American Art Before and After World War II

American Art Before and After World War II

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American Art Before and After World War II

Before the world war two, it’s indicated that in the American art display centers, one could never find American art work. Most art from that time was obtained mainly from Europe. At that time, one had to have been to Europe so as to come up with good art work, or so they thought. Most American galleries were also known only to exhibit European work with very little American artwork input (Damon, 2002).

The American artists thus sought to better themselves and focused mainly on their private art designs. At the same time, in an effort to make themselves fit for a public audience, they begun to study several courses. These included the philosophies of modernism by several artists such as Andre Breton and Wassily Kandinsky. It was just before the World War II that many artists drove to the United States of America following the Nazi influence in Europe. This led to more artists seeking refuge in America and this, to America was a huge blessing in disguise. It was just after World War II that art in America begun to flourish. This led to several artistic styles such as abstract expressionism among others (Damon, 2002).

The great depression was a period of severe economic challenges that occurred between the years 1929 and ended in 1939.It was marred with severe unemployment, failure of banks and depression amongst the American people. Half of the population did not have access to the basic needs such as food clothing and shelter. On the other hand, the unemployment rate was at 25%, meaning that one in every four individuals was unemployed. The art work done at this time was those that had themes of depression with no signs of hope for the larger American population. Also, it was at this same time that the American art work was seldom appreciated and thus their expressions could not be realized through the art because most were not displayed (Berton, 2001).

Several artists existed during these periods, both the great depression and in the period of abstract expressionism. Two artists that worked in the period of the great depression include William Cumming and Fletcher Martin and in the period of abstract expressionism we find Jackson Pollock (Berton, 2001).

William Cumming was born in the year 1917.He was one of the artists who did most of the drawings of the great depression. At this time, he was living with his family in their family home. During the same period, he was attending classes and drawing in a bid to get employed by those that viewed his work. It was through this that he was able to get incorporated into the federal art project from whence his journey began. He indulged mainly in figurative style of art expression focusing on the moments of life as he lived through one day to another. His subjects were mainly people or animals and facial details were scanty. Therefore one’s physical appearance was used to demystify what he meant. Gait, posture and demeanor were used to identify the people in his art work, thus giving emphasis on body language (Damon, 2002).

Fletcher martin was born in 1904.He was initially a soldier in the United States navy and his art were mostly about the life he had while in the army. He made several sketches of his U.S soldier life. He also made several paintings and murals. Some of his works include The Mine Rescue and Legends of Fernandino and Gabrileno Indians. Most of his paintings were based in the subject of men in war or conflict, especially the paintings. He is also known to have experimented partly on abstractionism. His main style was painting in the traditional manner using a paint brush. However, he also did murals, drawings and sculptures among others (Damon, 2002).

Paul Jackson Pollock was a one of the greatest American painters. Born in 1912, he is famously known for his drip and splash paintings. In this style, he allowed paint to drip directly from the can instead of using a paint brush. He would then use sticks or knives to add more depth to the paintings with. This aided him mainly in the arts in which he was expressing surrealism. In the early 1930’s, he was known to work in the regionalist style under influence by Digo Rivera, who was a muralist painter. He also used to aspects of surrealism in his initial art work. In this form of art, one expresses the subconscious by use of imagery and juxtaposition of the subject matter at hand. His subject was mainly the current occurrences at that time in America. (Solomon, 2001), (Tinterow G., Messinger Mintz L., Rosenthal L. et al, 2007)

Several artworks created during the great depression depicted the kind of hard times they were going through. They demonstrated several demonstrations that were done by the unemployed individuals; others depicted homelessness, police attacks, the storms and the bad weather among several others. One of the common features seen in the aforementioned artists is that they all depicted the current happenings at that time. They brought out subjects that were supposed to bring out some form of change in their then society and bring about some form of social reform. For Instance, Fletcher Martins art, the mine rescue was in a way a message about the miners in America and the dangers that they faced. This was partly a message to the community on the dangers they were facing. However the Smelt and Miners workers union did not see it as that and instead praised him for having captured their work in a great piece of art (Damon, 2002).

The period after the war lead to the development of abstract expressionism as a form of art. In this style many artists began to express human irrationality and vulnerability that they experienced during the time of the war. Paul Jackson Pollock and several others were interested in this type of art because it enabled them to bring about all the occurrences and what they were feeling in their mind that they felt needed to be brought out. (Tinterow G., Messinger Mintz L., Rosenthal L. et al, 2007)

This was in great contrast to the earlier forms of art before the time of the war and during the time of the great depression which saw artists come up with work illustrating their depression at that time and also fear showing out their work since they believed that good art work could only come from Europe. (Solomon, 2001)

In conclusion Abstract expressionists used artwork to depict the occurrences in the modern life that they were having at that time. Jackson Pollock’s work of art especially depicted life as it occurred naturally and the forces that drove man. Others elicited man’s entrapment in his bodily form with his anxious mind in the time of the modern world that by then was marred with several uncertainties (Bricker, 2005).

References

Berton P., 2001, The Great Depression 1929-1939, Doubleday Canada Limited.

Bricker D., 2005, Movements in Modern Art; Abstract Expressionism, Harry N. Abrams.

Damon D, 2002, Headin’ for Better Times: The Arts of The Great Depression, Twenty-First

Century Books.

Solomon D. 2001, Jackson Pollock: A Biography, Cooper Square Press.

Tinterow G., Messinger Mintz L., Rosenthal L. et al, 2007, Abstract Expressionism and Other

Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art.