7.6 Art Deco and Social Realism

Art Deco

reaction against Art Nouveau: replacing the latter's flowing curvilinear shapes with Cubist and Precisionist-inspired geometric forms

Tamara de Lempicka

• most recognizable painter of the Art Deco style

• The bodies of her sitters are slightly distorted so that they appear as elegant objets d'art as much as human figures.

Social Realism

• associated with interwar American art, which commented on social, economic, and political conditions prevailing during the Depression era.

• American Scene Painting - Artists turned their backs on European hypermodernism and looked for truth in specifically American imagery

• Regionalism - Midwest variant of American Scene Painting, which relied on the realistic, nostalgic setting of rural and small-town America.

Edward Hopper

• His work demonstrates that realism is not merely a literal or photographic copying of what we see, but an interpretive rendering

• Nighthawks

Grant Wood

• depict archetypal rural subjects that embodied the values of hard work, community, and austerity.

• American Gothic

Andrew Wyeth

• Christina’s World

Norman Rockwell

• famous for his illustrations of everyday life, capturing the spirit of small-town America, and patriotic depictions during World War II.

• most works were created as cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post magazine.

• Triple Self-portrait;

• Rosie the Riveter