other trends in American popular culture. Important in the pop-art movement were Andy Warhol (1930-1987), famous for his multiple rows of soup cans and multiple portraits of Marilyn Monroe; and Roy Lichtenstein, recognized for his mimicry of well-known comic strips.

“Pop” was followed by “Op” art, based on the principle of optic illusion.

Recent trends in art emphasize variety and innovation. Movements of the 1970s and 1980s include performance art, earth art, conceptual art, graffiti art, neo- and figural-expressionism, and neo-geo art.