Favorite American Artists?

[Just Robyn]

With my oldest doing American history next school year I'm planning to line up some American artists for picture study/handwriting practice for next year. I think I've settled on Cassatt. We've done quite a bit with Grant Wood already, so I'm on the fence about him.

 

Suggestions?

[Michelle My Bell]

Would Audubon be considered American? He wasn't born here, but he did live here and did all of his paintings of American birds.

[----]

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[MarieWith3]

I've always liked Henry Ossawa Tanner, mostly because of his Annunciation, but he apparently has a body of work.

[HSMom2One]

I would consider Audubon to be an American artist. A great many people in that era were not actually born here, but were considered American.

 

Well, there's Remington and Russel with their western art that ties beautifully into American expansion studies. Then there's John Singer Sargent, the famous portrait painter of the late 19th and early 20th century that could follow well after a study of Cassatt. There's also Winslow Homer and his gorgeous landscape paintings that would compliment any portion of 19th century studies, and Thomas Cole of the Hudson River School that would do the same. (Several of the same group could be studied together. They'd include Cole, Church, and Cropsey. Just do a google search of Hudson River School.) There was also the Ashcan School of artists that were interested in urban scenes of their time. (Those artists included Dawes, Prendergast, Lawson, Glackens, Shinn, Robert Henri, John Sloan, and Luks. They may not be favorites, but they contributed to the transition into the modern art movement.)

 

When it comes to artists of modern American history you could include Norman Rockwell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Grandma Moses, Ansel Adams and Andrew Wyeth. I would also check into some of the artists that were involved with the WPA movement when you study FDR and World War II. And if you want to include some of the more avant garde artists, you would need to add people such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Raushenberg.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

 

P.S. Art is my very favorite subject. :D

[Just Robyn]

We have done Audubon (and we'll do him again) since we have all the Noeo Biology 1 books.

 

Norman Rockwell, duh! I hadn't even thought of him.

 

I had thought about Grandma Moses, but I was hoping to find art postcards for all the artists I picked and I didn't find any for her. Then I thought I would just come ask here instead of trying to make my poor brain work on its own. (One measly stumbling block and I give up and com here! I've become too dependent on these boards! LOL) Now I'm seeing that I probably won't be able to find art postcards for enough artists and I'll have to give up my vision.

 

I only want to do 6 artists - 6 weeks each, 1 work per week. My list is now:

 

Mary Cassatt

Frederic Remington

Grandma Moses

Edward Hopper

Norman Rockwell

Andy Warhol

 

Yay! One thing done. Thank you all!

 

HSMom2One - SO many suggestions - very helpful - thank you!

[Chelli]

I'm using this book to figure out which American artists we want to study next year as well.

 

http://www.amazon.com/American-Artists-You-Should-Know/dp/3791344110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306601415&sr=1-1

 

I've thought about ordering this book as well for a more hands-on approach.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Artists-Kids-Hands-/dp/0935607005/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306601474&sr=1-2

[Just Robyn]

I'm using this book to figure out which American artists we want to study next year as well.

 

http://www.amazon.com/American-Artists-You-Should-Know/dp/3791344110/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306601415&sr=1-1

 

I've thought about ordering this book as well for a more hands-on approach.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Artists-Kids-Hands-/dp/0935607005/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306601474&sr=1-2

 

Hmmm... I think I'll have to make some library requests. Thanks!

[HSMom2One]

We have done Audubon (and we'll do him again) since we have all the Noeo Biology 1 books.

 

Norman Rockwell, duh! I hadn't even thought of him.

 

I had thought about Grandma Moses, but I was hoping to find art postcards for all the artists I picked and I didn't find any for her. Then I thought I would just come ask here instead of trying to make my poor brain work on its own. (One measly stumbling block and I give up and com here! I've become too dependent on these boards! LOL) Now I'm seeing that I probably won't be able to find art postcards for enough artists and I'll have to give up my vision.

 

I only want to do 6 artists - 6 weeks each, 1 work per week. My list is now:

 

Mary Cassatt

Frederic Remington

Grandma Moses

Edward Hopper

Norman Rockwell

Andy Warhol

 

Yay! One thing done. Thank you all!

 

HSMom2One - SO many suggestions - very helpful - thank you!

 

You're welcome. :~) I like your list!

 

One thought I had for you is this: have you considered making your own postcards? There are so many great images available online that you could easily set it up from your own computer. If you have a color printer you could print them at home on photo paper that is postcard size, or put four images on the same letter size sheet and then cut them to size. You could also send the file to Kinko's and have them print it out for you. Just an idea fwiw.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Satori]

I made a sortable top 100 artist list that you can use for ideas. Just sort by Country and you'll find popular American artists used in many children's art appreciation books. I had listed Audubon as French-American.

 

I have been using Google images to find art prints and then printing them out at home. I can make them postcard-sized, but for now I'm just printing them full-page and puttting them in page protectors.

 

HSMom2One, very helpful post! We're just starting to learn about artists here and we're having a blast.

Edited May 29, 2011 by Satori

[Michelle My Bell]

You're welcome. :~) I like your list!

 

One thought I had for you is this: have you considered making your own postcards? There are so many great images available online that you could easily set it up from your own computer. If you have a color printer you could print them at home on photo paper that is postcard size, or put four images on the same letter size sheet and then cut them to size. You could also send the file to Kinko's and have them print it out for you. Just an idea fwiw.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

 

I have also seen this great idea from CharlotteMasonHelp.com

 

I just take a disk of the prints I downloaded from an online museum (generally artrenewal.com) to the local photo developers and they print them for about 15 cents each. I make sure the resolution is pretty good and I don't print anything larger than 4 by 6. I do this only once a year and plan ahead. (You can print this handy chart that explains FAIR USE GUIDELINES for educators concerning copyrighted material and take it along with you just in case an uninformed store clerk gives you trouble) My children place them in their albums and write down the artist’s name and the painting. The albums are large, nicely bound photo albums that have a space for labeling. Afterwards, I go into my computer’s control panel and make the print become the background so that my childrern can view it all week.

 

[HSMom2One]

I made a sortable top 100 artist list that you can use for ideas. Just sort by Country and you'll find popular American artists used in many children's art appreciation books. I had listed Audubon as French-American.

 

I have been using Google images to find art prints and then printing them out at home. I can make them postcard-sized, but for now I'm just printing them full-page and puttting them in page protectors.

 

HSMom2One, very helpful post! We're just starting to learn about artists here and we're having a blast.

 

You're welcome, Satori. I am an elementary/secondary art teacher by profession. :D I am always looking for ideas too so I can keep things fresh and new for my many students. I love the sortable list you provided a link for too. Thanks!

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[maks]

Thanks for the great list and ideas.

 

We just returned from a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where they opened a 4-story Art of the Americas Wing last November:

http://www.mfa.org/americas-wing/galleries.html

 

I think most of the artists depicted there have been on the lists already on the thread, but they also have this link where you can choose your medium and search their holdings.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/art-americas

 

On a different medium note: Their major visiting collection right now is the amazing glass blowing collection of Dale Chihuly who is from Tacoma, Washington. If he is of interest there are several DVDs, (most PBS publications) which may be available at your library or they are certainly at Amazon.

 

I like to share with people a comment that someone once told me about their memories of art history as a student. They would be given post-card sized images of paintings and discuss them and get tested on them at school. She still remembers (from decades later) how amazed she was the first time she went to an art museum as an older teen and realized how large a painting could really be!

[HSMom2One]

Thanks for the great list and ideas.

 

We just returned from a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where they opened a 4-story Art of the Americas Wing last November:

http://www.mfa.org/americas-wing/galleries.html

 

I think most of the artists depicted there have been on the lists already on the thread, but they also have this link where you can choose your medium and search their holdings.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/art-americas

 

On a different medium note: Their major visiting collection right now is the amazing glass blowing collection of Dale Chihuly who is from Tacoma, Washington. If he is of interest there are several DVDs, (most PBS publications) which may be available at your library or they are certainly at Amazon.

 

I like to share with people a comment that someone once told me about their memories of art history as a student. They would be given post-card sized images of paintings and discuss them and get tested on them at school. She still remembers (from decades later) how amazed she was the first time she went to an art museum as an older teen and realized how large a painting could really be!

 

Great input! I love your comments and links. :001_smile: I also wanted to say that in my earlier post I had meant to include Dale Chihuly as one of the contemporary artists, but forgot. His work is incredible. Did you know that he is one of few American artists with works in the Louvre in Paris?

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[GoVanGogh]

On a different medium note: Their major visiting collection right now is the amazing glass blowing collection of Dale Chihuly who is from Tacoma, Washington. If he is of interest there are several DVDs, (most PBS publications) which may be available at your library or they are certainly at Amazon.

Chihuly is an amazing artist. We visited an exhibit of his a few years ago and it was incredible. My son still talks about it.

Another American artist that used a different medium - Alexander Calder. My son is fascinated by his works and spent hours at an exhibit, looking at his mobiles from every. single. direction.

I also wanted to agree with the earlier mention of the Hudson River School. We attended a homeschool class and exhibit on this art movement earlier this year. The artwork was stunning.

[cat]

Georgia O'Keeffe

 

http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/

[St. Theophan Academy]

we are doing NC Wyeth - there are great books out there of his works on American History topics - tie in very nicely. We are also planning to do John White - not well known, but he was the grandfather of Virginia Dare. Finally, we are going to probably do some of Winslow Homer and Hokusai pieces - because our emphasis is on the sea this year (explorers, marine sciences, navigation etc) and they both have beautiful works on ships and the sea.

[Homemama2]

George Catlin was one who painted the west and Native Americans.

[Spy Car]

What a thing to try to keep it to six.

 

But if that is the limit I would substitute Thomas Hill or Albert Bierstadt of the Hudson River school for Frederick Remington to show western expansion. Either are far better painters (if less famous).

 

Grandma Moses would have to go, as would Norman Rockwell.

 

My list (with some painful non-inclusions) would be:

 

Thomas Hill or Albert Bierstadt

Winslow Homer

John Singer Sargent

Mary Cassatt

Edward Hopper

Jackson Pollack or Andy Warhol (but better both)

 

I would also be tempted to add (in the first position) Gilbert Stuart, not because he was the greatest of painters, but because he well exemplifies important portraiture in the Federal period.

 

It is painful to leave out James Whistler, Thomas Eakins, American impressionist Frederick Car Friseseke, the California Arts and Crafts painters (like Arthur Matthews), Western painter Maynard Dickson, modernists like Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keeffe, Richard Diebenkorn, and Pop Artists Claes Oldenberg/Robert Rauschenberg/Jasper Johns/Roy Lichtenstein.

 

And oh so many more, but what can you do? :D

 

Bill

Edited May 30, 2011 by Spy Car

[Spy Car]

 

My list (with some painful non-inclusions) would be:

 

Thomas Hill or Albert Bierstadt

Winslow Homer

John Singer Sargent

Mary Cassatt

Edward Hopper

Jackson Pollack or Andy Warhol (but better both)

 

I would also be tempted to add (in the first position) Gilbert Stuart, not because he was the greatest of painters, but because he well exemplifies important portraiture in the Federal period.

 

It is painful to leave out James Whistler, Thomas Eakins, American impressionist Frederick Car Friseseke, the California Arts and Crafts painters (like Arthur Matthews), Western painter Maynard Dickson, modernists like Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keeffe, Richard Diebenkorn, and Pop Artists Claes Oldenberg/Robert Rauschenberg/Jasper Johns/Roy Lichtenstein.

 

And oh so many more, but what can you do? :D

 

Bill

 

I'm re-thinking my list (this is actually driving me crazy! :D)

 

I'm thinking that despite his undeniable greatness as a painter that I'm dropping John Singer Sargent only because his portraiture is too limiting to tie into the American story.

 

New list (I'm cheating and going to 8)

 

Gilbert Stuart

Thomas Hill or Albert Bierstadt

Winslow Homer

Mary Cassatt

Frederick Remington or Maynard Dickson (for the West)

Edward Hopper

Jackson Pollack

Andy Warhol

 

So that is my list, until I change it again :tongue_smilie:

 

Bill

[GoVanGogh]

I'm re-thinking my list (this is actually driving me crazy!)

...

So that is my list, until I change it again

 

:lol:

Good list, though.

I would have a hard time selecting just six. (Or eight.)

 

We tend to study artists based off what exhibits our local galleries are showing. We tend to bounce around this way, but we have had fun.

[Spy Car]

:lol:

Good list, though.

I would have a hard time selecting just six. (Or eight.)

 

We tend to study artists based off what exhibits our local galleries are showing. We tend to bounce around this way, but we have had fun.

 

I'm sitting here having arguments with myself :D

 

I'm thinking John Singleton Copley was a much better painter of the colonial period than Gilbert Stuart, but he went off to England so he blew it. But...but!!!

 

Better to let the local curators decide :tongue_smilie:

 

Fewer headaches anyway.

 

Bill

[Spy Car]

And then there are painters like George Inness and Arthur Wesley Dow, who don't belong on a " short list," but whose paintings are so sublime that when you see them in person it almost makes your knees buckle.

 

What torture.

 

Bill