Exhibits, Past Exhibits | October 2011
Indiana Realities
Regionalist Painting 1930-1945 from the Bob & Ellie Haan Collection
Between the World Wars, the United States assumed isolationist tendencies creating an appreciation for American culture. Artists began to view the "American Scene" from a new perspective, documenting the land, cities, and people as they saw them. This renewed interest in representational painting re-versed a pr=existing movement toward individually subjective artwork, or Modernism. The general public could relate to the artists' realistic documentation of everyday people in their own communities, and the nostalgic images appealed to a resurgent patriotism. According to art historians, the fundamental ideals of place, history, politics, and social change replaced individual consciousness as sources of artistic motivation.
By 1935, Regionalism's unquestioned popularity had revived America's entusiasm for its own history and culture. Supported by governmental funding, imagery of national strength and stability helped to comfort the pervasive feeling of despair resulting from economic and environmental ruin. Federal programs designed to provide work for needy artists alleviated some of the Depression's impact. The application and award process favored paintings done in the Regionalist style, further reinforcing the style's popularity and dominance.
Appreciation for the style and sensibility of Regionalist paintings, perhaps generated by America's recent recession, is growing today. A reassessment of these neglected artists is long overdue.
Exerpted from Indiana Regionalist Painters by Rachel Berenson Perry, Indiana State Museum