Page "Visual art of the United States" Paragraph 49

Controversy soon became a way of life for American artists.

In fact, much of American painting and sculpture since 1900 has been a series of revolts against tradition.

" To hell with the artistic values ," announced Robert Henri ( 1865 – 1929 ).

He was the leader of what critics called the Ashcan school of painting, after the group's portrayals of the squalid aspects of city life.

American realism became the new direction for American visual artists at the turn of the 20th century.

The Ashcan painters George Bellows, Everett Shinn, George Benjamin Luks, William Glackens, and John Sloan were among those who developed socially conscious imagery in their works.

The photographer Alfred Steiglitz ( 1864 – 1946 ) led the Photo-Secession movement, which created pathways for photography as an emerging art form.

Soon the Ashcan school artists gave way to modernists arriving from Europe — the cubists and abstract painters promoted by Stieglitz at his 291 Gallery in New York City.

John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Henry Maurer, Arthur B. Carles, Arthur Dove, Henrietta Shore, Stuart Davis, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Morgan Russell, Patrick Henry Bruce, Andrew Dasburg, Georgia O ' Keeffe, and Gerald Murphy were some important early American modernist painters.

Early modernist sculptors in America include William Zorach, Elie Nadelman, and Paul Manship.