The History of American Art in 25 Iconic Works
Dr Marie-Anne Mancio selected a broad range of 25 artworks, including photography and sculpture, from 1730 to the present day to demonstrate the development of American art.
Some of the works were very familiar (“Whistler’s Mother” – although that is not technically the name of the piece; “American Gothic” by Grant Wood; and “Black on Grey” by Mark Rothko). What was interesting was seeing how some works echoed genres in European and indeed Japanese art, where others had their own origins in the urban landscape of the big cities.
So, we found out about Precisionism, Regionalism and the Ashcan School and then into the pop art world of Andy Warhol via Edward Hopper.
Amazingly, Jackson Pollock’s work was supported by the CIA, who, in the height of the Cold War, wanted to show that Americans could paint absolutely anything with complete freedom, where Russian artists were limited to set themes and approaches.
Not all of the works were well received in their time and many of them divide opinion today. But certainly, Marie-Anne’s lively and lucid explanations pointed us towards artists that we might like to explore further.