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American Beauty: Painting
and Sculpture from The Detroit Institute of Arts 1770-1920
December 14, 2003 March 14,
2004
In its relatively
short history, America has produced a vibrant and diverse visual tradition
of its own, with fact, pragmatism, awe and a description of place at the
heart of its artistic production. European settlers in this new land sought
to reinvent notions of government, religion, society and even art, as they
forged a uniquely American style and definition of beauty. Now, visitors
to Phoenix Art Museum will have an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate
America's best in a visually stunning exhibition of painting and sculpture
from the period in which American art was born and came into its own
American Beauty: Painting and Sculpture from The Detroit Institute of
Arts 
1770-1920, on view December 14, 2003 through
March 14, 2004 in the South Wing. Beginning with America's earliest homegrown
talent, John Singleton Copley, the exhibition includes 91 masterpieces by
such American greats as John Singer Sargent, Gilbert Charles Stuart, Mary
Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Frederic Edwin Church, William Merritt Chase, Albert
Bierstadt the Peale family, Robert Henri, and many more. (right:
George Bellows, A Day in June, 1913, oil on canvas, 42 x 48 inches,
Detroit Museum of Art purchase, Special Membership and Donations Fund with
contributions from Philip, David and Paul R. Gray, and their sisteer Mrs.
William R. Kales)
American Beauty, organized
by the Detroit Institute of Arts from its collection of American art - one
of the finest in the United States - explores the development of our nation's
visual history through almost two centuries. Phoenix Art Museum is proud
to be the first American venue scheduled to present this exhibition before
it goes home to Detroit after a successful European tour to: National Gallery
of Ireland, Dublin; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; and American Museum at Giverny,
France.
"We are delighted to be able to present an exhibition
of this breadth that exposes the masterworks of our own nation," said
Museum director, Jim Ballinger. "In terms of the exceptional talents
included in the exhibition, the timeframe it covers, and its exploration
of the development of artistic trends, American Beauty can, quite
literally, be considered the American counterpart to the exhibition of European
art we presented earlier this year, El Greco to Picasso."
A Closer Look at the Exhibition
One of the strongest of American traits is our urge to
define what is American. As American artists sought to create a visual national
identity, they looked to both their own dreams and to tutelage from abroad.
While American artists alternated between homegrown creativity and international
influences, certain characteristics reappear in their art - an adherence
to truthful depiction, directness, idealism and a belief in progress.
American Beauty includes some
of the best-known works representing the major American art movements and
trends of the period, including Hudson River School and American Impressionism.
From the faces of a new nation and the Colonial era to American life through
the Civil War, global landscapes and the cosmopolitan trends of the later
19th century and early 20th century, the exhibition provides an extraordinary
exploration of the exemplary art - and artists - of our own nation. The
story of American art unfolds as the exhibition visitor travels through
several sections.
Faces of a New Nation
By the late 18th century, portraiture had become the backbone
of American art. Americans were interested in creating a national identity
through images of themselves and their early heroes. These portraits also
provide an insight into the enterprise, industriousness and civic pride
of the new nation.
Land of Plenty
The still life became popular in the early 19th century.
American still lifes were not as opulent as their European prototypes, nor
were they as imbued with religious and moral symbolism. Here, artists practiced
still life as a science, with a curiosity for the natural world and a distinctly
American desire to capture real appearances.
From Sea to Shining Sea, and Beyond
By the 1830s, landscape painting had become the vehicle
for depicting a national identity. Throughout the rest of the century, the
depiction of the American land took a variety of forms - as mysterious and
sublime wilderness, a new territory requiring scientific documentation,
the pioneers' territorial and natural destiny, or as the individual's private
retreat.
Telling Stories
Many artists found the lofty subject matter of traditional
history painting too removed from the American experience. One connection
to the past with which Americans could identify, however, was ancient Greece
and Rome. Both civilizations were models for the young nation. They inspired
America's political ideals, architecture, clothing and notions of beauty.
Of The People, By The People, For The People
Genre painting, generally defined as a realistic depiction
of everyday life, became popular in America by the 1840s. It appealed to
a broad audience who viewed the activities of common people as an appropriate
subject for artists in a democracy. Narrative rather than philosophical
in tone, genre paintings often depicted country scenes with sympathy and
humor. Some had deeper political and social meanings; they satirized class,
gender, and racial and regional divisions that had solidified in America
by the early 19th century.
The Civil War and its Aftermath
The Civil War (1861-1865) brought about a radical change
in the social, political and cultural life in America. While photography,
for the first time, exposed the brutality of war, painters, by contrast,
showed the quieter, more noble side of soldiers' lives. After the war, artistic
explorations became more introspective and focused on an imagined simpler
past, and the official closing of the frontier in 1890 made scenes and stories
from the Old West more popular than ever.
The Rise of Internationalism
During the last quarter of the 19th century, America resurrected
itself from the ashes of the Civil War and became the world's leading industrial
power. It was a new era of material expansion and cosmopolitanism known
as the Gilded Age. Europe had always held a special attraction for cultured
Americans and artists, but at this time, they traveled abroad in record
numbers. American painting was deemed "outdated." In response,
ambitious, young American artists flocked to Europe, seeking both traditional
training and the new styles and techniques of the avant-garde, particularly
Impressionism. Their goal was to compete fully in the world cultural arena
by absorbing European influences, applying them to international subjects,
and creating something new and better for American art.
The New American Landscape
As American artists returned from Europe, their depictions
of the American landscape changed from sublime vistas to those of a more
intimate and individual approach. The realistic depiction of place became
less important than conveying moods and personal expressions. American artists
in France had been influenced by the poetic approach to landscape of artists
painting outdoors in Barbizon, and the simplified forms and evocative power
of color of the "aesthetic style." But, the greatest influence
was Impressionism. However, the American version remained grounded in real
appearances and solid structure rather than the radical dissolution of form
central to its French counterpart.
The American City
By the opening decades of the 20th century, America was
the wealthiest and most modern country in the world, and New York City had
become the symbol of its financial and technological superiority. The new
subway, skyscrapers, elegant department stores and a growing entertainment
industry made for a bustling urban scene. At the same time, immigration
had swelled the ranks of the city's poor to unprecedented numbers, and the
Lower East Side became notorious for poverty, filth and overcrowding. A
group of artists called "The Eight" or the "Ashcan School"
captured the city's grittiness, diversity and vitality in their work. Their
radicalism lay in their subjects, not their styles.
Visiting the Exhibition
While American Beauty will carry a special admission
fee, it will not be specially ticketed with timed entry and advance tickets
will not be issued. Visitors simply pay admission when they arrive at the
Museum. Phoenix Art Museum will present a full schedule of lectures, Family
Sundays and gallery talks in conjunction with American Beauty. The
Museum again will feature the "Collection Connection" logo next
to some of the paintings and sculptures indicating that works by the same
artists can be found in Phoenix Art Museum's collection, such as Gilbert
Stuart, Robert Henri, Mary Cassatt and Frederic Remington.
Editor's note:
For links to many RLM articles on American Impressionism go to
the Google search engine and conduct an "advanced search"
for listings with the words "American Impressionism" within the
tfaoi.com domain.
See also in RLM genre art articles including:
Enjoy pictures of Hudson River School paintings via the Desmond-Fish
Library
See the presentation on the Ashcan
Artists from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and see the article
on The Eight in RLM.
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional
source by visiting the sub-index page for the Phoenix
Art Museum in Resource Library Magazine.
Please Note: RLM does
not endorse sites behind external links. We offer them for your additional
research; external links were chosen on the basis of being the most informative
online source at the time of our search.
Search for more
articles and essays on American art in Resource Library. See America's Distinguished Artists for biographical information on historic artists.
This page was originally published in 2003 in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information.
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Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit
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