In the years following World War II and into the Cold War era, an edge of existential uncertainty clouded the collective American mind in a way that it hadn’t before. Then along came a sprightly, witty, self-assured but humble old lady who painted cheerful scenes...
Ralph Brownell McGrew is considered by some to be one of the best Western portraitists of the 20th century. He painted portraits of the Diné (Navajo) and Hopi people of Arizona and New Mexico with such exceptional ability that his work is often said to...
An Andy Warhol image of Elvis Presley, like the artist’s paintings of Marilyn Monroe, is pure Americana, a mirror reflecting early 1960s culture and its fascination with celebrity. Elvis as a singing teen heartthrob, a beach-scene matinee idol, is double Americana. But Warhol added another...
In 1948, a young photographer named Gordon Parks spent weeks getting to know and aiming his camera at the gritty world of 17-year-old Leonard “Red” Jackson on the streets of New York City. The photo essay that resulted, “Harlem Gang Leader,” was published in Life...
The pitchfork is what many people notice first, its tines sharp and unforgiving, its handle rigid in the farmer’s grip. His eyes stare coolly, and his mouth is set in moral rectitude — or is it half-concealed levity? The woman by his side (His wife?...
He was the scion of distinguished European artists, yet a roughneck who proved himself a cowboy on Texas cattle drives at the turn of the last century. While a young man, he enrolled at the Art Students League in New York City, apprenticing to the...
In 1921, the federal government banned the Pueblo tribes sacred “pagan” dances. About the same time, a San Ildefonso woman started painting pictures — though only men of her tribe were supposed to paint. That artist, Quah Ah, captured the defiant, inner strength of her...
Artist Earl Biss was a man driven by visions and demons. He was brilliant, charming, handsome, volatile, sometimes violent and, as his friend, Hunter S. Thompson, affectionately said, “crazy as five loons.” He was also a primary catalyst in an art movement that saw works...
Only the most gifted artists are able to fold art history and personal history into a cohesive and imaginative new direction. Painter John Nieto, who passed away in July 2018, was such a master. Nieto is recognized as the first American artist to bring French...
With 50 years of modern American art in the rearview mirror since the 1960s, it may be difficult to grasp how radically the work of one young Native American painter at the time diverged from what had come before, and the impact his vision would...