During the 1920s and '30s and until the end of World War II, a distinctly American form of Expressionism evolved. Most of the artists in this movement, children of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, African-Americans and other outsiders to American mainstream culture, grew up in the urban ghettoes of the East Coast or Chicago. Their art was sympathetic to the disposessed and reflected a deep concern with the lives of working people. Providing a look at this art - and the beginnings of a new movement, Abstract Expressionism, which followed it - cultural historian Bram Dijkstra offers insights into the roots of painting in modern America. Dijkstra examines the emphasis these socially conscious artists brought to the pursuit of the American ideals of equality dignity and justice for all. Provocatively he suggests that Abstract Expressionism came to be used as part of a backlash, deliberately fostered by conservative political and corporate interests, against the socially conscious Expressionist paintings and the WPA projects supported by the Roosevelt administration.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
When Abstract Expressionism burst on the American scene in the 1940s, it elbowed another kind of American expressionism off the stage. Vivid evocations of the poor and disenfranchised in paintings by Jack Levine, Bernece Berkman and many others were now seen as stodgy and unsophisticated. In American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920-1950, cultural historian Bram Dijkstra argues that a generation of important left-wing artists, many of them Jewish, were the victims of intellectual, political and corporate interests bent on promoting a brighter, shinier United States. Unfortunately, Dijkstra undercuts his thesis with a haranguing tone, unconvincing analyses of individual works, and a dated view of abstraction as inherently "anti-humanist." His sweeping denunciation of "Nordic" (i.e., white, Protestant) artists leads him to view even an heroically scaled painting of a black soldier by John Steuart Curry—a "Nordic" artist collected by the NAACP—as a racist cartoon. At the heart of this contentious volume are 233 illustrations by dozens of little-known artists united by a passion for social justice. These works can be seen in a traveling exhibition at the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art from May 16 to August 24, 2003.—Cathy Curtis
From Publishers Weekly
The conventional story of American visual art generally pegs postwar Abstract Expressionism, in the hands of Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, etc., as the first truly mature manifestation of a national aesthetic, followed by Pop Art and minimalism as its glamorous and cerebral heirs. This polemical picture book seeks to overturn that history, finding in paintings of the pre-AbEx era a rich and undervalued tradition, and an antidote to a 20th-century art history that the author characterizes as fundamentally effete. Collecting images from provincial museums across the country, Dijkstra mixes well-known artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Georgia O'Keefe with consistently under-appreciated talents such as Albert Pinkham Ryder and Charles Burchfield, along with a canon of fascinating unknowns. Together, they flesh out an alternative history of much more humanistic dimensions than the hermetic and apolitical legacy of the postwar decades, with art that is decidedly more earthy and populist and socially engaged. Although Dijkstra pads the case with some sentimental choices-noble sharecroppers and grungy smelting factories and the like-his case stands as a convincing rebuff to the exhausted narratives of contemporary advanced art. Moreover, it resonates interestingly with the sources and practices of emerging artists in the post-conceptual era. This is a provocative, important book.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece!!,
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This review is from: American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950 (Hardcover)
AMERICAN EXPRESSIONISM is a beautiful book and one could have no better guide that cultural historian Bram Dijkstra. He is passionate, articulate, intelligent and knowledgeable about his subject. I am richer and have a deeper appreciation for the world of expressionism for having experienced this fine book.Bravo.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
education is dangerous,
By Nico (subterranean) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950 (Hardcover)
The art contained within earns a night sky full of stars but I realisticaly dropped the rating to 4 stars because the writer/critic is insufferable. Its not that he writes overtly wordy, it is that Bram's opinions would float on water; they have no substance. I think some of his theories were formulated just to incense. (This book did get Bram more noticed in the art world) This movement of art is important because it questioned our societies norms and not the public's taste in esthetics. The space provided for insightful text became wasted space. Of course this my opinion. American Expresionism is becoming an increasingly forgotten form of social protest. Try finding a monograph on Rico LeBrun. My point proven. This movement deserves better analysis. It was shuffled like dirt under America's carpet so Abstract Expressionism could get the red carpet treatment. Try finding a monograph by Jackson Pollock, oh yeah, a hundred or so different books popped up. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Abstracts and the Regionalists as well; I just don't want it to be at the expense of the Expressionists. Read this book and keep American Expressionism from disappearing from history.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just excellent,
By Alex Gandhara (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
This review is from: American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950 (Hardcover)
An excellent compilation of a mid-century American art style. Despite the promised controversy, Dijkstra's commentaries are brilliant and quite convincing. This is certainly not a pretty or unemotional art. But what a rewarding experience.
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