American Regionalism

Explore the works discussed in the video below. Click the thumbnails to expand.

The effects of World War I prompted many American artists to reject European modernism in favor of a return to a more realist style and subject matter with which the public could identify, giving rise to American Regionalism. During the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s, the artists known as Regionalists or American Scene Painters documented the America they understood best—a nation of farms, small towns, and inspiring vistas, populated with citizens of honesty and integrity. Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry were midwesterners (from Missouri and Kansas, respectively), and they returned to the heartland after study abroad to paint and to teach.