American 20th-21st Century Portraits and Figurative Art
Introduction
This section of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "American 20th-21st Century Portraits and Figurative Art." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in TFAO's Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to these articles and essays. The date at the end of each title is the Resource Library publication date.
After articles and essays from Resource Library are links to valuable online resources found outside our website. Links may be to museums' articles about exhibits, plus much more topical information based on our online searches. Following online resources may be information about offline resources including museums, DVDs, and paper-printed books, journals and articles.
We recommend that readers search within the TFAO website to find detailed information for any topic. Please see our page How to research topics not listed for more information.
"Loads of people, particularly artists, hate pretty pictures. Now I've never met anyone who didn't like a pretty face." - David Hockney
The Albuquerque Museum says: "Figurative art describes any form of modern or contemporary art that references the natural world and particularly the human body."
(above: John Singer Sargent, Self-portrait, 1906, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches, Collection of Self-Portraits in the Uffizi Gallery. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Our 185 Resource Library articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art:
2009-2013 10
2007-2008 18
2006 16
2005 16
2004 23
2002-2003 42
1998-2001 67
(above: John Singer Sargent, Mrs Henry White, 1883, oil on canvas, 87 x 55 inches, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
From other websites:
Figurative Painting - Celebrities and Entertainers
Figurative Painting - Children and Families
Figurative Painting - Miscellaneous
Portraiture - Artist Self-Portraiture
Portraiture - Celebrities and Entertainers
Books:
Celebrity Caricature in America by Wendy Wick Reaves, Yale University Press, 1998. Amazon.com says:",,,Reaves contends that this modern caricature - with its abbreviation, provocation, wit, figural distortion and dissonant colour contrasts - was a type of portraiture that captures the essence of the times and influenced other arts. Celebrity caricature had appeal to an audience hungry for emblems of the emerging urban culture. This book accompanies the first comprehensive exhibition on celebrity caricature, which will open at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, USA in April 1998."
(above: Thomas Hart Benton, Self-Portrait with Rita, 1922, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Washington. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Go to Figurative and Portrait
Art: 18-19th Century,
19-20th Century,
20-21st Century
Return to Topics in American Representational Art
TFAO extends appreciation to Rick Delanty for suggestions of content for this page.
See our Museums Explained to learn about the "inner workings" of art museums and the functions of staff members. In the exhibitions section find out how to get the most out of a museum visit. See definitions for a glossary of museum-related words used in articles.
To help you plan visits to institutions exhibiting American art when traveling see Sources of Articles Indexed by State within the United States.
Unless otherwise noted, all text and image materials relating to the above institutional source were provided by that source. Before reproducing or transmitting text or images please read Resource Library's user agreement.
Our catalogues provide many more useful resources.
American Representational Art has links to dozens of topics.
Distinguished Artists is a national registry of historic artists.
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.
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