ERAS IN AMERICAN 20TH CEN ART, PART 2

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1910s” 

The art of the 1910s offers a glimpse into a wildly unpredictable decade. The sinking of the Titanic (1912), World War One (1914-18), antitrust complexities, and the Women’s suffrage movement, among other historical milestones, dominated headlines and changed the course of American culture. Meanwhile, the iconic Armory Show (1913) exhibition inspired a presidential response and, along with the “291 Gallery” (1905-17), changed the direction of modernist American art indefinitely.    

 

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1930s” 

Sprouted in the climate fueled by The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, global economic uncertainty, and the prelude to the Second World War, the art and architecture of the 1930s paradoxically flourished. Floor by floor the great Empire State Building (1930-31) rose at a mindboggling rate, defying the turmoil swirling around beyond 5th Avenue. Art of the period reflected how things seemed to get more “real” in the 1930s. As E. E. Cummings declared in his No Thanks poetry collection (1935): “let’s start a magazine… to hell with literature… we want something redblooded.”  

 

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1950s” 

In the 1950s, art and culture merged more, and on a global scale, with each side reflecting the other. The “space age” was in, and with it came tailfins on cars, sci-fi on television, and Sputnik’s launch in October 1957. A postwar economic boom fueled rapid suburbanization, and a culture increasingly hooked on television and mass-production. “Atomic age” anxieties from The Cold War triggered poignant art of all kinds, thankfully inspiring a flourishing moment for creativity and especially for improvisation, with Jackson Pollock’s drips flowing to the same beat as Jack Kerouac, Martha Graham, and Charlie Parker. The decade really was “far out.”

 

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1970s” 

In some ways, the 1970s was two decades, one dominated by Vietnam and Watergate, at the beginning, and a nation in transition in its aftermath. Against a backdrop of the energy crisis and inflation peaking at around 14% at the end of the decade, art and design nonetheless boldly busted out. Roe v. Wade encouraged a decade full of fascinating art by women about women. And boundary-breaking became associated in art and design with the “elongated,” in everywhere from long hair to long jeans, Halston gowns, the sprawling 70s ranch house, disco poses, and yes, elongated art. All of it was chic.

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Road Scholar

 

June 2025

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Details, Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917, Jasper Johns, Flag, 1955, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Dorothea Langue, Migrant Mother, 1936, Andy Warhol, Liza, 1978, Private collection. 

BRUTALISM and the GINGRICH LIBRARY

Brutalism is in, and not only because Adrian Brody is phenomenal. After seventy-five years, its place within the pantheon of the great isms of art history (right alongside Impressionism) is secure. Movements like these in art and architecture only become “isms” and often household names when their impact is undeniable. Brutalism signals that we are dealing with works of architecture, rather than banal buildings. There is a profound difference. One wouldn’t repaint an Impressionist work no more than one should fundamentally change a work of architecture like the Gingrich Library at Albright College. It stands alongside a very small handful of proudly Brutalist college and university libraries across the United States, and beyond. Like the famous Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego, or the equally notable libraries at Harvard, Dartmouth, Northwestern, and Yale - considered the best of the American Brutalist college libraries - the Gingrich Library is exciting in its uniqueness and the ideas it promoted. It’s concrete aesthetic, which has at times since its completion seemed outdated, is itself important: and will remind visitors for centuries (one hopes) of the cost of rebuilding after the horrific Second World War. Brutalism showed the world that even the ubiquitous and cheap concrete could be made striking.​

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Albright College

 

May 2025

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Detail, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Trace the development of the earliest photo images, with the invention of the Daguerreotype ca. 1839. Examine how Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen pushed for photography to become a proper art medium in the first years of the 20th century. See how Depression Era images by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans documented the most destitute of the era. Unpack some of the most profound Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. And discover the widespread role photography has played in the last fifty years. 

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MyHealthAngel

 

May 2025

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Detail, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1933, The Art Institute of Chicago

ART HISTORY: A TRANSATLANTIC VOYAGE ON QM2

A travel program on land and at sea. Discover some of the masterworks of art in Paris, at Claude Monet's gardens in Giverny, and at the Rouen Museum of Art. Part 1 includes the lectures "War, Politics, Haussmann, and Japan: Historical Factors that Shaped Impressionism" at Impressionists Island, Chatou, and "Monet and Pissarro" in Rouen. Next, dig deeper in a six-part lecture series (“Van Gogh and Gauguin," "Cézanne and Seurat," "Picasso,” "Matisse," "Chagall and Modigliani," and "Crossing the Pond: WW2, Parisian Art, and New York”) aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2 on a special westerly crossing from Le Havre to New York.​

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Road Scholar

 

April-May 2025

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Detail, Louvre, Paris

ART AND LEADERSHIP AS A VERB

Three straightforward questions. Does art help us learn better? Does participating in the process of experiencing art in a more interactive way help us to get more out of it? Do discoveries with art help us outside the museum, even at work? All data points point to a resounding yes, to all three. Ignoring these realities leaves too much on the table. It’s time to keep pace with an ever-changing world and workplace and come to terms with how to balance top-down with participatory methods. Art tackles these issues head-on and shows us how to become proficient in new ways of thinking better suited to these changing winds. It helps raise awareness and engage cultural change, necessary goals for everyone in the org chart, not just for designated leaders. Time to learn how in this executive coaching session in the galleries surrounded by masterworks of the PMA collection.​

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BluSPARC at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

April 2025
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Detail, Fernand Léger, The City, 1919, Philadelphia Museum of Art

21ST CENTURY ART

Trace the development of the the major monuments of the past quarter century in art.

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MyHealthAngel

 

March 2025

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Detail, Katharina Fritsch, Hahn/Cock, Trafalgar Square, London, 2013

ERAS IN AMERICAN 20TH CEN ART, PART 1

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1920s” 

The art of the 1920s is inexorably grounded in major developments of the era, in economics, archaeology, Prohibition, and Jazz, among others. Howard Carter finding Tut’s tomb was big news, and the art and architecture that followed also “big.” Against the backdrop of a “roaring” period of economic growth that lasted from 1920 to 1929, painters like Georgia O’Keeffe tried to make sense of all the progress. Meanwhile in Harlem, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, and Aaron Douglas all used art to come to terms with the seminal words of Alain Locke. As a popular slang phrase at the time (“Bees Knees”) crystallized, the 1920s was an industrious, colorful, and (for some) a much-celebrated era.

 

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1940s” 

Bracketed chronologically by the Great Depression and the postwar boom, the 1940s is among the most profound and widely studied decades of the 20th century. Most popular vehicle of the decade? The Willys Jeep, the ruggedness of which coincidentally mirrors the temperament of a young Jackson Pollock, who by the end of the decade had become perhaps the most famous artist in America. Great art by European artists in exile also stands out for how it encapsulates so much of a moment in time. From Citizen Kane (1941) to Casablanca (1942), see how advances in film documented the era for posterity. Unpack why the phrase “keep calm and carry on” – a slogan coined in 1939 – says so much about the art and culture of the 1940s.

 

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1960s” 

So many terms have been floated about the iconic 1960s. Counterculture. Vietnam. Assassinations. Explore how the art of the period reflects all of this. See how Noam Chomsky, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono all took a close investigation of language to new frontiers in their respective fields, from linguistics to rock and roll to conceptual art. Unpack the many links between the 106-month economic expansion in the 1960s (in the United States), the rise of commodity culture, mass-market products, and Pop Art. Learn why Marshall McLuhan’s ideas about the electronic age were both eerily prophetic for our own era and the catalyst for a host of sublime electronic-based art. Looking back on the decade it’s now clear that McLuhan was right: we are indeed a “global village.”

 

“Eras in American Art and Culture: The 1980s” 

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 symbolically closed a wildly complex decade. Major shifts in technology, politics, pop culture, and an ever-fluctuating global landscape impacted everyone, including artists. In the MTV era, art blossomed and its audiences reached millions. Unpack how Jean-Michel Basquiat and Michael Douglas, each in their own way, made art about the economics of the era. See how Cindy Sherman tore down barriers between gender and representation in the same era that saw President Reagan’s directive to “tear down this wall.”

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Road Scholar

 

Feb 2025

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Details, Charles Demuth, I Saw The Figure 5 in Gold, 1928, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, Tate Modern; Jean-Michele Basquiat, Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, 1982; and Norman Rockwell, Freedom of Speech, 1943

LEONARDO DA VINCI: MIND, BODY, COSMOS

Highlighting the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the California Science Center, this talk unpacks why Leonardo is truly iconic. As a master of science and artistry, he fashioned works like Mona Lisa and Vitruvian Man as a bridge that united the two paradigms in a truly cosmic harmony. Nature, art, life, and the cosmos all in a profoundly harmonious nexus. Discover what makes his work and legacy so fascinating, even more than 500 years after his death.

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MyHealthAngel

 

Jan 2025

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Detail, Leonardo da Vinci, The Vitruvian Man, ca. 1490, Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice

IL DIVINO: MICHELANGELO and the HIGH RENAISSANCE

Michelangelo Buonarroti is often hailed as 'the divine one' for his unparalleled contributions to Renaissance art. This lecture will trace Michelangelo's remarkable career, examining his key artistic phases and the masterpieces he produced during each. From his towering sculptures and iconic frescoes to his architectural feats, discover how Michelangelo's work shaped and fit into the larger Renaissance narrative. Additionally, delve into a lesser-known aspect of his genius—his poetry—and learn how his written words reveal a deeper understanding of his creative mind.​

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Road Scholar

 

Jan 2025

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Detail, Michelangelo, David, 1501-04