Regionalism - Classroom Use - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, March, 2002 by Guy Hubbard

THINGS TO LEARN

* Some art movements have worldwide influence, while others are unique to one place. Regionalism was American. It emerged in the United States some years after the end of World War I, at a time when Americans wanted to be left alone. Among them was a small group of artists who felt that modern European art was taking over when it was more important for Americans to develop their own kind of art, one that truly reflected life in this country.

These beliefs were similar to those of another North American artist, the great Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. Rivera believed that the art that would best express Mexican culture should be homegrown.

* A group of three painters began to be recognized in the United States during the 1920s and their ideas became known as Regionalism. Their names were Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. They rejected the abstract art that was being imported from Europe and proposed that it be replaced by something that was not abstract. They thought abstract art was false. Since they had all grown up in rural areas of the Midwest they found it easy to place their emphasis on ordinary people whose lives revolved around farming, family life and deep religious beliefs.

* The Regionalist style of painting is sometimes described as a kind of realism but, on looking more closely, it is clear that these artists were not interested in making exact copies of what people could see. But since they were interested in getting their ideas across to working people more than to art critics, they made objects easily recognizable but not always very exact. They felt that, in this way, the messages in their pictures would be easier to understand.

When students look closely at Regionalist art, they will see that all three artists altered the shapes of the people and objects in their paintings. They distorted them. The detailed painting in Grant Wood's pictures is so precise and clean that his pictures look more like dreams than real life. Benton exaggerated most of the shapes in his paintings so much that they often seem like caricatures.

In contrast, objects in Curry's paintings are often not very clear and sometimes they are inaccurate. But all three tried to convey the same message: Respect was due to the hard lives of working people.

* American Regionalism began in the late 1920s. Their ideas were most prominent during the difficult times of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. In addition to painting pictures, Regionalist artists were employed to paint murals in public buildings such as post offices and statehouses.

By the middle 1940s, however, Regionalist art was replaced by new artistic ideas flooding in as a result of the end of World War II. And, with the early deaths of both Wood and Curry, only Thomas Hart Benton remained to carry on.

* John Steuart Curry understood hardship and injustice and made them central to much of his art. Together with the other Regionalists, he carried images to people living in the large cities about a rural way of life they had never known. While he painted heroes such as the abolitionist, John Brown, Curry was really the champion of ordinary men and women who would never be either rich or famous.

THINGS TO DO

* In order for students to develop a clear understanding of American Regionalism, they need to become familiar with as many examples as possible. The first goal is to become familiar with the appearance of Regionalist paintings so students can recognize them at a glance. A second goal is to see enough Regionalist artworks that students can identify the individual styles and choices of subject matter of the better-known painters.

The next task would be to list the ways in which the paintings of Curry, Wood and Benton are different from each other. The final step would be to select paintings they liked best when compared with other Regionalist artists and defend their opinions. They might also compare the preferred painting with others by the same artist.

* Storm clouds have easily identifiable shapes and if students hope to include storms in their work, they need to study these cloud shapes. Only then will viewers find them convincing so that they contribute to the drama of a picture.

Photographs in books on weather may be useful for showing the different forms of clouds, and it is known that Curry made good use of photographs. But some of the most useful renderings of clouds are to be found in reproductions of work by artists dating back to the great period of Dutch landscape painting in the 17th century. In particular, Curry admired the dramatic storm clouds painted by the English artist, John Constable and by the American, George Innes. By studying artworks by great artists, students can learn how best to incorporate storm clouds in their own work.

* Students often find difficulty in showing people successfully, especially when they are supposed to be moving quickly, as in this picture.

One way of improving is to copy figures present in an artist's work, although some less-confident students might use tracing paper to help them. Not only is it important to get the actions right, students need to find out how to make figures look solid. In this painting, strong sunlight shines on the bodies from one side, which puts the other sides in shadow.