HAS AMERICA CHANGED SO MUCH ?
Some of my friends who
had been along to see the exhibition « American Painting in the 1930’s »
had not been impressed. I had chosen to see the Mexico exhibition, before going to the Orangerie mainly because there were a lot of paintings done in Mexico at the same period. I was most
impressed by the American period. Apart from the crowds which I was not expecting, so quite a
bit of dodging heads had to be done, there is no doubt about it, this
period was dramatic for the Americans. Within a space of a decade, artists now considered to be among the greatest names of the 20th Century art rose to prominenece in the U.S.A. The financial crash of 1929 surely fostered a desire for new and intense forms of expression, national pride and a desire to cling onto a faith in the future or rebel against the excesses of a period eroded with disccrimination and inequality.
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| Stewart Davis , New York, 1931 |
The exhibition is called « The Age of Anxiety ». The 1930's were decisive in more ways than one for a modern art scene coming to the fore in the United States, at a particularly complex moment in its history when there could be no cut-and-dried definition of American modern art. From abstraction to "socialist" realism, the esthetic worlds of painters like Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, or Edward Hopper operated side by side, confronting each other in the same creative centers.
It was quite obvious that I would come across new names, new ideas even if they did go back to the 1930’s. Those were years that none of us would like to have experienced and yet there are signs of hope in many of the paintings just as there are signs of disaster.
The Great depression came in 1929 and by 1933, 25% of the population would suffer. Unemployment, agriculture and as is happening today, the fluctuation of prices in the European Market did not help the Americans. Frankly the more you read about the depression, there are so many similarities with today. By 1936 more than 6000 artists were employed by the WPA or The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration,) which was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. And painters.
When I saw this painting from a little way off, I was certain it was a Kandinsky, but no. Ilya Bolotwsky had painted this study for the Hall of Medical Sciences at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. ( Ilya Bolotowsky American, born Russia, 1907-1981)
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| Ilya Bolotowsky, Study for the Hall of Medical Sciences mural, 1939 |
So the country does begin to feel that it is coming out of the crisis. Industry is growing and modernism is looking up. Artists too are painting works done in the Midwest to show the contrast with the north and some of them, such as this, is practically surrealist.
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| Thomas Hart Benson, Coton Pickers 1945 |
Others however, are frightening and reflect a reality which is not pleasant in any way. Often there is a complete gap between galloping industrialization and a very slow evolution in the fields. The price of cotton fell by 60% in the 30’s - those who lived and worked in the cotton fields were too poor to look for employment in the north. I doubt also, that because of who they were, would they have found work even if they could have gone.
Not surprising perhaps that a group of artists, Paul Sample for instance, chooses traditional American themes where irony shows it’s face. Just look at that starlet in the picture.
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| Paul Sample, Church Supper, 1933 |
The icon - Grant Wood’s « American Gothic » will be there for us, for the rest of time. When it was first presented in 1930, it was an immediate success. Prizes...and it goes on the become a patriotic symbol. If you take the time to look at the picture on Internet, you will see for yourself how it has been changed, used, and I gather was even a generic for the series « Desperate Housewives ». I’ve heard about the series, but have never seen it.
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| Grant Wood , American Gothic,1930 |
This particular painting by Charles Green Shaw must have influenced Warhol, don’t you think? Shaw was a member of the American Abstract Artists and defended « non-objectivity »…all I can say is that Wrigley’s was a childhood word - and everyone knew you were referring to chewing gum!
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| Charles Green Shaw, Wrigley's 1937 |
There was a critical eye too. Louis Guglielmi, « Phoenix » and it could not be a more surrealist painting. There is Lenin in front of briques, cans and waste coming from the Tidewater Oil Company. Is there any hope in such a picture?
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| Osvaldo Louis, Gugliemi, Phoenix, (Lenin) 1935 |
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| Grant Wood, Death on the Ridge Rd. 1935 |
Accidents happened and lives were changed...
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| Walt Kuhn, Poetrait of the artist as a clown, 1932 |
Happiness was not just around the corner ...
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| Alexandre Hoad, Mother Earth 1933 |
And fields looked surrealist...
One painter I really do appreciate, is Georgia O’Keeffe. A very erotic painter with her plants and flowers . After a visit to Mexico, she did a series of paintings called « Great American Things » sending up the intellectuals living on the coast. This was her vision of America at that moment.
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| Georgia O'Keeffe: Cow's Skull with Calico roses, 1931 |
Another artist was Alice Neel who knew how difficult it was to be involved if working with the government or political associations. She painted an activist. Pat Whalen. Born in Ireland he worked with a communist paper called the « Daily Worker » … another outward statement.
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| Alice Neel, Pat Whalen, 1935 |
There was this lovely timeless scene done by Doris Lee. Thanksgiving around 1935. Could anyone looking at that painting today, recognize what the political and social situation was in the USA at that time?
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| Doris Lee, Thanksgiving Day, 1935 |
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| William H. Johnson, Street Life Harlem, 1939 |
The Harlem Renaissance was a afro-american movement which reached its heights in the 30’s. At last the black culture became apart of the American artistic culture. This was called « The New Negro », Voices of the Haarlem Renaissance… » William H. Johnson depicted this in « Street Life, Harlem » around 1933…
History was sought - what was the American identity? Associated with Europe? But looking too, to disassociate with Europe…conflict seemed to be everywhere and it couldn’t be worse than this…Joe Jones with American Justice done in 1933
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| Joe Jones, American Justice, 1933 |
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| George L.K. Morris: Indian Composition, n° 6- 1938 |
yet, George L.K. Morris painted this delightful « Indian Composition » in 1938
with Grant Wood and his « Daughter’s of Revolution » in 1932 is this some form of anglo-saxon domination? Perhaps just people looking for their roots? I can’t say why, but these three women seem to be more anglo-saxon than American. I could be wrong.
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| Grant Wood, Daughters of Revolution, 1932 |
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| Reginald Marsh (1898–1954). Twenty Cent Movie, 1936. |
Live was also to be enjoyed. Cinema was cheap - if you had any money as Reginald Marsh painted in his « Twenty Cent Movie » 1936. There are no sad faces there.
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| Philip Evergood, Dance Marathon, 1934 |
Of course there was color - when the fleet came in - Paul Cadmus in 1934. There was a musical comedy « Follow the Fleet » with Fred Astaire who I adored, but such a painting although appreciated also created a scandal. Debauchery!
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| Paul Cadmus, The Fleets in, 1934 |
Music becomes the model. Perhaps Arthur Dove’s painting in 1938 does not spell out music for all, and yet, for me yes. This Swing Music (Louis Armstrong) is by now known all over the world. The painting is full of rhythm and instruments - suddenly a modern world has emerged.
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| Arthur Dove Swing Music :1938 |
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| Edward Hopper, 1940 Gas |
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| Jackson Pollack -1938-41 |
Just as there are in Jackson Pollock’s untitled painting done in 1938-41. He started this painting in 1938 but had time to see Picasso’s « Guernica » which was shown in New York in
1939. He tried to escape Picasso’s influence - his technique was different - but I don’t know about you, I feel that his painting is influenced by that mighty artist of the 20th century.
I stayed longer than I had anticipated and wandered home along the quais of the Seine with lots of thoughts racing around in my head. Has America changed so much?
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