Each country has its own heroes of contemporary art, whose names are well-known, whose exhibitions attract crowds of fans and curious people, and whose works are dispersed in private collections.
In this article, we will introduce you to the most popular contemporary artists in the United States.
Iva Morris
The American artist Iva Morris was born in a large family far from art and received her art education after school. She received her bachelor's degree in art from the University of New Mexico in 1981. Today, Iva has been engaged in art for more than 20 years, her works are known both at home and abroad, and have repeatedly brought her prizes and awards. They can be found in the galleries of Albuquerque, Sante Fe, New Mexico, Madrid.
Warren Chang
Artist Urren Cheng was born in 1957 in California, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Pasadena College of Design and worked as an illustrator for various companies for the next 20 years, starting his career as a professional artist only in 2009. Cheng's style of painting is rooted in the work of the 16th-century artist Jan Vermeer - Warren Cheng works in a realistic manner, creating two main categories: biographical interiors and paintings depicting working people. He currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Christopher Traedy Ulrich
Los Angeles-based artist Christopher Ulrich is a surrealist with an iconographic bent. His work was greatly influenced by ancient mythology. Ulrich's first solo exhibition (jointly with artist Billy Shire) took place in June 2009.
Michael DeVoreMichael DeVore
A young artist, Oklahoma City native Michael Devore works in the classical realist tradition. He entered the arts with the help and support of his family, and won numerous awards in his home state before starting to study fine arts at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Then the artist continued his studies in Italy. Currently, his work is exhibited around the world and is in private collections. Michael Devore is a member of the Oil Painters of America, the International Guild of Realism, the National Society of Oil and Acrylic Painters, and the Portrait Painters of America.
Mary Carol Kenney
Mary Carol Kenny was born in Indiana in 1953. By education, she is very distantly related to the visual arts, but since 2002, driven by the desire to become an artist, she began taking sculpture and ceramics classes at Santa Barbara City College, and after that she began to study with Ricky Strich. She is currently a member of The Santa Barbara Art Ass, the Santa Barbara Sculptor's Guild, and the recipient of numerous awards in sculpture and painting.
Patricia Watwood
Realist artist Patricia Watwood was born in 1971 in Missouri. She graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts, studied with Jacob Collins and Ted Seth Jacobs. The artist's style is modern classicism: mythology, allegories and modern life are intertwined in the paintings. For the past few years, Patricia has been lecturing on classicism across the country and now lives with her family in Brooklyn.
Paula Rubino
Paula Rubino is a contemporary American artist and writer born in 1968 in New Jersey and raised in Florida. He has a doctorate in law. In the 90s she moved to Mexico and focused on painting. She studied the art of drawing in Italy, where she finished her first novel. A series of her short stories has also been published. Currently lives in Florida.
Patssy Valdez
Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Patssy Valdez studied fine art at the Otis Art Institute, where she received the Distinguished Alumnus of 1980. In 2005, Valdes received the "Latina of Excellence in the Cultural Arts" award and title from the US Congressional Latin American Forum. She rose to prominence early in her career while working with the avant-garde art group ASCO. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including those awarded by the J. Paul Getty Visual Arts Trust Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Received a Brody Fellowship in Visual Arts. Valdes' paintings are part of several major collections.
Cynthia Grilli
Artist Cynthia Grilli received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992, and by 1994, a Master's degree in painting from the New York Academy of Art. Her work has been published in numerous US publications, exhibited throughout the country, and is included in private and corporate collections in America and Europe. Cynthia is a two-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.
Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl was born in New York in 1948. In 1972 he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a bachelor's degree. After graduation, he worked for some time as a security guard at the Chicago Museum of Modern Art. After moving to Scotland, Fischl began teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and took up painting directly. In Scotland, his first solo exhibition took place. The genres of his work are very diverse, but mainly figurative painting, episodes from contemporary American life.
AMERICAN PAINTING
The first works of American painting that have come down to us date back to the 16th century; these are sketches made by members of research expeditions. However, professional artists appeared in America only at the beginning of the 18th century; the only stable source of income for them was a portrait; this genre continued to occupy a leading position in American painting until the beginning of the 19th century.
colonial period. The first group of portraits, executed in the technique of oil painting, dates from the second half of the 17th century; at that time, the life of the settlers proceeded relatively calmly, life stabilized and there were opportunities for art. Of these works, the most famous portrait of Mrs. Frick with her daughter Mary (1671-1674, Massachusetts Museum of Art in Warster), painted by an unknown English artist. By the 1730s, there were already several artists in the east coast cities working in a more modern and realistic manner: Henrietta Johnston in Charleston (1705), Justus Englehardt Kuhn in Annapolis (1708), Gustav Hesselius in Philadelphia (1712), John Watson in Perth Emboy in New Jersey (1714), Peter Pelham (1726) and John Smybert (1728) in Boston. The painting of the latter two had a significant influence on the work of John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), who is considered the first major American artist. From the engravings from the Pelham collection, young Copley got an idea of the English formal portrait and the painting of Godfrey Neller, the leading English master who worked in this genre in the early 18th century. In the painting Boy with a Squirrel (1765, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), Copley created a wonderful realistic portrait, delicate and surprisingly accurate in the transfer of the texture of objects. When Copley sent this work to London in 1765, Joshua Reynolds advised him to continue his studies in England. However, Copley remained in America until 1774 and continued to paint portraits, carefully working through all the details and nuances in them. Then he undertook a journey to Europe and in 1775 settled in London; mannerism and features of idealization, characteristic of English painting of this time, appeared in his style. Among the finest works produced by Copley in England are large formal portraits reminiscent of the work of Benjamin West, including Brooke Watson and the Shark (1778, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). Benjamin West (1738-1820) was born in Pennsylvania; having painted several portraits of Philadelphians, he moved to London in 1763. Here he gained fame as a history painter. An example of his work in this genre is the painting The Death of General Wolfe (1770, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada). In 1792 West succeeded Reynolds as president of the British Royal Academy of Arts.
War of Independence and the beginning of the 19th century Unlike Copley and West, who remained forever in London, the portrait painter Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) returned to America in 1792, making a career in London and Dublin. He soon became the leading master of this genre in the young republic; Stuart painted portraits of almost every prominent political and public figure in America. His work is executed in a lively, free, sketchy manner, very different from the style of Copley's American work. Benjamin West welcomed young American artists into his London studio; his students included Charles Wilson Peel (1741-1827) and Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872). Peel became the founder of a dynasty of painters and a family art enterprise in Philadelphia. He painted portraits, engaged in scientific research and opened the Museum of Natural History and Painting in Philadelphia (1786). Of his seventeen children, many became artists and naturalists. Morse, better known as the inventor of the telegraph, painted some beautiful portraits and one of the most grandiose paintings in all of American painting, the Louvre Gallery. In this work, about 37 canvases are reproduced in miniature with amazing accuracy. This work, like all of Morse's work, was intended to acquaint the young nation with the great European culture. Washington Allston (1779-1843) was one of the first American artists to pay homage to Romanticism; during his long travels in Europe, he painted sea storms, poetic Italian scenes and sentimental portraits. At the beginning of the 19th century the first American art academies opened, providing students with professional training and taking a direct part in organizing exhibitions: the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts in Philadelphia (1805) and the National Academy of Drawing in New York (1825), whose first president was S. R. Morse. In the 1820s and 1830s, John Trumbull (1756-1843) and John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) painted huge compositions based on American history that adorned the walls of the Capitol rotunda in Washington. In the 1830s, landscape became the dominant genre in American painting. Thomas Cole (1801-1848) painted the wilderness of the north (New York State). He argued that weather-beaten mountains and bright autumn forests were more suitable subjects for American artists than picturesque European ruins. Cole also painted several landscapes imbued with ethical and religious meaning; among them are four large paintings The Way of Life (1842, Washington, National Gallery) - allegorical compositions depicting a boat descending the river, in which a boy sits, then a young man, then a man and finally an old man. Many landscape painters followed Cole's example and depicted views of American nature in their works; they are often lumped together under the name "Hudson River School" (which is not true, as they worked all over the country and wrote in different styles). Of the American genre painters, the most famous are William Sidney Mount (1807-1868), who painted scenes from the life of Long Island farmers, and George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879), whose paintings are devoted to the life of fishermen from the shores of the Missouri and elections in small provincial towns. Before the Civil War, the most popular artist was Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900), a student of Cole. He painted mainly in large format and used sometimes too naturalistic motifs to attract and stun the audience. Church traveled to the most exotic and dangerous places, collecting material for the image of South American volcanoes and icebergs of the northern seas; one of his most famous works is the painting Niagara Falls (1857, Washington, Corcoran Gallery). In the 1860s, the huge canvases of Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) aroused universal admiration for the beauty of the Rocky Mountains depicted on them, with their clear lakes, forests and towering peaks.
Post-war period and the turn of the century. After the Civil War, it became fashionable to study painting in Europe. In Düsseldorf, Munich, and especially in Paris, one could get a much more fundamental education than in America. James McNeil Whistler (1834-1903), Mary Cassatt (1845-1926) and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) studied in Paris and lived and worked in France and England. Whistler was close to the French Impressionists; in his paintings, he paid special attention to color combinations and expressive, concise composition. Mary Cassatt, at the invitation of Edgar Degas, took part in exhibitions of the Impressionists from 1879 to 1886. Sargent painted portraits of the most prominent people of the Old and New Worlds in a bold, impulsive, sketchy manner. The opposite side of the stylistic spectrum to Impressionism in the art of the late 19th century. occupied by realist artists who painted illusionistic still lifes: William Michael Harnett (1848-1892), John Frederic Peto (1854-1907) and John Haberl (1856-1933). Two major artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), did not belong to any of the then fashionable artistic movements. Homer began his artistic career in the 1860s by illustrating New York magazines; already in the 1890s he had a reputation as a famous artist. His early paintings are scenes of rural life saturated with bright sunlight. Later, Homer turned to more complex and dramatic images and themes: the Gulf Stream (1899, Met) depicts the despair of a black sailor lying on the deck of a boat in a stormy, shark-infested sea. Thomas Eakins during his lifetime was subjected to severe criticism for excessive objectivism and directness. Now his works are highly valued for their strict and clear drawing; his brush belongs to the images of athletes and sincere, sympathetic portrait images.
The twentieth century. At the beginning of the century, imitations of French impressionism were valued above all. Public taste was challenged by a group of eight artists: Robert Henry (1865-1929), W.J. Glackens (1870-1938), John Sloane (1871-1951), J.B. 1876-1953), A. B. Davis (1862-1928), Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924) and Ernest Lawson (1873-1939). They have been dubbed the "trash can" school by critics for their fondness for depicting slums and other prosaic subjects. In 1913 on the so-called. "Armory Show" exhibited works by masters belonging to various areas of post-impressionism. American artists were divided: some of them turned to the study of the possibilities of color and formal abstraction, others remained in the realist tradition. The second group included Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), Andrew Wyeth (b. 1917) and others. Paintings by Ivan Albright (1897-1983), George Tooker (b. 1920) and Peter Bloom (1906-1992) are written in the style of "magical realism" (the resemblance to nature in their works is exaggerated, and reality is more like a dream or a hallucination). Other artists, such as Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Lionel Feininger (1871-1956) and Georgia O "Keeffe (1887-1986), combined elements of realism, cubism, expressionism in their works and other currents of European art.The marine views of John Marin (1870-1953) and Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) are close to expressionism.The images of birds and animals in the paintings of Maurice Graves (b. 1910) still retain a connection with the visible world, although the forms in his work is heavily distorted and reduced to almost extreme symbolic designation.After the Second World War, non-objective painting became the leading trend in American art.The main attention was now paid to the pictorial surface itself, it was seen as the arena of the interaction of lines, masses and color spots. Abstract Expressionism took over during these years, becoming the first movement in painting to emerge in the United States and have international significance, led by Arsail Gorky (1904-1948), Willem de Kooning (Kooning) (1904-1997), Jackson Pollock (1912 -1956), Mark Rothko (1903-1970) and Franz Kline (1910-1962). One of the most interesting discoveries of abstract expressionism was the artistic method of Jackson Pollock, who dripped paint onto the canvas or threw them to create a complex labyrinth of dynamic linear forms. Other artists of this trend - Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), Clyford Still (1904-1980), Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) and Helen Frankenthaler (b. 1928) - practiced the canvas staining technique. Another variant of non-objective art is the painting of Josef Albers (1888-1976) and Ed Reinhart (1913-1967); their paintings consist of cold, accurately calculated geometric shapes. Other artists who have worked in this style include Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923), Barnett Newman (1905-1970), Kenneth Noland (b. 1924), Frank Stella (b. 1936) and Al Held (b. 1928); later they led the direction of opt-art. In the late 1950s, non-objective art was opposed by Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925), Jasper Johns (b. 1930) and Larry Rivers (b. 1923), who worked in mixed media, including the assemblage technique. They included in their "pictures" fragments of photographs, newspapers, posters and other items. In the early 1960s, the assemblage spawned a new movement, the so-called. pop art, whose representatives very carefully and accurately reproduced in their works a variety of objects and images of American pop culture: cans of Coca-Cola and canned food, packs of cigarettes, comics. Leading artists of this trend are Andy Warhol (1928-1987), James Rosenquist (b. 1933), Jim Dine (b. 1935) and Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923). Following pop art, opt art appeared, based on the principles of optics and optical illusion. In the 1970s, different schools of expressionism continued to exist in America, geometric hard edge, pop art, photorealism, which was increasingly becoming fashionable, and other styles of fine art.
LITERATURE
Chegodaev A.D. Art of the United States of America from the War of Independence to the Present Day. M., 1960 Chegodaev A.D. Art of the United States of America. 1675-1975. Painting, architecture, sculpture, graphics. M., 1975
Collier Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
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Books
- English and American Paintings at the Washington National Gallery (paperback), EG Milyugina, The Washington National Gallery has the world's largest collections of English and American paintings of a high artistic standard. The collections reflect both the history of world painting,… Category:
"Books give me a great sense of personal and creative satisfaction. When I'm working on a book, I wish the phone would never ring. My satisfaction comes from real marks on paper."
American children's book illustrator Pinkney Jerry was born December 22, 1939 in Germantown. In high school, his love and talent for drawing was noticed by cartoonist John Liney, who encouraged him to pursue a career as an artist. After graduating from the Dobbins Vocational School, Pinkney received a full scholarship to study at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. He later moved to Boston where he worked in design and illustration, eventually opening his own studio, Jerry Pinkney Studio, and later moving to New York. Pinkney Jerry still lives and works in New York, during the years of his creative career he taught seminars at the University, art schools throughout the country.
"I wanted to show what an African American artist can do in this country nationally in the visual arts. I want to be a strong role model for my family and for other African Americans."
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when two commercially successful and respected trends dominated in US painting - impressionism and academic realism, the desire of some artists to reflect the real modern life of the city with its sometimes cruel moments, to depict the unadorned life of the city outskirts, street children, prostitutes, alcoholics, tenement life. They believed that painting could be akin to journalism, although many of these artists were apolitical and did not limit themselves to reflecting the plagues and poverty of urban life.
“... I loved cities very much, I loved the majestic, fast river,
All the women, all the men I knew were close to me...
... And I lived in the world, I loved Brooklyn - plentiful hills, he was mine,
And I wandered around Manhattan, and I bathed in the salty waters washing the island ... "
(Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. On the Brooklyn Ferry.)
The ideologist of this movement, Robert Henry, an admirer of the poetry of Walt Whitman, demanded from his students that their "colors be as real as dirt, like clods of horse shit and snow in the winter on Broadway." For the predilection for such plots, this direction received the nickname "trash can school" or "trash bin school", which stuck with it and is used in art history literature. This movement was met with hostility by many critics; after the first exhibition, one of them, under the pseudonym "Jeweler", wrote: "Vulgarity hits the eye at this exhibition ... Can art that shows our sores be beautiful?" Sometimes the "School of the Bin" is identified with the group "Eight", although not all (only 5) of its members were part of it, and three artists, Davis, Lawson and Prendergast performed in a completely different style.
Robert Henry(Cozad), (1865-1929), artist, educator, mastermind of the "Trash Can School" and organizer of the "Eight" group,
Born in Cincinnati to a real estate developer and gambler. In a skirmish over land ownership, the father shot his opponent and fled to Denver, where the whole family later moved, changing their names and surnames. After studying for two years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, young Robert went to Paris to study at the Académie Julien to study with academic realists.
After a trip to Italy, he returns to Philadelphia and begins teaching at the School of Design for Women, he was considered a natural teacher. By the age of thirty, Henry comes to the idea of the need to develop such a direction in painting, which would combine realism and elements of impressionism, and called it "new academicism."
His friends and followers did not consider themselves to be a single organized group, but an exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery in New York in 1908 drew attention to the artists of the new direction and brought them fame. In 1910, with the help of Sloan, Henry organized an exhibition of Independent Artists, where only a few paintings were sold, the artists of this direction were already being replaced by new modern art, the forerunner and "father" of which can be considered Robert Henry.
The following years brought Henry popularity, he spent a lot of time in Ireland and Santa Fe, taught at the Students' League in New York, had a great influence on the development of the modernist trend among his female art students. In 1929, he was named one of the top three living American artists by the New York Arts Council. The classical elements of his style in the portrait are the forceful manner of writing, intense color and light effects, a reflection of the individuality and spiritual qualities of a person.
John French Sloan(1871-1951), one of the founders of the "School of the trash can", member of the "Eight", artist and engraver.
His father was artistic and encouraged his children from early childhood to draw. He began working early due to his father's illness, and his job as a salesman in a bookstore left him plenty of free time to read, draw, and copy the works of Dürer and Rembrandt, which he admired. He also began making etchings and selling them in a shop, and his postcards and calendars were a success. Working later as an illustrator, he began taking evening classes at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, where he met Robert Henry, who convinced him to turn to painting.
The difficult history of his family life (alcoholism and the mental instability of his wife, a former prostitute whom he met in a brothel), interfered with his work, and although he had painted almost 60 paintings by 1903, he still had no name in the art world and sold little their works. After moving to New York, he worked in magazines, drew political cartoons, illustrated books, participated in an exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery and organized a traveling exhibition after it, he finally came to success.
Throughout his subsequent life, Sloan was faithful to socialist ideas, which was certainly reflected in his work, but he categorically objected to the critics' statements about the conscious social orientation of his painting.
In the late 1920s, Sloane changed not only the technique but also the subjects of his paintings in favor of nudes and portraits, often using underpainting and shading, and never again achieved the popularity that his early work had.
William J. Glakkens(1870-1938), also one of the founders of the "Trash Can School", was born in Philadelphia, where his family lived for many generations. His brother and sister also became artists. William himself, having shown artistic abilities at school, worked after graduation as an artist in newspapers, attended an evening course at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he met young Sloane, who introduced him to Robert Henry.
In 1895, Glakkens travels with a group of artists around Europe, admires the paintings of the great "Dutch", and in Paris for the first time gets acquainted with the art of the Impressionists, then throughout his life he repeatedly leaves to paint in Paris and the South of France. After returning to the United States, Glakkens settled in New York, actively participating in the exhibition activities of the School of the Trash Can and the Group of Eight.
An impressionistic direction is increasingly manifesting in his work, he is even called the “American Renoir”, and unlike Sloan, he was not a “social chronicler”, but a “pure” artist, for whom art form, color and sensuality were of paramount importance. His palette brightens over the years, the subjects change their meaning, landscapes, beach scenes prevail, and at the end of his life - still lifes and portraits.
His art does not reflect the social problems of the day, the time of the Great Depression, rather the opposite - "his paintings are filled with the ghost of happiness, he is obsessed with the contemplation of joy" (Leslie Keith, William Glackens' Constancy, 1966).
George Benjamin Laks(1867-1933) was born in Williamsport to a pharmacist, his mother was an amateur artist and musician. After moving to a small town in southern Pennsylvania, located near the coal fields, George saw poverty early and received lessons in compassion from parents who helped families of miners.
He began his working life as a teenager, working with his brother in vaudeville, but very early realized that he wanted to be an artist. After a short study at the Academy of Fine Arts, he went to Europe, studied various art schools, became a fan of Spanish and Dutch painting (especially Velázquez and Frans Hals) and Manet's technique. Returning to Philadelphia, Luks works as an illustrator for a newspaper, meets Glakkens, Sloan and Shinn, participates in Robert Henry's intellectual meetings, and after moving to New York and working as an artist in Pulitzer's magazine, he begins to devote more time to painting.
He participates in the activities of the School of the Trash Can and the Group of Eight, contributes to the debate about New Realism, draws extensively, conveying the life of immigrants, their ethnic diversity, drawing material from the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. In addition to paintings about New York life, Lux paints landscapes and portraits, he was considered a master of strong color and light effects.
Lux was an original person, a born rebel, was proud that others considered him the "bad boy" of American art, created myths about himself, often got drunk to unconsciousness, was an alcoholic, and was eventually found killed in a domestic fight in the stairwell.
Everett Shinn(1876-1953), was born in Woodstown in a Quaker community to a family of farmers.
Early manifested abilities allowed him to start seriously studying the basics of drawing at the age of 15, take lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts a year later, and at the age of 17 start working as a full-time artist in newspapers. In 1897, after moving to New York, the young Shinn soon became known as one of the talented realists who depicted urban life, street violence, accidents and fires.
After traveling with his wife in Europe, Shinn had new subjects (theater, ballet) and impressionistic elements in painting. He is the only one from the "School of the Trash Can" and the group "Eight" who has a lot of pastel work, as well as murals not only in the apartments of the Manhattan elite, but also 18 murals for the famous Broadway Belasco Theater. Shinn believed that "he was an accidental member of the eight", without a political position and committed to social life, but reflecting a piece of American reality of the early twentieth century in a realistic and romantic spirit.
There is an assumption that Everett Shinn served as a prototype for the artist Eugene Whittle in T. Dreiser's novel "Genius".
Ernest Lawson(1873-1939), born in Halifax, came to the USA, lived first in Kansas City and then in New York, studied at the Art Students League with Touktman, who introduced him to impressionism.
In France, while studying at the Julien Academy, he became interested in plein air painting, met Sisley and Somerset Maugham. Back in the States, Lawson developed his own aesthetic style, bordering on impressionism and realism, and has been called "America's last impressionist".
He travels a lot around the country, paints deserted landscapes, converges with the artists of the "School of the trash can" and becomes a member of the group "Eight", but unlike them, he avoids drama in depicting urban life and after participating in the exhibition of modern art "Armory Show", not rejecting realistic and impressionistic tendencies, he is interested in post-impressionism, in particular Cezanne.
Lawson's work is not as well known as that of his other contemporaries, but Robert Henry considered him "the greatest landscape painter since Winslow Hommer". He drowned under mysterious circumstances while swimming in Miami Beach.
George Wesley Bellows(1882-1925), was a late and only child in the family of the daughter of a whaling ship captain. At the Ohio State University, he studied and successfully played baseball and basketball on the condition of illustrating the university yearbook, dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, worked as an illustrator in magazines. In 1904, without graduating from university, Bellows moved to New York, entered the School of Art, joined the artists of the School of the Trash Can and the group of Eight, rented his own studio on Broadway.
Participation in exhibitions with students of Robert Henry and teaching at the Art Students League brought him fame, although many critics considered his work "crude" not only in plot but also in style.
Continuing the themes of urban life and sports in his work, Bellows also began to receive commissions for portraits from the wealthy elite, and during the summer he painted seascapes in Maine.
He was very politicized, adhered to socialist and even anarchist views, worked as an illustrator in a socialist magazine. In 1918 he created a series of prints and paintings depicting the atrocities committed by German soldiers during the invasion of Belgium.
Bellows also made a significant contribution to lithography, illustrated many books, including several editions of H. G. Wells. He died at the age of 42 from peritonitis after an unsuccessful operation, leaving behind a wife, two daughters, and a large number of paintings and prints that are today in many major American museums.
The following two artists cannot be fully attributed either to the "School of the trash can" or to the group of "Eight", they are already closer to the modernist direction, they are more open to experimentation, their work can rightly be considered a transitional stage to post-impressionism.
Arthur Bowen Davis(1853-1928), already at the age of 15 he took part in a traveling exhibition in his city, organized by members of the Hudson River School. After the family moved to Chicago, he studied at the Academy of Design, and after moving to New York, he studied at the Art Students League and worked as an illustrator for a magazine.
Difficult family circumstances (Davis's infidelity, the presence of a second illegitimate wife and an illegitimate child) left their mark on his behavior and secretive nature, but already in the first year after his marriage, Davis's paintings began to be successfully sold, and regular trips to Europe and the works of Corot and Millet helped him hone your sense of color and develop your own pictorial style.
In the twenties, he was recognized as one of the most respected and financially successful American artists. As a member of the Group of Eight, he was the chief organizer of the Armory Show, more knowledgeable of contemporary art than his comrades, acted as an advisor to many wealthy New Yorkers when shopping for their collections, helped many young artists with advice and money.
Arthur B. Davis is an anomalous phenomenon in American painting: his own lyrical style can be described as reservedly conservative, but his tastes and interests were completely avant-garde.
Maurice Brasil Prendergast(1858-1924) and his twin brother were born into the family of a trading post merchant in the British colony of North America. After moving to Boston, his father sent Maurice, who was able to draw, to study with a commercial artist, which explains the brightness and "flatness" of his work.
Studying in Paris at the Colarossi Academy, and then at the Julien Academy, acquaintance with the work of English and French avant-garde artists, studying the works of Van Gogh and Seurat actually led him to post-impressionism. Prendergast was one of the first Americans to recognize Cezanne, understand his work and use his expressive methods of conveying form and color. Returning to Boston in 1895, he works mainly in watercolor.
And monotypes, and after a trip to Italy, he received fame and critical acclaim for his works dedicated to Venice.
He meets the artists of the group of "eight", participates with them in the famous exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908, and Glakkens becomes his lifelong friend. The seven works he presented at the Armory Show showed his stylistic maturity and ultimate commitment to post-impressionism, his style took shape and was aptly described by critics as "tapestry-like" or "mosaic".
Prendergast remained a bachelor all his life, possibly due to natural shyness, poor health, and severe deafness in his later years.
Interestingly, in subsequent years, the realistic trend in American painting did not lose its relevance and was reflected and developed in post-impressionism, "magic realism" and "regionalism". But more on that next time.
And, as always, a slideshow on the subject, featuring many more reproductions.
American artists are very diverse. Someone was a clear cosmopolitan, like Sargent. He is an American by origin, but has lived in London and Paris for almost his entire adult life.
There are also authentic Americans among them, who portrayed the life of only their compatriots, like Rockwell.
And there are artists out of this world, like Pollock. Or those whose art has become a product of the consumer society. This, of course, is about Warhol.
However, they are all Americans. Freedom-loving, bold, bright. Read about seven of them below.
1. James Whistler (1834-1903)
James Whistler. Self-portrait. 1872 Art Institute in Detroit, USA. Whistler can hardly be called a real American. Growing up, he lived in Europe. And he spent his childhood at all ... in Russia. His father built a railway in St. Petersburg.
It was there that the boy James fell in love with art, visiting the Hermitage and Peterhof thanks to his father's connections (then they were still palaces closed to the public).
Why is Whistler famous? In whatever style he paints, from realism to tonalism*, he can almost immediately be recognized by two features. Unusual colors and musical names.
Some of his portraits are imitations of old masters. Like, for example, his famous portrait "The Artist's Mother".
James Whistler. The artist's mother. Arranged in gray and black. 1871 The artist has created amazing work using colors ranging from light gray to dark grey. And some yellow.
But this does not mean that Whistler liked such colors. He was an extraordinary person. He could easily appear in society in yellow socks and with a bright umbrella. And this is when men dressed exclusively in black and gray.
He also has much lighter works than "Mother". For example, Symphony in White. So the picture was called by one of the journalists at the exhibition. Whistler liked the idea. Since then, he called almost all his works in a musical way.
James Whistler. Symphony in White #1. 1862 National Gallery of Washington, USA But then, in 1862, the public did not like the Symphony. Again, because of Whistler's idiosyncratic color schemes. It seemed strange to people to write a woman in white on a white background.
In the picture we see Whistler's red-haired mistress. Quite in the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelites. After all, then the artist was friends with one of the main initiators of Pre-Raphaelism, Gabriel Rossetti. Beauty, lilies, unusual elements (wolf skin). Everything is as it should be.
But Whistler quickly moved away from Pre-Raphaelism. Since it was not external beauty that was important to him, but mood and emotions. And he created a new direction - tonalism.
His nocturne landscapes in the style of tonalism really look like music. Monochrome, viscous.
Whistler himself said that musical names help to focus on the painting itself, lines and color. At the same time, without thinking about the place and the people who are depicted.
James Whistler. Nocturne in blue and silver: Chelsea. 1871 Tate Gallery, London 
Mary Cassat. Sleeping baby. Pastel, paper. 1910 Dallas Museum of Art, USA But she remained true to her style to the end. Impressionism. Soft pastel. Mothers with children.
For the sake of painting, Cassatt abandoned motherhood. But her femininity was increasingly manifested precisely in such delicate works as Sleeping Child. It is a pity that a conservative society once put her before such a choice.
3. John Sargent (1856-1925)
John Sargent. Self-portrait. 1892 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York John Sargent was sure that he would be a portrait painter all his life. Career was going well. Aristocrats lined up to order him.
But once the artist crossed the line in the opinion of society. It is now difficult for us to understand what is so unacceptable in the film "Madame X".
True, in the original version, the heroine had one of the bralettes omitted. Sargent "raised" her, but this did not help the case. Orders have come to nothing.
John Sargent. Madame H. 1878 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York What obscene saw the public? And the fact that Sargent portrayed the model in an overconfident pose. Moreover, translucent skin and a pink ear are very eloquent.
The picture, as it were, says that this woman with increased sexuality is not averse to accepting the courtship of other men. Moreover, being married.
Unfortunately, behind this scandal, contemporaries did not see the masterpiece. Dark dress, light skin, dynamic pose - a simple combination that can only be found by the most talented masters.
But there is no evil without good. Sargent received freedom in return. He began to experiment more with impressionism. Write children in immediate situations. This is how the work “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose” appeared.
Sargent wanted to capture a specific moment of twilight. So I only worked 2 minutes a day when the lighting was right. Worked in summer and autumn. And when the flowers withered, he replaced them with artificial ones.
John Sargent. Carnation, lily, lily, rose. 1885-1886 Tate Gallery, London In recent decades, Sargent got so into the taste of freedom that he began to abandon portraits altogether. Although his reputation has already been restored. He even rudely dismissed one client, saying that he would paint her gate with great pleasure than her face.
John Sargent. White ships. 1908 Brooklyn Museum, USA Contemporaries treated Sargent with irony. Considering it obsolete in the age of modernism. But time put everything in its place.
Now his work is worth no less than the work of the most famous modernists. Well, let alone the love of the public and say nothing. Exhibitions with his work are always sold out.
4. Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Norman Rockwell. Self-portrait. Illustration for the February 13, 1960 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It is difficult to imagine a more popular artist during his lifetime than Norman Rockwell. Several generations of Americans grew up on his illustrations. Loving them with all my heart.
After all, Rockwell portrayed ordinary Americans. But at the same time showing their lives from the most positive side. Rockwell did not want to show either evil fathers or indifferent mothers. And you will not meet unhappy children with him.
Norman Rockwell. The whole family to rest and from rest. Illustration in the Evening Saturday Post, August 30, 1947. Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA His works are full of humour, juicy colors and very skilfully captured expressions from life.
But it is an illusion that the work was given to Rockwell easily. To create one painting, he would first take up to a hundred photographs with his models to capture the right gestures.
Rockwell's work has had a tremendous impact on the minds of millions of Americans. After all, he often spoke with the help of his paintings.
During the Second World War, he decided to show what the soldiers of his country were fighting for. Having created, among other things, the painting "Freedom from Want". In the form of Thanksgiving, on which all family members, well-fed and satisfied, enjoy the family holiday.
Norman Rockwell. Freedom from want. 1943 Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA After 50 years at the Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell moved to the more democratic Look magazine, where he was able to express his views on social issues.
The brightest work of those years is “The Problem We Live With”.
Norman Rockwell. The problem we are living with. 1964 Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, USA This is the true story of a black girl who went to a white school. Since a law was passed that people (and hence educational institutions) should no longer be divided along racial lines.
But the anger of the inhabitants knew no bounds. On the way to school, the girl was guarded by the police. Here is such a "routine" moment and showed Rockwell.
If you want to know the life of Americans in a slightly embellished light (as they themselves wanted to see it), be sure to look at Rockwell's paintings.
Perhaps, of all the painters presented in this article, Rockwell is the most American artist.
5. Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Andrew Wyeth. Self-portrait. 1945 National Academy of Design, New York Unlike Rockwell, Wyeth was not as positive. A recluse by nature, he did not seek to embellish anything. On the contrary, he depicted the most ordinary landscapes and unremarkable things. Just a wheat field, just a wooden house. But he even managed to peep something magical in them.
His most famous work is Christina's World. Wyeth showed the fate of one woman, his neighbor. Having been paralyzed since childhood, she crawled around the area around her farm.
So there is nothing romantic in this picture, as it might seem at first. If you look closely, then the woman has painful thinness. And knowing that the heroine's legs are paralyzed, you understand with sadness how far she is still far from home.
At first glance, Wyeth wrote the most mundane. Here is the old window of the old house. A shabby curtain that has already begun to turn into shreds. Outside the window darkens the forest.
But there is some mystery in all this. Some other look.
Andrew Wyeth. Wind from the sea. 1947 National Gallery of Washington, USA So children are able to look at the world with an unblinkered look. So does Wyatt. And we are with him.
All Wyeth's affairs were handled by his wife. She was a good organizer. It was she who contacted museums and collectors.
There was little romance in their relationship. The music had to appear. And she became a simple, but with an extraordinary appearance Helga. This is what we see in many works.
Andrew Wyeth. Braids (from the Helga series). 1979 Private collection It would seem that we see only a photographic image of a woman. But for some reason, it's hard to break away from it. Her eyes are too complex, her shoulders tense. We, as it were, are straining internally with her. Struggling to find an explanation for this tension.
Depicting reality in every detail, Wyeth magically endowed her with emotions that cannot leave indifferent.
The artist was not recognized for a long time. With his realism, albeit magical, he did not fit into the modernist trends of the 20th century.
When museum workers bought his works, they tried to do it quietly, without attracting attention. Exhibitions were rarely organized. But to the envy of the modernists, they have always been a resounding success. People came in droves. And they still come.
6. Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Jackson Pollock. 1950 Photo by Hans Namuth Jackson Pollock is impossible to ignore. He crossed a certain line in art, after which painting could not be the same. He showed that in art, in general, you can do without boundaries. When I laid the canvas on the floor and spattered it with paint.
And this American artist began with abstractionism, in which the figurative can still be traced. In his work of the 1940s "Shorthand Figure" we see the outlines of both the face and the hands. And even understandable to us symbols in the form of crosses and zeros.
Jackson Pollock. Shorthand figure. 1942 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) His work was praised, but they were in no hurry to buy. He was as poor as a church mouse. And he drank shamelessly. Despite a happy marriage. His wife admired his talent and did everything for her husband's success.
But Pollock was originally a broken personality. From his youth, it was clear from his actions that early death was his lot.
This brokenness as a result will lead him to death at the age of 44. But he will have time to make a revolution in art and become famous.
Jackson Pollock. Autumn rhythm (number 30). 1950 Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA And he did it in a period of two years of sobriety. He was able to work fruitfully in 1950-1952. He experimented for a long time until he came to the drip technique.
Laying out a huge canvas on the floor of his shed, he walked around it, being, as it were, in the picture itself. And sprayed or just poured paint.
These unusual paintings began to be bought from him willingly for their incredible originality and novelty.
Jackson Pollock. Blue pillars. 1952 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Pollock was stunned by fame and fell into a depression, not understanding where to go next. The deadly mixture of alcohol and depression left him no chance of survival. Once he got behind the wheel very drunk. Last time.
7. Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Andy Warhole. 1979 Photo by Arthur Tress Only in a country with such a cult of consumption, as in America, could pop art be born. And its main initiator was, of course, Andy Warhol.
He became famous for taking the most ordinary things and turning them into a work of art. That's what happened to Campbell's soup can.
The choice was not accidental. Warhol's mother fed her son every day with this soup for more than 20 years. Even when he moved to New York and took his mother with him.
Andy Warhole. Cans of Campbell's Soup. Polymer, hand-printed. 32 paintings 50x40 each. 1962 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) After this experiment, Warhol became interested in screen printing. Since then, he has taken images of pop stars and painted them in different colors.
This is how his famous painted Marilyn Monroe appeared.
A myriad of such Marilyn acid colors were produced. Art Warhol put on stream. As expected in a consumer society.
Andy Warhole. Marilyn Monroe. Silkscreen, paper. 1967 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) Painted faces were invented by Warhol for a reason. And again, not without the influence of the mother. As a child, during a protracted illness of her son, she dragged him packs of coloring books.
This childhood hobby grew into something that became his calling card and made him fabulously rich.
He painted not only pop stars, but also the masterpieces of his predecessors. Got it and.
Venus, like Marilyn, has done a lot. The exclusivity of a work of art is "erased" by Warhol to powder. Why did the artist do this?
To popularize old masterpieces? Or, conversely, try to devalue them? To immortalize pop stars? Or spice up death with irony?
Andy Warhole. Venus Botticelli. Silkscreen, acrylic, canvas. 122x183 cm. 1982 E. Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA His painted works of Madonna, Elvis Presley or Lenin are sometimes more recognizable than the original photos.
But the masterpieces are unlikely to be overshadowed. All the same, the primordial "Venus" remains priceless.
Warhol was an avid party-goer, attracting a lot of outcasts. Drug addicts, failed actors or just unbalanced personalities. One of which once shot him.
Warhol survived. But 20 years later, due to the consequences of a wound he had once suffered, he died alone in his apartment.
US melting pot
Despite the short history of American art, the range is wide. Among American artists there are Impressionists (Sargent), and magical realists (Wyeth), and abstract expressionists (Pollock), and pioneers of pop art (Warhol).
Well, Americans love freedom of choice in everything. Hundreds of denominations. Hundreds of nations. Hundreds of art directions. That's why he is the melting pot of the United States of America.
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