Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was another significant development in American art. In the 1920s and 30s a new generation of educated and politically astute African-American men and women emerged who sponsored literary societies and art and industrial exhibitions to combat racist stereotypes. The movement, which showcased the range of talents within African-American communities, included artists from across America, but was centered in Harlem. The work of the Harlem painter and graphic artist Aaron Douglas and the photographer James VanDerZee became emblematic of the movement.
New Deal Art
Thomas Hart Benton, People of Chilmark (Figure Composition), 1920, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
When the Great Depression hit, president Roosevelt’s New Deal created several public arts programs. The purpose of the programs was to give work to artists and decorate public buildings, usually with a national theme. The first of these projects, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), was created after successful lobbying by the unemployed artists of the Artists' Union. The PWAP lasted less than one year, and produced nearly 15,000 works of art. It was followed by the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration in 1935, which funded some of the most well-known American artists. The style of much of the public art was influenced by the work of Diego Rivera and other artists of the contemporary Mexican muralism movement. Several separate and related movements began and developed during the Great Depression including American scene painting, Regionalism, and Social Realism.
Contemporary art into the XXI century
At the beginning of the XXI century Contemporary art in the United States in general continues in several contiguous modes, characterized by the idea of pluralism. The "crisis" in painting and current art criticism today is brought about by pluralism. There is no consensus, nor need there be, as to a representative style of the age. There is an anything goes attitude that prevails; an "everything going on" syndrome; with no firm and clear direction and yet with every lane on the artistic superhighway filled to capacity. Consequently magnificent and important works of art continue to be made in the United States albeit in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments, the marketplace being left to judge merit.
Hard-edge painting, Geometric abstraction, Appropriation, Hyperrealism, Photorealism, Expressionism, Minimalism, Lyrical Abstraction, Pop art, Op art, Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Monochrome painting, Neo-expressionism, Collage, Intermedia painting, Assemblage painting, Digital painting, Postmodern painting, Neo-Dada painting, Shaped canvas painting, environmental mural painting, Graffiti, traditional figure painting, Landscape painting, Portrait painting, are a few continuing and current directions in painting at the beginning of the XXI century.
Text-based tasks.
Text-based questions.
What is the difference between the arts and the sciences?
What are the roots’ meanings of “artificial” and “manufacture”?
What was the primary interest of painters back at the turn of the 18th and the 19th centuries?
What was the art’s reaction to the industrial revolution?
When was the Armory Show?
What are the two acclaimed centers of the art world, mentioned in the text?
When was the Declaration of Independence signed?
How were the painters back in the 18th century educated?
What was John Smibert’s and John Wollaston’s influence on American art?
What were the names of Peale's sons?
Where were the US government officials represented apart from paintings?
What else apart from the person was important in painting portraits?
What meaningful event in American art history happened 1820?
Who was one of the first important African American painters?
Why was John James Audubon famous?
When did American artists started to protest against traditional forms?
Who initiated the Harlem Renaissance?
What was the purpose of Roosevelt’s New Deal public arts programs?
What does PWAP stand for?
What were the art movements that developed during the Great Depression?
How can you characterize the American art of the XXI century?
What do these figures refer to?
1864-1946
1887
1935
21
15,000
1707-52
1900
1920,
1820
19
1776
1913
Explain these words in English.
Transcendent - …
Conventional - …
Artificial - …
Frontier - …
Icon - …
Essentially - …
Merchant - …
Prosperous - …
Tool - …
Squalid - …
Picturesque - …
Rural - …
Technique - …
Find synonymous verbs to the ones below:
To distinguish - …
To contribute - …
To encompass - …
To shape - …
To require - …
To increase - …
To elect - …
To adopt - …
To comprise - …
To relate - …
Make a crosswords based on the words from the text.
Underline all the irregular verbs in the text and give the three forms of them.
Humor. Read, understand, and enjoy the humor =)
Brenda and Terry are going out for the evening. The last thing they do is put their cat out. The taxi arrives, and as the couple walk out of the house, the cat scoots back in. Terry returns inside to chase it out. Brenda, not wanting it known that the house would be empty, explains to the taxi driver, “My husband is just going upstairs to say goodbye to my mother.”
Several minutes later, an exhausted Terry arrives and climbs back into the taxi saying, “Sorry it took so long, the stupid idiot was hiding under the bed and I had to poke her with a coat hanger several times before I could get her to come out!”
PART 2.
Discussion.
The “why”-questions. Provocative thinking.
Why does art inspire the human spirit?
Why did art really develop only in the late 18th century?
Why did New York replace Paris as the center of the art world after WW II?
Why was it only after the Declaration of Independence signed that the American national identity started to flourish?
Why were most of the early American painters self-taught?
Why was it so significant to show how much property a subject owned while painting a portrait?
Why would the Hudson River School be so important in American art history?
Why would controversy become a way of life for American artists at the turn of the XX century?
Why would Harlem Renaissance be a significant development in American art?
Why would Roosevelt’s New Deal produce such an impact on art?
Why did an "everything going on" syndrome prevail in the art of the XX century?
Research questions. Choose any movement in American art mentioned in the text and search for more information. Prepare a report and deliver it to your classmates. Be sure you follow the following plan:
-) the name of the movement
-) names of artists that represent it
-) the characteristic features
-) visual examples
Make a list of Top 5 Museums in America and say what they are notable for.
Follow-ups.
The Factfile.
Read the text, retell it and prepare a similar overview of any other artist in American history.