Early-to Mid-Twentieth Century Art

The birth of the twentieth century in America brought great social and economic change. The spread of industrialization created a tremendous growth of factories and cities, causing many people to feel as if they were losing their individuality, becoming anonymous among the masses. Through many different stylistic characteristics, art of the early-to mid-twentieth century reflects the notion that life was becoming overwhelmingly complicated. Many Americans longed to return to a simpler time. As a result, a style of art called American Scene painting emerged. Strong in national pride with a focus on purely American rural and urban scenes, small towns, and people, the style became popular, particularly in the South, where many felt that Southern culture was vanishing under the weight of the new industrial age. Yet while a great number of artists created images of rural America and Southern ways of life, Southern artists were not oblivious to the new styles of art that had made their way from Europe into America. German expressionism, emphasizing vivid and emotional brushwork and color and formalist styles of art, emphasizing form and color, over the recognizable representation of a subject, can be seen in the work of some Southern artists.

Highlights (Click on an image for object details)
Abstraction By Paul Ninas 1959	Bargain Basement By Lamar Dodd 1937	From This Earth By Lamar Dodd 1945
Georgia Red Clay By Nell Choate Jones 1946	Gervais St. Antique Shop By Edmund Yaghjian 1950s	Hoover and the Flood By John Steuart Curry 1940
I Can't Sleep By John McCrady 1933+48	Play Ball Augusta Oelschig c. 1955	Sharecropper By Marie Atkinson Hull 1947
Tobacco Setters on a Hilltop By Stephen Alke c. 1938	Tyranny of Survival By Frank London 1943