United States Art History

United States Art History

Art History of Each State within the United States of America

with an emphasis on representational art

(above: Thomas Moran, A Showery Day, Grand Canyon,1919, oil on canvas, 25 x 20 in. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

Exclusions

Articles and essays concerning living or deceased individual artists published in Resource Library are excluded.

Determining that one particular state within the United States is the best location for an artist's geographic reference is subjective. During a lifetime, an artist may produce significant work in several locales. Experts argue about whether the artist's earlier, mid-career or later work is the most significant. Styles and other variables of artistic expression may change several times. Various styles and other variables may be attributed to an individual artist in several parts of the geographical boundaries of the present United States. Looking back in time, many early artists worked in locales not yet made states by the federal government. An expert's personal taste may influence an opinion, complicated by the fact that there may be more than one expert for an artist. For the above reasons, United States Art History does not include texts concerning living or deceased individual artists published in Resource Library.

To access Resource Library's full information on individual artists referenced in materials associated with a state, conduct an advanced search. Also visit TFAO's America's Distinguished Artists catalogue which provides access to biographies for thousands of historic American artists. Within United States Art History pages for most states there are links to texts containing lists of historic artists referenced in Resource Library articles and essays and in materials from other websites.

Here's an example carried out in February 2012: Let's say that you found the exhibition checklist contained in the Resource Library article The Art Students League of New York: Highlights from the Permanent Collection and Selections from the Hillstrom Museum of Art Collection which was published 9/27/07. While reading the checklist you became interested in learning more about some of the listed artists. One of the artists you wanted to learn more about is Gifford Beal. If you went to America's Distinguished Artists and selected the page listing artists with last names Bea - Bez, you found links to biographical information for Gifford Beal. One was to a Resource Library article dedicated to the artist and another was to a biography from another website. If you wanted to look further you in the TFAO website you would have conducted an advanced search. The search of Resource Library's contents would have guided you to 62 pages citing the artist.

Materials focusing on geographic regions larger than an individual state are excluded

Art within geographic regions of the United States, e.g. "Eastern Art: 20-21st Century Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Painting," "Midwest Art: 20-21st Century," "Rocky Mountain and Southwest Painting and Sculpture: 19th-21st Century," are covered in Topics in American Art, a TFAO online Catalogue.

Articles and essays specifically about art museums published in Resource Library or other websites, books and articles are excluded.

To learn about museums and other institutions in each state that have provided articles and essays to Resource Library see Sources of Articles and Essays Indexed by State within the United States. These institutions have held exhibitions on representational art since 1997 and may be more likely to do so in the future than non-listed institutions. You may also access information about these institutions through the Art Museum, Gallery and Art Center index and an index for other non-profit sources including Academies, Associations, Ateliers and Societies. However, materials focusing on historic associations that eventually became museums are permissible

Information on art colonies, artists' clubs, and art schools formed during or after World War II are excluded.

Information on these organizations may be found through searching within Resource Library's contents.

Histories of commercial art galleries and other for-profit organizations established during or after World War II are excluded.

Information on these organizations may be found through searching within Resource Library's contents.

Materials from websites that charge a fee for access to materials are excluded.

Return to United States Art History site guide

About Resource Library

Resource Library is a free online publication of nonprofit Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Since 1997, Resource Library and its predecessor Resource Library Magazine have cumulatively published online 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of identified authors, thousands of other texts not attributable to named authors, plus 24,000+ images, all providing educational and informational content related to American representational art. Texts and related images are provided almost exclusively by nonprofit art museum, gallery and art center sources.

All published materials provide educational and informational content to students, scholars, teachers and others. Most published materials relate to exhibitions. Materials may include whole exhibition gallery guides, brochures or catalogues or texts from them, perviously published magazine or journal articles, wall panels and object labels, audio tour scripts, play scripts, interviews, blogs, checklists and news releases, plus related images.

What you won't find:

User-tracking cookies are not installed on our website. Privacy of users is very important to us. You won't find annoying banners and pop-ups either. Our pages are loaded blazingly fast. Resource Library contains no advertising and is 100% non-commercial. .

(left: JP Hazeltine, founding editor, Resource Library)

Links to sources of information outside our website are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other websites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. We neither recommend or endorses these referenced organizations. Although we include links to other websites, we take no responsibility for the content or information contained on other sites, nor exert any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see our General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.