Remembering Rauschenberg’s decades in Florida https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/03/remembering-rauschenbergs-decades-in-florida?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ArtBaselMiamiBeach2025 #Americanart
#AmericanArt
Paul Cornoyer (1864–1923)
The Plaza after the Rain
1908
oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum
#art #americanArt #20thCenturyArt #rainyDay
The Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, D.C.—previously the Social Security Building—is architecturally important and notably includes some of the most important New Deal–era murals.
https://www.archpaper.com/2025/11/gsa-wilbur-j-cohen-federal-building-art-and-architecture-saving/
#NewDealArt #Mural #AmericanArchitecture #AmericanArt #AmericanPainting #CulturalHeritage
South buttress carving -- Union Terminal, Cincinnati OH -- PunkToad - https://www.flickr.com/photos/punktoad/6331320122/
#AmericanArt #UnionTerminalCincinnati #Cincinnati #Thirties #Relief #Sculpture
"Madame X," John Singer Sargent, 1884.
Y'all know Sargent by now.
It's funny that this picture, now sometimes called "the American Mona Lisa," almost ended Sargent's career. He pursued Paris socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wanting to paint her, and it took almost a year to complete. Originally it featured a shoulder strap sliding off her shoulder, which, when combined with the lack of jewelry and gloves, and the gown's plunging neckline, was seen as too sexual and salacious; some thought it hinted at an affair between artist and subject. Not likely, Sargent was a very active gay man.
The New Orleans-born Gautreau was one of the great beauties of Parisian society, and was pursued by several portraitists. Although it's often said her reputation was ruined by this painting; it really wasn't as most of the backlash was directed at Sargent. She did become more choosy about which functions she would attend, and she had several more portraits done, one almost identical to this but was greeted only with praise.
Now it's regarded as one of the great classic works of American art!
Happy Portrait Monday!
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
#Art #JohnSingerSargent #AmericanArt #MadameX #PortraitMonday #Scandalous #WomenInArt
The British reception of US abstract expressionism.
The New Deal Masterpieces Threatened by Trump’s D.C. Downsizing
Your great-grandparents paid Ben Shahn and Philip Guston to create gorgeous public murals. Next year they could be rubble.
https://newrepublic.com/article/201055/ben-shahn-wpa-art-trump
#PublicArt #AmericanArt #ArtHistory #Murals #MuralArt #Frescoes #NewDeal
There Was a Plan to Save These New Deal Masterpieces. Then Trump Won.
A feasibility study was underway about restoring the ailing federal building that houses important Ben Shahn frescoes, Philip Guston murals, and other FDR-era artwork. But the Trump administration put a stop to it.
https://newrepublic.com/article/201204/ben-shahn-murals-new-deal-cohen-building-trump
#CulturalHeritage #ArtHistory #Murals #MuralArt #Frescoes #WPA #NewDeal #ModernArt #FascismInTheUSA #AmericanArt
A Companion to American Art by John Davis, 2015
A Companion to American Art presents 35 newly-commissioned essays by leading scholars that explore the methodology, historiography, and current state of the field of American art history.
"Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)," Robert Henri, 1914.
Born in Cincinnati and raised in Nebraska, Robert Henri (1865-1929) is one of the great American artists. Starting off as a fan of the Impressionists (which you can see in the background of today's painting), he rejected the standards of American academic art and instead was a leader of the Ashcan school, a realist movement that specialized mostly in scenes in the everyday lives of the urban poor. As WWI loomed on the horizon, he traveled in California and New Mexico, where he painted some local subjects.
Not much is known of Tom Po Qui, aka Ramoncita Gonzalez, except that she was of the Tiwa people, a linguistic subgroup of the Pueblo. She was an artist, producing painted pottery, and performer, perhaps performing as a "show Indian" for tourists at the 1914 Panama Exposition, where this was painted. But in this portrait she looks out at us in a very self-possessed manner, confronting us as equals. Her outfit has an air of authenticity about it; she doesn't seem dressed up as a stereotype, but is simply reflecting her heritage and letting us see who she is. She is not being exploited; one thinks she won't allow it.
From the Denver Art Museum.
#Art #AmericanArt #RobertHenri #TomPoQui #IndigenousPeoples #Tiwa #PortraitMonday
"Little Boy Looking at the Sea," Edward Hopper, 1891.
Y'all know Hopper. But this is remarkable as this is very, very early Hopper. Early as in he was nine years old when he drew this, on the back of one of his report cards.
Born in Nyack, NY, a yacht-building town at the time, Hopper grew up on the water, with the Hudson clearly visible from his bedroom window. It's impossible to know if this was meant to depict himself, or someone he knew, or was drawn from the imagination, but here it is.
He showed artistic talent at an early age, and his parents encouraged it, keeping him stocked with supplies. Reportedly he'd wander the riverbanks with a sketchpad, drawing anything that caught his fancy.
What's remarkable is the air of isolation, and the small figure is so pensive and focused. This prefigures the themes of many of his grown-up works.
From a private collection.
Rockwell Kent - Seal Hunter: North Greenland (1933)
This picture is in the collection of the no longer easy to visit Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
I'm posting it for those of us in the northern hemisphere who are not enjoying the heat!
#Art #Painting #RockwellKent #SealHunter #Greenland #AmericanArt
"Sunset on the St. Lawrence," Oscar Bluemner, 1927.
Bluemner (1867-1938) was a Prussian-born painter who came to the US in his 20s. Here, he started off as an architect, but had many problems, including how his design for the Bronx Borough Courthouse was accepted, but credited to another architect, leading to a scandal.
Taking up painting, he struggled to make sales, and his family often lived in poverty. He did a number of works for the Federal Arts Project but was forced to quit due to failing health, and ended up dying by suicide, evidently choosing to end his life on his own terms.
Bluemner was much overlooked in his day and even after his death, but he's been re-evaluated in recent years as a seminal figure in American Modernism. While many of his works are recognizable, they're often still done in a way that lets them be seen as mere images and pattern, such as this. Is is a sunset done in an abstract manner? Or is it an abstract that happens to resemble a sunset? I'm sure, if given a different title, or no title at all, we may come to different conclusions, you and I.
From a private collection.
#Art #AmericanArt #OscarBluemner #Modernism #ModernArt #Sunset
"Still Life with Strawberries and Nuts," Raphaelle Peale, 1822.
Peale (1774-1825) was the son of painter Charles Willson Peale and perhaps America's first professional painter of still lifes. He started doing portraits with his father and siblings, and sometimes miniatures, but later became a taxidermist for a museum founded by his father.
However, the arsenic and mercury he was exposed to while doing taxidermy ended up giving him serious health problems. He abandoned miniatures and portraits and did nothing but still lifes, which until then had been viewed as something for students and amateurs. His skill and attention to detail gave legitimacy to a scorned genre of painting.
He died at the age of 51, reportedly after a night of heavy drinking, but it's now viewed that his destroyed health caught up with him. Now he is viewed by a number of critics as the most talented of the Peale brothers.
From the Art Institute of Chicago.
Jack Levine “Birmingham 63” 1963 modern art wing at the de young museum #americanart #modernart
🧵 1/2
I paid a visit to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Austin, TX, yesterday.
About sixty works are on display in a pleasant garden setting. I enjoyed strolling around looking at the works, even though most of Charles Umlauf's sculpture is not to taste. No doubt he was a master of his craft, but for the most part his visual imagination strikes me as having been overly prone to sentimentality and conservative allegory, of the type seen in "Family" and "Torchbearers", shown on the page linked below.
The same page does show works that do appeal to me more, such as the classically inspired "Muses" and two works where the influence of modernism is more apparent, "Supplication" and "Madonna and Child".
https://www.umlaufsculpture.org/1960-1969
What came as a surprise on my visit was an exhibition devoted to....
#UmlaufSculptureGarden #CharlesUmlauf #Sculpture #AmericanArt #TwentiethCenturyArt #Texas #Austin
Fresh Finds & Timeless Treasures: The Secret Behind Freeman’s | Hindman’s Americana Triumph
...#GeneralGeorgeWashington #CharlesPealePolk #AmericanArt #ArtAuction #HistoricPortrait #ArtCollectors #FineArt #ArtMarket #ArtHistory #AmericanHistory #ArtInvestment #ArtGallery #ArtExhibition #ArtLovers #ArtWorld Freeman’s | Hindman’s American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts auction on April 29, 2023, achieved a total of $1.47 million, with a strong sell-through rate of…
"Stag at Sharkey's," George Bellows, 1909.
Bellows (1882-1925) was an acclaimed Realist artist who was part of the Ashcan School, which sought to capture scenes of everyday life in New York, especially that of the lower and poorer classes. He had Socialist and Anarchist leanings, but also was a fervent supporter of the US's entry in WWI. While some on the left viewed him with suspicion, on the right he created controversy with his anticensorhip views, and his opposition to the persecution of dissenters and conscientious objectors.
When told he had no business depicting the war, because he wasn't there, he shot back, "I had no idea Leonardo da Vinci had a ticket to the Last Supper!"
Here we have one of his Aschan paintings, with a boxing match in full swing. Evidently this is at a private boxing club; the term "stag" refers to a contender who's given a temporary membership so he can take part in a bout. He chose a low perspective to imitate that of someone watching from the crowd. He also confessed he knew nothing of boxing, saying, "I'm just painting two men trying to kill each other."
From the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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