American Painting from 1910 to 2010 in Massachusetts Museums, with Lewis Shepard
Tuesday mornings from 10:30-noon on Zoom
April 19, 26, May 3, 10, 17
The 20th century in American Art was marked by the divergent pulls of figurative depiction and abstract invention. Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent were still alive when The Armory Show (1913) changed the course of visual arts for many American artists. We who live in New England are fortunate that municipal and collegiate museums have incredible collections that span the years that mark the end of Romantic and Impressionist Painting to Abstract and Figurative art that merge historic traditions, indigenous awareness and emotional content.
Some of the artists we will look at are mentioned below. There will be a more detailed syllabus
available prior to class with some suggested reading materials.
1. 1910-1925
John Singer Sargent and Thomas Eakins; American Impressionism, Childe Hassam and The Ten, The Ash Can School, John Sloan and The Eight, George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, Modernism and the Armory Show, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, World War 1, American's Abroad (Adolf Dehn et al.)
2. 1925-1945
John Marin, The New Museums, Regionalism, Early American Surrealism,
The Summer Art Colonies East and West, Taos and Santa Fe Artists, The Mexican Influence, The New Deal, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn: Sacco and Vanzetti. Charles Hawthorne and his students, Charles Sheeler, The WPA.
3. 1945-1960 Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, Fairfield Porter, Milton Avery, John Marin, Marguerite Zorach, William Zorach, Karl Knaths, The Boston Realists (Jack Levine, Hyman Bloom, David Aronson. vs. NY) Abstract Painting from Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Jack Tworkov, Janice Biala, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Richard Diebenkorn.
4. 1960-1980 Pop Art (Robert Indiana, Allen D'Archangelo, Andy Warhol
New Figurative Art. (Alex Katz) Fairfield Porter), Landscape Paintings new directions, Skowhegan and its artists, Provincetown's painters, Op Art, Paul Sample, Janet Fish
5.1980-2010 The New Realism (Chuck Close, Neal Welliver) Michael Mazur, Afro-American Artists (Alan Rohan Crite, Richard Yarde, John Wilson) The Pioneer Valley, (Gregory Gillespie, France Cohen Gillespie, Leonard Baskin, The ART Group) Varujan Boghosian, Friedel Dzubas, Philip Guston, John Walker, James Weeks and John Moore. Randy Diehl, Yvonne Jacquette, Susan Shatter)
In each class we will look at 75 to 80 works with lists and locations for each. There will be suggested exercises for class participation. Museums include the Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, Smith College Museum of Art, Mead Art Museum, Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum, Springfield Quadrangle Museums, The Worcester Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston Public Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Provincetown Art Museum, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis, The DeCordova Museum, Addison Gallery (Philips Academy, Andover)
Images shown:
l. John Singer Sargent, Muddy Alligators, 1917, Worcester Art Museum
2. Georgia O’Keefe, Deer Skull with Pedernal, 1916,MFA, Boston