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 , t his 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 financia l crash o f 19 29 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 agai nst the excesses of a period eroded with disccrimination and in equality. Here is a short video in English recorded by the Chicago Museum curator who sums it up v