The American Scene and the South: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1930-1946 [Paperback]

Patricia Phagan (Editor), Matthew Baigell (Editor), Georgia Museum of Art (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1996 | ISBN-10: 0915977249 | ISBN-13: 978-0915977246

In the aftermath of World War I and the Great Depression, the artists of the American Scene movement responded to the country's cry for unity and renewal by instilling a sense of nationalism in their works. The Regionalists, a particularly anti-elitist, anti-urban group in the movement, focused, for example, on the hard-working laborers of southern farms. Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, Lamar Dodd, and John McCrady are among the many famous Regionalists included in this catalogue. The depictions of African-American subjects, captured either in the joyous act of spiritual song or as victims in brutal attacks and violent lynchings, were also prominent in the American Scene art of the South. The catalogue includes an overview of the 1930s, essays on the prominence of the American Scene style in the southern states at that time, and an extensive bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Patricia Phagan is currently curator of prints and drawings at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia. Matthew Baigell is author of The DIctionary of American Art.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

[The] prolonged drive among photographers, writers, and government administrators to document [the] engrossing but often disturbing visual aspects of the South rose from an efflorescence of the documentary tradition that stretched across cultural fields and state boundaries in the Depression and took hold in the areas of painting and printmaking across the country. An infectious enthusiasm among painters and printmakers to picture the South, especially community-and people-related aspects, opened up the region to the national phenomenon called the American Scene, popularized by the localized and agrarian paintings of Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood.

Product Details

• Paperback: 263 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Georgia Museum (July 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915977249
• ISBN-13: 978-0915977246
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,928,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)