The development of painting in the USA

Introduction

art encompasses the history of painting and visual art in the United States. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artists primarily painted landscapes and portraits in a realistic style. A parallel development taking shape in rural America was the American craft movement, which began as a reaction to the industrial revolution. Developments in modern art in Europe came to America from exhibitions in New York City such as the Armory Show in 1913. Previously American Artists had based the majority of their work on Western Painting and European Arts. After World War II, New York replaced Paris as the center of the art world. Since then many American Movements have shaped Modern and Post Modern art. Art in the United States today covers a huge range of styles.the Declaration of Independence in 1776, which marked the official beginning of the American national identity, the new nation needed a history, and part of that history would be expressed visually. Most of early American art (from the late 18th century through the early 19th century) consists of history painting and portraits. Painters such as Gilbert Stuart made portraits of the newly elected government officials, while John Singleton Copley was painting emblematic portraits for the increasingly prosperous merchant class, and painters such as John Trumbull were making large battle scenes of the Revolutionary War.'s first well-known school of painting-the Hudson River School-appeared in 1820. The Hudson River painters' directness and simplicity of vision influenced such later artists as Winslow Homer (1836-1910), who depicted rural America-the sea, the mountains, and the people who lived near them. Middle-class city life found its painter in Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), an uncompromising realist whose unflinching honesty undercut the genteel preference for romantic sentimentalism. Henry Ossawa Tanner who studied with Thomas Eakins was one of the first important African American painters.painters who are considered American spent some time in Europe and met other European artists in Paris and London, such as Mary Cassatt and Whistler.are a lot of museums in the USA which are filled of tourists every year. The most famous of them are American Museum of Natural History which includes anthropological collections from Mexico and Central America, the Museum of Modern Art which is famous for its modern works of architecture, drawings, paintings, sculpture, books, etc. The National Gallery of Art includes collections of paintings, prints, medals donated by Andrew W. Mellon, Paul Mellon, Samuel Henry Kress and so on.course work seeks to provide an accurate and systematic description of American art. The work is aimed at the studying the development of American art, the effect of various events in the country on it, the most famous museums, art galleries, genres of painting and its representatives. preparing this course work the material has been taken from the books on American Art, the articles in encyclopedia and Internet.

 

The development of painting in the USA

The Colonial Period

culture has not been isolated from world culture. The American art in its development absorbed and assimilated many different influences. In spite of numerous influences American art in its best examples is not imitative; it is characterized by bright national peculiarities. It is American in subject matter, in emotional and intellectual content, and in style. It is much younger than the art of the Old World. It was roughly a hundred years after the death of Raphael that the first permanent English settlements appeared in America. The earliest American painting that has come down to us dates from about the middle of the seventeenth century when Velasquez in Spain and Rembrandt in the Netherlands were creating their masterpieces.the course of three centuries, American painting has passed through a long and complex period of development from earnest attempts by early limners through a budding florescence in the late eighteenth century to its highly contradictory state in modern times, which are torn by a fierce struggle between progressive realist traditions and the reactionary formalistic experimentation of modernism. It is a strong realist tradition which constitutes a distinct feature of American painting. It is this realist tradition that has given the world a long list of brilliant, gifted artists who have reflected in their art the spirit of the advanced social movements and progressive ideas of the American people.art had to develop under adverse conditions: engaged in subduing the wilderness and struggling for survival in the new, unexplored land, the colonists had little time and interest in any but utilitarian art.of the colonial artists, including some of the best, were self-taught. Many of them were artisans - carpenters, shipwrights, house painters, sign and carriage painters. Some went on to more sophistication, but most remained essentially primitive. Early America had a much larger proportion of folk artists than Europe.folk artist had certain qualities that the more sophisticated artist had lost. He went straight to the heart of things. Instinctively, without theorizing, he knew that art is not the photographic copying of nature, but the ‘creation of a pictorial equivalent of nature in physical materials - canvas, pigment, stone or wood. He retained the craftsman’s respect for the physical substance and structure of the work of art. His eye was an innocent one, concerned more with the object itself than its appearance. He had an innate gift for simplification, for recording the essentials. And he had an instinctive feeling for form and line and colour, and the patterns they created. Hence his art, within definite limits, represented something sound and pure.folk art was created directly out of reality, out of local and specific content, which gave it a strong native flavour. Sometimes it contained reminiscences of whatever art its producer might have seen - prints, textiles, porcelain or the instruction books that took the place of art schools. But all this was translated into folk language.native flavour appeared early in the untrained limners who painted portraits in the colonies from the middle seventeenth century on. Many of them were travelling artists - who went from town to town, sometimes with stock portraits already painted except for the sitter’s individual face, hands and accessories. They seldom bothered to sign their works. So most of them have remained anonymous.style the limners varied from colony to colony and from artist to artist, ranging from the severity of certain New England painters to the naive elegance of the New York and Hudson River artists. But they had in common the primitive virtues of honesty, an instinct for colour, line and decorative pattern, and above all. the physical integrity that marks the primitive in every age and land.the eighteenth century the colonies had become prosperous enough to attract professional painters from England and European countries, Justus Engelhardt Kuhn, a German artist, settled in 1708 at Annapolis; GustavusHesselius, a Swede, in 1711 in Philadelphia; Jeremiah Theus, a Swiss, in 1739 in Charleston; John Smibert in 1730 in Boston. John Wollasion arrived in New, York in 1749 and Joseph Blackburn in Boston in 1753. Both of them painted in the colonies for about twenty years. These artists of European origin and training represented professional standards and had some influence on American art as it emerged. But, by the middle of the eighteenth century it was already not the immigrant artists but the -native ones who left a significant heritage.two most gifted native-born artists who grew out of the general colonial tradition were R. Feke and J. S, Copley[1, p. 10-14 ].

 

Portraiture

 

Portraiture was the most popular type of painting in America from colonial times well into the nineteenth century. Most early portraitists had no formal training, but were self-taught sign- or housepainters. Typically, they traveled from town to town, supplementing their income with the commissions of local landowners and merchants. Now identified as "limners <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p1.htm','p1','resizable=yes,their work provides a glimpse of early colonial life. The rising mercantile class commissioned portraits as status symbols. Sitters posed in well-appointed interiors or landscapes in their finest clothes in order to document their property <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p2.htm','p2','resizable=yes,good taste, and sophistication.portraits of the next generation of American artists were similar in purpose, but technically more accomplished. Study abroad was often part of these artists' training. Gilbert Stuart <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p3.htm','p3','resizable=yes,width=200,height=308')> and John Singleton Copley were among those who traveled to Europe to study the work of the great masters and take instruction with eminent academicians. Stuart excelled at capturing the personality and psychological presence of his sitters. The theatrical British Grand Manner <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p4.htm','p4','resizable=yes,style was adopted by Copley and then popularized in America through work of Stuart and John Trumbull.the beginning of the Federal era, a market emerged for images of the young nation's leaders. Gilbert Stuart painted more than one hundred portraits ofGeorge Washington <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p5.htm','p5','resizable=yes,American heroes were rarely portrayed with the pomp that surrounded European aristocracy. In keeping with the colonial values of self-determination, portraits instead referred to individual accomplishments or suggested the sitter's symbolic importance to the nation. Rembrandt Peale'sportrait of his brother <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p6.htm','p6','resizable=yes,documents Rubens' success with what was reputed to be the first geranium grown in America. The flowers were prized in Europe but difficult to cultivate in the United States. In this light, the work becomes not only an image of the artist's brother, but a portrait of American self-sufficiency and achievement.served a documentary purpose for early Americans that is fulfilled by the camera today. Miniatures <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p7.htm','p7','resizable=yes,usually only a few inches high, were often the only visual record of loved ones separated by great distances. It was also common for people to commission a posthumous portrait, or mourning picture <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p8.htm','p8','resizable=yes,of a deceased child or other family member. Photography became more accessible during the mid-nineteenth century, leading to a decrease in the demand for painted portraits. Nevertheless, affluent sitters still took pleasure in proclaiming their material comforts with oil and canvas. Thomas Sully's idealized, elegant images of Philadelphia society <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p9.htm','p9','resizable=yes,exemplify the romantic style that was popular well into the 1860s. Although now better known for his genre scenes, Eastman Johnson accepted several portrait commissions, including The Brown Family <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p10.htm','p10','resizable=yes,closing decades of the nineteenth century the art centers of Europe continued to attract American artists and wealthy patrons. Some American artists preferred to live abroad, where they had greater access to the great public art collections and to recent developments in contemporary art. Mary Cassatt <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p11.htm','p11','resizable=yes,width=230,height=295')> spent much of her long career in France, combining her interest in portraiture with the new style of impressionism. John Singer Sargent <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p12.htm','p12','resizable=yes,width=230,height=295')> became a very successful portraitist, both in Europe and America. His knack for capturing the quality of fleeting moments in time adds a layer of depth to what might otherwise be simply society portraits.the turn of the nineteenth century, realism was the dominant portrait style. Thomas Eakins was adept at conveying personality, portraying his subjects with unvarnished realism and penetrating psychological insight. In the 1876 portrait of his niece <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p13.htm','p13','resizable=yes,Ella, Eakins lends an air of serious deliberation to a subject that is often overly sentimentalized. Best known for her portraits of children, Lydia Field Emmet <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p14.htm','p14','resizable=yes,incorporated characteristics of modernist techniques into her fundamentally traditional style. The resulting works are realistic portrayals that convey a sense of immediacy and the liveliness of her young subjects.the rise of abstraction in the twentieth century, experimentation with line, shape, and color changed artistic presentations of sitters. Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p15.htm','p15','resizable=yes,width=210,height=320')> shows the influence of abstract modernist trends from Europe, including cubism and expressionism. Walt Kuhn's Wisconsin <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p16.htm','p16','resizable=yes,width=230,height=295')>, painted during the Depression, is a portrait of an era more than an individual. In order to increase the expressive impact of the work, Kuhn created a representative portrait that could be any one of a number of people at a particular place in time. Similarly, artists in the 1960s employed images of widely recognizable figures from popular culture as compositional and expressive devices, producing icons of mass culture in the guise of portraits. Andy Warhol's images of celebrities <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p17.htm','p17','resizable=yes,are the quintessential example of this approach.in the postmodern age continues to take on new form and purpose. Chuck Close's hugely magnified images experiment with both the meaning and the process of the portrait. From a distance, Fanny <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p18.htm','p18','resizable=yes,appears to be a photograph, but in fact this highly detailed image is composed entirely of the artist's fingerprints. Barkley Leonnard Hendricks, best known for his highly realistic portraits of African Americans, uses painting to address issues ofculture and identity <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/p19.htm','p19','resizable=yes,A segment of the population traditionally underrepresented in fine art, these life-sized figures achieve iconic status through their neutral environments and their direct, serious gaze. Here, portraiture no longer solely fulfills a documentary function, but explores complex social and cultural issues [ 3 ].

Landscape painting

, or views of nature, play a significant role in American art. The earliest American landscape paintings were topographic illustrations of farms, cities, and landmarks <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l1.htm','l1','resizable=yes,that were generally painted for local residents or for Europeans interested in the New World. In the colonial era, landscape views were found primarily in the backgrounds of portraits <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l2.htm','l2','resizable=yes,usually to provide additional information about the sitter.

Landscape painting came to dominate American art in the 1820s, when artists began to equate the country's unspoiled wilderness <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l3.htm','l3','resizable=yes,with the new nation's seemingly limitless potential. Foremost among those increasingly interested in the expressive power of landscape was the young artist Thomas Cole. Cole is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River school, a loosely knit group of American artists who actively painted landscapes between 1825 and 1875. Giving stylistic direction to a distinctly American understanding of nature, Hudson River school artists invested the land with a sense of national identity, the promise of prosperity, and the presence of God.first generation of Hudson River school artists, represented by Asher B. Durand <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l4.htm','l4','resizable=yes,width=230,height=300')> and Cole, believed that studying the land led to enlightenment and a connection with divine harmony. Every detail absorbed their attention, from moss-covered rocks in clear streams to snowcapped mountains. For other artists, exact documentation was less important than illustrating religious and moral sentiments. Allegorical landscapes <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l5.htm','l5','resizable=yes,are imaginary scenes with symbolic meaning, rather than representations of a particular place. Sometimes inspired by literature, these large-scale works illustrated high-minded themes that were usually reserved for history painting.industrial development pushed westward, landscape artists were documenting the American wilderness just as it was disappearing. Although George Inness' The Lackawanna Valley <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l6.htm','l6','resizable=yes,width=230,height=235')> was commissioned by a railroad company, the finished work is not a direct homage to industrialization. At his patron's request, the artist exaggerated features of the railroad, but also prominently displayed the field of tree stumps in the foreground. Ambiguous in tone, the landscape can be read as a glorification of development or as a reminder of the price of progress [ 3 ].the mid-nineteenth century, the American public became increasingly interested in the far reaches of the continent. Adventurous artists made names for themselves by bringing images of the Rockies, the Sierra Nevadas, andSouth America <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l7.htm','l7','resizable=yes,back to East Coast audiences. George Catlin <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l8.htm','l8','resizable=yes,width=230,height=265')> built his career on his record of the indigenous people of the Americas. Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran became known for their grandiose landscapes <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l9.htm','l9','resizable=yes,their huge panoramas were meant to approximate the live viewing experience. Moran's paintings of the American West were instrumental in the establishment of Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872., these grand, monumental landscapes gave way to more intimate, interpretive views. For the new generation, landscape was less a stage for theatrical effects but rather a sounding board for the artist's personal emotional response. At the turn of the century, Winslow Homer <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l10.htm','l10','resizable=yes, specialized in outdoor scenes that captured American rural life. American impressionists <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l11.htm','l11','resizable=yes,experimented with rendering the evocative effects of light and atmosphere in landscape. The new aesthetic was characterized by loose brushwork, subtle tonalities, and an interest in conveying mood.after the turn of the century, a group of New York artists rejected picturesque pastoral subjects and focused instead on gritty urban scenes. Although there are some technical similarities to the work of impressionists, theurban landscapes <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l12.htm','l12','resizable=yes,of the Ashcan school were intended to document the grim realities of city life and spark social change. The work of Edward Hopper also has an element of social commentary. A realist artist, he painted both urban andrural subjects <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l13.htm','l13','resizable=yes,but throughout there is a dimension of the isolation of American society between the World Wars. The regionalist painters <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l14.htm','l14','resizable=yes,a group of artists working primarily in the Midwest during the 1930s, had a different tone but similar goals. They were interested in uniquely American activities and places, which for them meant glorifying the labor and lifestyle of rural regions.artists of the twentieth century approached landscape with a variety of strategies. The Armory Show of 1913 brought the work of European modernists to the attention of American artists, many for the first time. Succeeding developments fostered a uniquely American abstraction, based on precedents of cubism and expressionism. John Marin's Storm over Taos <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l15.htm','l15','resizable=yes,width=215,height=225')> contains elements of both these movements, synthesized into a dynamic landscape. Lyonel Feininger's Storm Brewing <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l16.htm','l16','resizable=yes,width=230,height=225')> has a different conception of a similar subject. Georgia O'Keeffe <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l17.htm','l17','resizable=yes,width=230,height=255')>'s unique form of organic abstraction involved distilling the natural world to its fundamental elements, creating works of dramatic simplicity. Joan Mitchell used the gestural painting techniques <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/l18.htm','l18','resizable=yes,of abstract expressionism to convey her conception of the world around her. Sometimes recognizable places, sometimes only colors and textures reminiscent of landscape motifs, these works show that even in modern, industrialized society, the American landscape still has the power to elicit artistic expression [ 7 ].

Still Life

The depiction of inanimate objects is called "still life <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s1.htm','s1','resizable=yes,Common subjects include flowers and fruit, tableware, books and newspapers, and musical instruments. The function of a still life may be straightforward representation, or the artist may intend to convey a more subtle, moral message. Traditionally, still lifes and still-life elements of larger compositions have complex iconographical significance. For example, the presence of books, maps, or writing materials in portraiture refers to the sitter's knowledge and education. Cut flowers, a snuffed-out candle, or signs of decay in fruit and other food represent the transience of life and are meant to remind viewers of their own mortality.life painting flourished in Europe particularly in Holland in the seventeenth century, and examples were brought to America by the Dutch. Early still-life painters <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s2.htm','s2','resizable=yes,in America were mainly self-taught; their work is among the best examples of early American folk art. Shop signs <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s3.htm','s3','resizable=yes,from this period often incorporated elements of still life-an effective method of advertising to those customers who could not read [ 9, p. 135-138 ].first truly accomplished American masters were members of the Peale family of Philadelphia. The Peales excelled in painting pristine tabletop groupings of glassware and fruit, as in James Peale's Fruit Still Life with Chinese Export Basket <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s4.htm','s4','resizable=yes,width=205,height=303')>. Early nineteenth-century painters like the Peales practiced still life as a science. They possessed a deep curiosity for the natural world and felt that these detailed renderings were an extension of scientific inquiry. The works of Martin Johnson Heade are also composed in this spirit. Although created with the objective eye of a naturalist, Heade's studies of flowers <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s5.htm','s5','resizable=yes,and birds are invested with poetic atmosphere; they are some of the most striking still-life works in American art.the late nineteenth century, William Harnett, John Frederick Peto <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s6.htm','s6','resizable=yes,width=190,height=300')>, and others used this emphasis on close observation for a different purpose. They deftly simulated shadows and reflections, colors and textures in illusionistic still lifes designed to fool the eye of the viewer. Their skill made them the leading practitioners of trompe l'oeil painting. With meticulous clarity, they depicted old books, paper money, photographs, and envelopes as if they were extending from the canvas, as in John Haberle's Imitation <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s7.htm','s7','resizable=yes,width=210,height=240')>. the same time other artists adopted a different approach, showing more interest in painterly technique and the tactile qualities of objects. The still lifes of William Merritt Chase and Emil Carlsen <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s8.htm','s8','resizable=yes,width=210,height=245')> display the influence of European art centers including Munich, Dьsseldorf, and Paris. The vigorous brushwork and impressionistic style that characterize these works has little in common with the illusionism of Harnett, but it also found favor with the American public.the twentieth century, still-life painting continued to be transformed by successive modernist styles. The still-life works of Charles Demuth <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s9.htm','s9','resizable=yes,width=220,height=230')> combine the fragmented space of cubism with nuanced attention to organic forms. Charles Sheeler's precisionist still life <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s10.htm','s10','resizable=yes,has the clean lines and quiet solidity more often seen in his landscapes of industrial America. The constrast between accurate representation and modernist style was best explored by Georgia O'Keeffe <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s11.htm','s11','resizable=yes,width=190,height=308')>, who uses both realism and abstractions of the natural world.the mid- and late twentieth century, meaning and subject matter in still-life painting was again transformed and expanded. Pop artists substituted soup and beer cans <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s12.htm','s12','resizable=yes,for the more traditional fruit, flowers, or books. Wayne Thiebaud expressed the optimism of America in the 1950s and 1960s with his seemingly endless arrays of cakes <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s13.htm','s13','resizable=yes,and pies. These objects no longer carry subtle moral messages but have become icons of a consumer-driven culture. Richard Diebenkorn's Still Life <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s14.htm','s14','resizable=yes,width=210,height=300')> becomes a self-portrait-a study of the artist through his tools, personal items, and working environment. Throughout his career Jim Dine incorporated common objects into his work that were meaningful in his own life--such as tools, bathrobes, and hearts. Through repetition over time these objects take on meaning for the viewer as well as the artist. Dine's The Gate, Goodbye Vermont <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/s15.htm','s15','resizable=yes,width=200,height=305')> combines elements of still life and sculptural asssemblage to evoke a particular sense of place and point in time [ 3 ].

 

History painting

painting records noteworthy events and documents scenes of exemplary conduct, virtue, and patriotism. From the eighteenth well into the nineteenth century it was considered the most elevated form of art. In Europe, historical subjects were usually commissioned by royalty, clergy, and governments in order to commemorate and dramatize scenes of national triumph. These works were traditionally executed on a large scale and were intended for official display.first great American painter of historical narratives was Benjamin West. In colonial America there was little demand for large-scale work of this sort, and West traveled to Europe in search of training and patronage. As an expatriate living in London, West achieved great success with works like The Battle of La Hogue <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h1.htm','h1','resizable=yes,width=230,height=240')>, which represents an English victory at sea in 1692.

John Singleton Copley, another American, also found an audience in London. Copley's Watson and the Shark <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h2.htm','h2','resizable=yes,width=210,height=240')> was a private commission illustrating a scene from the life of Brook Watson. Orphaned as a child, Watson later became a wealthy businessman and eventually the mayor of London. By executing this scene with the epic scale and drama traditionally reserved for public works, Copley transforms an episode of personal history into an allegory of salvation with instructive value for public life. Copley's preliminary sketch for the Death of the Earl of Chatham <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h3.htm','h3','resizable=yes,width=210,height=260')> shows a more traditional subject for history painting. The finished product was roughly ten feet wide-a huge monument to an esteemed public figure.America, demand for paintings that celebrated national triumphs did not emerge until after the American Revolution, and then on a less monumental scale. This was due in part to the lack of large public spaces suitable for such grand works and to a reluctance of a young government short on funds to spend money on public decoration. The narrative cycle completed by John Trumbull for the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol is the notable exception., there was a great demand for smaller-scale works of historical subjects. Paul Revere dramatized the Boston Massacre <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h4.htm','h4','resizable=yes,in order to rally colonists to the Revolutionary cause. Scenes of American military conflict <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h5.htm','h5','resizable=yes,were very popular among naive or self-taught artists from the earliest days of the Revolution through the mid-nineteenth century <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h6.htm','h6','resizable=yes,4 ].Civil War provided contemporary sources for artists interested in historical subjects. Winslow Homer, as an artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly during the war, illustrated vignettes of military life <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h7.htm','h7','resizable=yes, J. G. Tanner's Engagement between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac" <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h8.htm','h8','resizable=yes,width=210,height=270')> depicts the famous stalemate between the two armored vessels, the first of their kind, that ushered in a new era in naval warfare. Sometimes these events were depicted as allegories to suggest their timeless meaning. A. A. Lamb represented the Emancipation Proclamation <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h9.htm','h9','resizable=yes,as Liberty in a chariot, triumphantly leading Lincoln and the Union troops before the Capitol.of grand-scale public painting did not revive until the late nineteenth century and continued into the twentieth with the construction of large public buildings. During the Depression in the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration funded the Federal Arts Project in order to increase public support for the arts and employ visual artists. Part of this effort involved the creation of murals <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h10.htm','h10','resizable=yes,for post offices, city halls, and other government buildings. As government commissions for public spaces, these works are the modern heirs to the tradition of history painting.the late twentieth century artists did not completely abandon historical events. Some are composite interpretations that refer to events, such as Robert Rauschenberg's For Dante's 700 Birthday, No. 1 <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/h11.htm','h11','resizable=yes,width=210,height=210')>. However, photography, film, and video have largely transformed history painting into history documentation [ 5, p. 75-77 ].

Marine painting

early as colonial times, Atlantic ports such as Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Charleston were established hubs of American commerce. It was common for wealthy ship owners, mariners, and merchants to commission pictures of the boats and activities by which they made their living. Following British and Dutch models, many artists specialized in marine paintings.first American marine paintings centered on the ports themselves, which were often viewed across the water <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m1.htm','m1','as if from the deck of a ship. These harbor scenes frequently included ship traffic and illustrated mercantile activities along the wharves, suggesting the prosperity of America's flourishing maritime industry. In ship paintings, a harbor view might indicate the vessel's home port, as in Thomas Chambers' New York Harbor with Pilot Boat "George Washington" <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m2.htm','m2','width=210,height=270')>. the nineteenth century, proud ship owners commissioned individual portraits of their commercial vessels <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m3.htm','m3','and racing yachts. Marine painters became skilled not only at precisely delineating the rigging of sailing ships but also at capturing effects of water and sky. The standard format showed the boat broadside <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m4.htm','m4','under full sail or steam, generally with other craft in the distance and perhaps a glimpse of the far shore.the mid-nineteenth century, marine painting shifted emphasis from man to nature. No longer interested in illustrations of commerce, artists like John Frederick Kensett and Fitz Henry Lane strove to capture the spiritual qualities of sea and sky <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m5.htm','m5','These scenes may include ships and human figures, but the true subject is the mood <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m6.htm','m6','evoked by the crystalline atmosphere and pervading sense of serenity. Now called luminist works, these paintings indicate a change in the prevailing attitude toward the natural world.

Martin Johnson Heade <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m7.htm','m7','width=210,height=200')> and Thomas Moran were interested in more naturalistic representations. The unearthly calm of luminist works was replaced by realistic seascapes in which the viewer can almost hear the crashing surf <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m8.htm','m8',' Winslow Homer added figures to this natural realism and reintroduced the human element to marine painting. His works focus on man's relationship with nature, and he uses the sea to embody nature's power. It is a constant and varied element, depicted both as provider of subsistence <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m9.htm','m9','and a life-threatening force <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m10.htm','m10','favored another aspect of marine painting-that of leisure. Their interest in the sea had more to do with light and color than using a body of water as a dramatic device. Their stylistic methods provided artists with new ways to present intimate aspects of the sea, such as the picturesque coves and seasides dotted with revelers represented by Maurice Prendergast <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m11.htm','m11','width=210,height=240')>.

Twentieth-century artists experimented with a variety of styles and techniques in their interpretations of the sea. Modernist John Marin <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m12.htm','m12','width=210,height=260')> captured the ocean's energy with exuberant brushwork and abstract geometric shapes. Mark Rothko <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m13.htm','m13','width=210,height=318')>used surrealist-inspired biomorphic forms to suggest sea creatures in a primordial marine world. Albert Christ-Janer's <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m14.htm','m14','width=210,height=240')> lithograph combines the brilliant color of sun, sea, and sky with the rhythmic patterns of foaming waves. VijaCelmins approaches total abstraction <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/m15.htm','m15','in her quiet, meditative ocean views [3].

Scenes from Everyday Life

The term "genre" refers to depictions of scenes from daily life <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g1.htm','g1','resizable=yes,Genre painting developed in seventeenth-century Europe, specifically in the Netherlands, when newly gained prosperity generated a large middle class and led to broad-based patronage of art. Genre emerged in America about two centuries later, when the ambitions and optimism of the young country gave rise to a public eager for pictures of people at work and play <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g2.htm','g2','resizable=yes,width=210,height=280')>.

The earliest genre paintings were scenes of rural and frontier life. These works showed Americans engaged in everyday activities such as farming, sewing, hunting, skating, relaxing, and socializing. Virtually any occasion or setting served as subject matter: a festive flaxscutching bee <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g3.htm','g3','resizable=yes,in a frontier barnyard, completion of the daily chores, or an assembly in a public square <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g4.htm','g4','resizable=yes,Even thedeath of a loved one <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g5.htm','g5','resizable=yes,was a typical subject for genre. In each case, the artist conveys a sense of the familiar through action, atmosphere, and detailed setting.at its best provides a convincing view of daily life while also communicating aspects of universal experience that transcend the specific incident portrayed. After the Civil War, one of the leading practitioners of genre was Eastman Johnson, whose paintings of childhood <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g6.htm','g6','resizable=yes,and domestic life won him great popularity. In the mid-nineteenth century, Winslow Homer's images of sailing, hunting <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g7.htm','g7','resizable=yes,and other pastimes are among the most renowned in American art. Thomas Eakins' depictions of rowing <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g8.htm','g8','resizable=yes,and leisure represent a high point of naturalism and precise observation. These works resonate far beyond descriptive storytelling.the late nineteenth century, impressionists developed new techniques of rendering light and color using scenes of leisure and entertainment. American expatriates adopted the subjects popularized by the impressionists, as in Mary Cassatt's boating party <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g9.htm','g9','resizable=yes,on the French Riviera. Similarly, James McNeill Whistler's gathering at a dockside table <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g10.htm','g10','resizable=yes,in London, and John Singer Sargent's glimpse of a Venetian street <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g11.htm','g11','resizable=yes,are transitions from the portraiture for which they were better known. After working in Europe, American impressionists William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, and Edmund C. Tarbell also experimented with the art of genre. These works often focused on life in the country and refined domestic pursuits, as evident in Chase's sparkling depiction of a social visit, A Friendly Call <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g12.htm','g12','resizable=yes,width=210,height=220')>. the early twentieth century, interpretation of modern urban life became an important element of American genre. A level of social commentary was added by members of the Ashcan school with the weary laborers <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g13.htm','g13','resizable=yes,depicted by George Luks and the bloodied boxers <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g14.htm','g14','resizable=yes,of George Bellows. Between the World Wars, artists such as Guy Pиne du Bois <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g15.htm','g15','resizable=yes,width=210,height=295')> and Edward Hopper depicted urban scenes, often with a sense of isolation and melancholy appropriate to the Great Depression.World War II, the rise of abstract art overshadowed traditional representation. But in the late twentieth century figurative painting returned, and imagery from popular and consumer culture were incorporated into a contemporary version of genre. Works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g16.htm','g16','resizable=yes, and Red Grooms <javascript:OpenBrWindow('images/g17.htm','g17','resizable=yes,width=210,height=260')> invest a traditional style with a new dimension of playfulness and social irony [ 4 ].

 

The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (stylized MoMA) is an art museum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_museum> located in Midtown <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midtown_(Manhattan)> Manhattan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan> in New York City <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City>, United States <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States>, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art>, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world.The museum's collection offers an unparalleled overview in modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture> and design <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design>, drawings <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawings>, painting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painting>,sculpture <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture>, photography <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography>, prints <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenprints>, illustrated books <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illustrated_books> and artist's books <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_books>, film <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film>, and electronic media <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_media>.'s library and archives hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, as well as individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The archives contain primary source material related to the history of modern and contemporary art <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_art>. It also houses an award-winning fine dining restaurant, The Modern, run by Alsace <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace>-born chef Gabriel Kreuther.idea for The Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1928 primarily by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_Aldrich_Rockefeller> (wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller_Jr.>) and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_P._Bliss> and Mary Quinn Sullivan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Quinn_Sullivan>. They became known variously as "the Ladies", "the daring ladies" and "the adamantine ladies". They rented modest quarters for the new museum in rented spaces in the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue (corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street) in Manhattan, and it opened to the public on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash>. Abby had invited A. Conger Goodyear <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A._Conger_Goodyear&action=edit&redlink=1>, the former president of the board of trustees of the Albright Art Gallery <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albright-Knox_Art_Gallery> in Buffalo, New York <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo,_New_York>, to become president of the new museum. Abby became treasurer. At the time, it was America's premier museum devoted exclusively to modern art, and the first of its kind in Manhattan to exhibit European modernism.enlisted Paul J. Sachs <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_J._Sachs> and Frank Crowninshield <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Crowninshield> to join him as founding trustees. Sachs, the associate director and curator of prints and drawings at theFogg Art Museum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fogg_Art_Museum> at Harvard University <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University>, was referred to in those days as a collector of curators. Goodyear asked him to recommend a director and Sachs suggested Alfred H. Barr Jr. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Barr>, a promising young protege. Under Barr's guidance, the museum's holdings quickly expanded from an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing. Its first successful loan exhibition was in November 1929, displaying paintings by Van Gogh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Gogh>, Gauguin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauguin>, Cйzanne <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9zanne>, and Seurat <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seurat>.housed in six rooms of galleries and offices on the twelfth floor of Manhattan's Heckscher Building, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, the museum moved into three more temporary locations within the next ten years. Abby's husband was adamantly opposed to the museum (as well as to modern art itself) and refused to release funds for the venture, which had to be obtained from other sources and resulted in the frequent shifts of location. Nevertheless, he eventually donated the land for the current site of the museum, plus other gifts over time, and thus became in effect one of its greatest benefactors [ 2 ].that time it initiated many more exhibitions of noted artists, such as the lone Vincent van Gogh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh> exhibition on November 4, 1935. Containing an unprecedented sixty-six oils and fifty drawings from the Netherlands <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands>, and poignant excerpts from the artist's letters, it was a major public success and became "a precursor to the hold van Gogh has to this day on the contemporary imagination".museum also gained international prominence with the hugely successful and now famous Picasso <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso> retrospective of 1939-40, held in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Institute_of_Chicago>. In its range of presented works, it represented a significant reinterpretation of Picasso for future art scholars and historians. This was wholly masterminded by Barr, a Picasso enthusiast, and the exhibition lionized Picasso as the greatest artist of the time, setting the model for all the museum's retrospectives that were to follow.by many to have the best collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world, MoMA's holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to approximately 22,000 films and 4 million film stills. The collection houses such important and familiar works as the following: The Starry Night <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night> by Vincent van Gogh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh>, The Sleeping Gypsy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleeping_Gypsy> by Henri Rousseau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau>, The Dream <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_(painting)> by Henri Rousseau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau>, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon> by Pablo Picasso <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso>, The Persistence of Memory <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persistence_of_Memory> by Salvador Dalн <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD>, Broadway Boogie Woogie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_Boogie_Woogie> by Piet Mondrian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian>,etc [ 10, p. 53-54 ].

The National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art is a national art museum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_museum>, located on the National Mall <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mall> in Washington, D.C. Open to the public free of charge, the museum was established in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of the United States Congress <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress>, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W. Mellon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_W._Mellon>. Additionally, the core collection has major works of art donated by Paul Mellon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mellon>, Ailsa Mellon Bruce <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailsa_Mellon_Bruce>, Lessing J. Rosenwald <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessing_J._Rosenwald>, Samuel Henry Kress <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Henry_Kress>, Rush Harrison Kress <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Henry_Kress>, Peter Arrell Brown Widener <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Arrell_Brown_Widener>, Joseph E. Widener <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Widener> and Chester Dale <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Dale>. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci> in the Americas and the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Calder>.Gallery's campus includes the original neoclassical West Building designed by John Russell Pope <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell_Pope>, which is linked underground to the modern East Building designed by I. M. Pei <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._M._Pei>, and the 6.1-acre (25,000 m²) Sculpture Garden. Temporary special exhibitions spanning the world and the history of art are presented frequently.National Gallery of Art has one of the finest art collections in the world. It was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress> accepting the gift of financier, public servant, and art collector Andrew W. Mellon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_W._Mellon> in 1937. European and American paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts are displayed in the collection galleries and Sculpture Garden. The permanent collection of paintings spans from the Middle Ages to the present day. The strongest collection is the Italian Renaissance <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance> collection, which includes two panels from Duccio <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duccio>'s Maesta <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maest%C3%A0_(Duccio)>, the great tondo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tondo_(art)> of the Adoration of the Magi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Magi> by Fra Angelico <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Angelico> and Filippo Lippi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Lippi>, a Botticelli <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botticelli> on the same subject, Giorgione <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgione>'s Allendale Nativity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allendale_Nativity>, Bellini <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Bellini>'s The Feast of the Gods <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feast_of_the_Gods_(Bellini)>, the only Leonardo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci> painting in the Americas, Ginevra de' Benci <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginevra_de%27_Benci>; and significant groups of works by Titian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian> and Raphael <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael>. However, the other European collections include examples of the work of many of the great masters of western painting,including Grьnewald <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Gr%C3%BCnewald>, Dьrer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer>, Hals <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_Hals>, Rembrandt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt>, Vermeer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermeer>, Goya <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goya>, Ingres <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres>, and Delacroix <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix>, among others. The collection of sculpture and decorative arts is admittedly not quite as rich as this, but includes such works as the Chalice of Abbot Suger <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbot_Suger> of St-Denis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Denis> and a superb collection of work by Rodin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin> and Degas <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degas>[ 10, p. 55-56 ].

Getty Center

 

The Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brentwood,_Los_Angeles,_California>, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty>. The $1.3 billion Center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views (overlooking Los Angeles). The Center sits atop a hill, which is connected to a visitor's parking garage at the bottom of the hill by a three-car, cable-pulled tram. The Center draws 1.3 million visitors annually.is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty_Museum>. This branch of the museum specializes in "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs". Among the works on display is the painting Irises <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irises_(painting)> byVincent van Gogh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh>. Besides the Museum, the Center's buildings house the Getty Research Institute <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Research_Institute> (GRI), the Getty Conservation Institute <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Conservation_Institute>, the Getty Foundation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Foundation>, and the administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty_Trust>, which owns and operates the Center. The Center also has outdoor sculptures displayed on terracces and in gardens. The Center was designed by architect Richard Meier <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Meier> and includes a central garden designed by artist Robert Irwin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Irwin_(artist)>. GRI's separate building contains a research library with over 900,000 volumes and two million photographs of art and architecture. The Center's design included special provisions to address concerns regarding earthquakes and fire[ 2].

The Phillips Collection

Phillips Collection is an art museum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_museum> founded by Duncan Phillips <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Phillips_(art_collector)> in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Circle> neighborhood ofWashington, D.C. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.> Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Laughlin>, a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_and_Laughlin_Steel_Company>.the artists represented in the collection are Pierre-Auguste Renoir <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir>, Gustave Courbet <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet>, El Greco <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Greco>, Georges Braque <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque>, Paul Klee <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee>, Winslow Homer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer>, James McNeill Whistler <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNeill_Whistler>, Augustus Vincent Tack <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Vincent_Tack>, and Mark Rothko <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko>.Phillips Collection, opened in 1921, is America’s first museum of modern art <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art>. Featuring a permanent collection of nearly 3,000 works by American and European impressionist and modern artists, the Phillips is recognized for both its art and its intimate atmosphere. It is housed in founder Duncan Phillips’ 1897 Georgian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_architecture> Revival home and two similarly scaled additions in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Circle> neighborhood.museum is noted for its broad representation of both impressionist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism> and modern paintings, with works by European masters such as Gustave Courbet <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet>, Pierre Bonnard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bonnard>,Georges Braque <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque>, Jacques Villon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Villon>, Paul Cйzanne, Honorй Daumier <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_Daumier>, Edgar Degas <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas>, Vincent van Gogh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh>, Paul Klee <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee>, Henri Matisse <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse>, Claude Monet <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet>, and Pablo Picasso <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso>. In 1923, Phillips purchased Pierre-Auguste Renoir <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir>'s impressionist painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luncheon_of_the_Boating_Party> (1880-81), the museum’s best-known work. the 1920s to the 1960s, Phillips would re-hang his galleries in installations that were non-chronological and non-traditional, reflecting the relationships he saw between various artistic expressions. He presented visual connections-between past and present, between classical form and romantic expression-as dialogues on the walls of the museum. Giving equal focus to American and European artists, Phillips juxtaposed works by Winslow Homer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer>, Thomas Eakins <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eakins>, Maurice Prendergast <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Prendergast>, James Abbott McNeill Whistler <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Abbott_McNeill_Whistler>, and Albert Pinkham Ryder <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pinkham_Ryder> with canvases by Pierre Bonnard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bonnard>, Peter Ilsted <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ilsted> and Edouard Vuillard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edouard_Vuillard>. He exhibited watercolors by John Marin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marin> with paintings by Cйzanne, and works by van Gogh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh> with El Greco’s The Repentant St. Peter (circa 1600-05). Phillips’ vision brought together "congenial spirits among the artists," and his ideas still guide the museum today.Phillips Collection is also known for its groups of works by artists who Phillips particularly favored. For example, he was overwhelmed by Bonnard’s expressive use of color, acquiring 17 paintings by the artist. Cubist pioneer Braque is represented by 13 paintings, including the monumental still-life The Round Table (1929). The collection has an equal number of works by Klee, such as Arab Song (1932) and Picture Album (1937), as well as seven pieces by abstract expressionist artist Mark Rothko <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko>. The Rothko Room, the first public space dedicated solely to the artist’s work, was designed by Phillips in keeping with Rothko’s expressed preference for exhibiting his large, luminous paintings in a small, intimate space, saturating the room with color and sensation [ 7, p. 155-157].his lifetime, Phillips acquired paintings by many artists who were not fully recognized at the time, among them Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe>, Arthur Dove <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Dove>, Nicolas de Staлl <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_de_Sta%C3%ABl>,Milton Avery <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Avery> and Augustus Vincent Tack <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Vincent_Tack>. By purchasing works by such promising but unknown artists, Phillips provided them with the means to continue painting. He formed close bonds with and subsidized several artists who are prominently featured in the collection-Dove and Marin in particular-and consistently purchased works by artists and students for what he called his "encouragement collection." The museum also served as a visual haven for artists such as Richard Diebenkorn <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Diebenkorn>, Gene Davis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Davis>, and Kenneth Noland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Noland>. In a 1982 tribute to the museum, Noland acknowledged, "I’ve spent many hours of many days in this home of art. You can be with art in the Phillips as in no other place I know."Duncan Phillips died in 1966, Marjorie succeeded him as museum director. Their son, Laughlin, became director in 1972. He led The Phillips Collection through a multi-year program to ensure the physical and financial security of the collection, renovate and enlarge the museum buildings, expand and professionalize the staff, conduct research on the collection, and make the Phillips more accessible to the public. In 1992, Charles S. Moffett, a noted author and curator, was named director. Moffett was directly involved with the presentation of several ambitious exhibitions during his six-year tenure, including the memorable "Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party " in 1996.Gates became director in 1998. Under his leadership, The Phillips Collection continued to grow and broaden its presence in Washington, D.C., across the country, and internationally. Dorothy M. Kosinski, previously a curator at the Dallas Museum of Art <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Museum_of_Art>, took over as director in May 2008 [ 12, p.395 ].

 

Conclusion

American art has gone through all sorts of difficulties such as wars and revolutions that has affected on its development. Gradually there were various genres, styles and trends in American art.course work sought to provide an accurate and systematic description of American art.In the course work the main stages in development of painting in the US, the major genres of painting, the most famous museums and art galleries have been examined. The work has shown the most important periods in the development of American art, affects of vari