Picturing America On Screen

John James Audubon

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:25:06 +0000

The graceful, bending position of John James Audubon’s flamingo allowed the artist to fit his subject—depicted close to actual size—on a single page. The silhouette emphasized the elegant curve of the bird’s body and captured its distinctive markings and trademark shade of pink. Audubon’s watercolors serve as an invaluable record of early American wildlife.

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Brooklyn Bridge

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:24:26 +0000

The Brooklyn Bridge was hailed as a marvel of American engineering ingenuity. When it was built in 1883, its two towers were the tallest structures in the Western Hemisphere. Photographer Walker Evans turned its bold form and sweeping lines into a classic American image, both an icon of modernity and a monument that belongs to history.

To Joseph Stella, this structure was the “shrine containing all the efforts of the new civilization of America.” His Futurist rendition of the Brooklyn Bridge was inspired by a night alone on its promenade, surrounded by New York’s noises and pulsating colors, feeling both hemmed in and spiritually uplifted by the city.

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The Chrysler Building

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:23:17 +0000

The competitive climate of 1920s Manhattan drove the creation of this building, which ultimately surpassed even the Eiffel Tower in height. William Van Alen made it distinctive through inventively applied Art Deco design, using machine-age motifs such as hubcaps and radiator caps, and American eagle heads in place of traditional gargoyles.

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Childe Hassam

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:22:41 +0000

When America officially entered World War I, the nation largely regarded it as cause for support and celebration. Along New York’s Fifth Avenue, flags of the allied nations were hung in a welcoming gesture, creating a patriotic pattern of red, white, and blue. Childe Hassam prominently placed the American flag, affirming his belief that America was now engaged in a morally imperative “fight for democracy,” as he put it, throughout the world.

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Benton/Bingham

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:21:04 +0000

Adorning the walls of Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, “The Sources of Country Music” has five distinct scenes depicting the music of ordinary Americans. It preserves an image of American folkways that were rapidly disappearing, from barn dances to church spirituals to Appalachian ballads. Benton was 85 when he painted this mural; it was Thomas Hart Benton’s final work.

George Caleb Bingham’s crowded composition “The County Election” suggests the inclusiveness of democracy. Young or old, rich or poor, all of the men gathered at the foot of the courthouse on Election Day appeared as equals. The lack of a single dramatic focus emphasized the ideal that no one vote was worth more than another.

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Cassatt/Sargent

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:20:20 +0000

At first glance, viewers see a familiar, reverently painted family scene. Yet the details in Mary Cassat’s “The Boating Party” hint at an underlying tension, as well as the strictures of late 19th-century society.

John Singer Sargent painted the well-known image of the young Homer Saint-Gaudens as an intimate portrait for his friend, the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was the boy’s father. In this and all his portraits of wealthy American youth, Sargent abandoned the sentimental approach of his contemporaries and painted them more naturalistically, with a keen, psychologically penetrating eye. In this image, he captures the impatience of the beautifully dressed young Homer with the boy’s expression and slumping pose.

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Washington/Selma

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:19:23 +0000

On March 25, 1965, 25,000 participants concluded a four-day, 54-mile march for voting rights in Montgomery, Alabama. Transcending its primary function as a record of the event, James Karales’s photograph “Selma-to-Montgomery March for Voting Rights in 1965″ illustrates how the desire for freedom is the shared heritage of all Americans.

With “Washington Crossing the Delaware” Emanuel Leutze depicts George Washington leading his army across the icy river on Christmas night, 1776.

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Edward Hopper

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:18:51 +0000

As the railroad tracks rattle by a once-grand Victorian home, so intersect the themes of modern progress and historical continuity. The painting’s bleakness suggests that Edward Hopper found little to celebrate in America’s post-World War I urbanization.

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Lawrence/Puryear

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:17:03 +0000

Inspired by the musical storytelling of West Africa’s griots, Jacob Lawrence employed in “The Migration of the Negro” a painted and written narrative to invoke how African-American families “came up” from the South to settle in cities such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.

Suspended above the floor and anchored by almost undetectable wires, Martin Puryear’s 36-foot Ladder for Booker T. Washington seems to float in space as it rises and abruptly narrows at the top. The artistic metaphor of a ladder not easily climbed dovetails with the contradictions in the legacy of slave-turned-educator Booker T. Washington.

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Black Hawk/Catlin

Bijan Rezvani — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:16:16 +0000

George Catlin created “Catlin Painting the Portrait of Mah-to-toh-pa” from memory, years after becoming friends with the second chief of the Mandan people. It appears as the title-page illustration of his book about living among the tribes of the Missouri River. Catlin’s manuscript—and some 500 paintings—provide testimony not only to the country’s fascination with American Indians but also to the artist’s ambition to document disappearing frontier cultures.

Black Hawk’s ledger book “Sans Arc Lakota” provides invaluable visual testimony to the nation’s Native American heritage. His drawings revealed intriguing details of the Lakota people—from manner of dress to social customs. In doing so, he captured a way of life fast disappearing as settlers moved West in increasing numbers and tribes were moved to reservations.

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