Being Modern in America: American Art in the 20th Century

Excellent three week online course from the London Art History Society looking at 20th century American art.

Over three weekly lectures Ben Street built an argument about how American art in the last century was focused on defining and questioning what it is to be America. Rather than going chronologically through the period he picked three themes to discuss making interesting links between artists and pictures. He also used photographs, sculpture, land art, installations and even memorials as well as paintings as his examples.

In week one he looked at landscape in particular rural art to show how “The Real America” has often been defined as the Mid-West agricultural areas and in week two he contrasted this to images of the city which embody ideas of immigration and industry. In the last week he brought these themes together by taking identity as his theme and looking at figurative art,

I discovered lots of artists I hadn’t come across before including Jacob Lawrence, shown here, and have been left with new things to look out for around the galleries and to follow up. He also gave us lots of food for thought as we slide into the US election in two weeks’ time. The course might have looked at the 20th century but it highlighted issues which are still ongoing.

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