Geographic Tour of American Art History

with an emphasis on representational art

 

Introduction

Geographic Tour of American Art History is a catalogue published by Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) since 2003.

Contents are valuable to educators designing course content, scholars, students and librarians conducting research, plus art lovers everywhere seeking greater understanding of American art. Enjoy!

 

Summary tour

 

The Hudson River School is the earliest thematic community of American artists. The Cape Ann art colony is the oldest, most continuously active art colony in America; see Legacy of Cape Ann, by James M. Keny. Cape Ann's long-established art associations are the Rockport Art Association and the North Shore Arts Association, Another important early art center was the Lyme art colony. Further early Eastern art colonies and centers included the Cornish artists' colony, the Cos Cob colony, the Dublin colony, Maine's Monhegan Island Art Colony, the New Hope school of artists, the Ogunquit colony, the Roycroft colony, Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, the Byrdcliffe arts & crafts colony, and Woodstock colony.

For more on Eastern artists and art see The Spirit of Inness: Creating an "American School" at the Paris Exposition of 1900, by Diane Pietrucha Fischer; "Art, Cheap and Good": The Art Union in England and the United States, 1840-60, by Joy Sperling; Art and Artists in Connecticut, by Harry Willard French; Maryland artists: 1890-1970; the History of White Mountain Art by John J. Henderson, and White Mountains Artists by Lonnie Dunbier. Crossing into the twentieth century, read about The New York Armory Show of 1913 from TFAO's Historic International Exhibitions and Artists and Art Colonies of Ridgefield, New Jersey by Gail Stavitsky.

For Pennsylvania artists see A Matter of Style: Artistic Influences and Directions in 20th-Century Pennsylvania Painting, by Michael A. Tomor; Art and Industry in Philadelphia: Origins of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, by Nina de Angeli Walls; Introduction to "Along the Juniata: Thomas Cole and the Dissemination of American Landscape Imagery", by Nancy Siegel, Scenic Views: Painters of the Scalp Level School Revisited and Pennsylvania Painters and the Roots of Realism, both by Judith Hansen O'Toole.

For Indiana art see The Departure, by Martin Krause (the Hoosier artists); A Walk in the Woods: The Art of John Elwood Bundy, by William H. Gerdts covering the Richmond (Indiana) School, and Art and Artists of Indiana, by Mary Quick Burnet. For Ohio art and artists see Ohio Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, by James M. Keny.

Moving towards the Midwest, for Chicago art history see The Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts. For Wisconsin art history see Art Teachers, Art Schools and Art Museums in Early Wisconsin, by Peter C. Merrill; Society of Milwaukee Artists, by Gay Donahue; Wisconsin's New Art Deal, by Mary Michie; Preface to "Foundations of Art in Wisconsin", Prominence in 19th Century Regional Art, Preface / A Century of Artistic Endeavor and Wisconsin Art from Euro-American Settlement to 1950, by Thomas D. Lidtke. For the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Midwest see University City Ceramics: Saint Louis Heritage and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Read about the Prairie Print Makers, a Kansas artists' group founded in the 1930s.

For Southern art history, see Collected Additions: The Morris Museum and Painting in the South, by Estill Curtis Pennington, A Century of Progress: 20th Century Painting in Tennessee, by Celia Walker, A History of Florida Art from 1564 to the Present, and Lost Colony: The Artists of St. Augustine, 1930-1950, by Robert W. Torchia.

For Southwest art history and Western art, enjoy articles and essays including American Impressionism Goes West, by Charles C. Eldredge; Remington: The Color of Night; Women Artist Pioneers of New Mexico, by Dottie Indyke; A Century of Western Art; Southwestern Colonial Art, by Robert William Brown; The Pictoral Record of the Old West: the Beginning of the Taos School of Art, by Robert Taft; Painters in Taos, New Mexico Prior to 1940; Taos Society of Artists, by Sarah Beserra; "New Deal" Art in New Mexico, by Kathryn Flynn; How the Santa Fe Art Colony Began, by Suzanne Deats; Painted Faith: Traditional New Mexican Devotional Images, by Cody James Hartley; Introduction from "Celebrating America: Masterworks from Texas Collections", by Jane Myers and Barbara McCandless, Painters of Grand Canyon, and Art of the American West, by Peter MacMIllan Booth; from Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art: The Art Colony and Sul Ross State University (see the publications page)

For California overall see Art in California: 1880 to 1930, by Jean Stern; In and Out of California: Travels of American Impressionists, by Deborah Epstein Solon; In and Out of California: The Participatory Nature of Early California Art, by Will South; California Watercolor Painters in Context, by Donelson Hoopes; Regionalism: The California View, by Susan M. Anderson; The California Missions in Art - 1786 to 1890, by Norman Neuerburg, Bicoastal Artists of the 1870s by Ann Harlow, and The Metamorphosis of California Landscape Art, by Rexford E. Brandt.

For Northern California see The 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition of San Francisco from TFAO's Historic International Exhibitions; Harvey L. Jones' Twilight and Reverie: California Tonalist Painting 1890-1930 and Landscape Painters of Northern California 1870-1930; The Northern Scene and Towards Impressionism in Northern California, by Raymond L. Wilson; The Society of Six, by Terry St. John; The San Francisco Art Association, The Santa Cruz Art League, The Carmel Art Association, by Betty Hoag McGlynn, Monterey: The Artist's View, 1925 - 1945 by Kent Seavey and The Carmel Monterey Peninsula Art Colony: A History; by Barbara J. Klein

For Southern California read The Land of Sunshine, by William H. Gerdts; Dream and Perspective: American Scene Painting in Southern California, by Susan M. Anderson; Hard-Boiled Wonderland, by Julie Joyce; Continuity and Change: Southern California's Evolving Landscape, by Sarah Vure; the California Art Club from Historic Art Clubs; essays regarding The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906-53, by Julia Armstrong-Totten, Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, and Will South; The Development of an Art Community in the Los Angeles Area, by Ruth Westphal; Loners, Mavericks & Dreamers: Art in Los Angeles Before 1900 and Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and the Eucalyptus School in Southern California, by Nancy Moure; The California Missions in Art: 1890 to 1930, Artists in Santa Catalina Island Before 1945; The Development of Southern California Impressionism, Masters of Light, Impressionist Style in Perspective and Landscape Painting in California, by Jean Stern; What Made Laguna Beach Special, by Deborah Epstein Solon; The California Water Color Society: Genesis of an American Style and The Arts in Santa Barbara by Janet Blake Dominik; Ranchos: The Oak Group Paints the Santa Barbara Countryside, by Ellen Easton, and San Diego Beginnings, by Martin E. Petersen.

Also see:

 

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