American Landscapes

Through suffering, comes a new consciousness in man. America has been a haven for unity and freedom for decades. To achieve this requires much loss and pain. The strive of the American culture for the attainment of such social luxuries is of great courage, will-power, faith and pride. During a time when the first World War had ended and the country was in a state of isolation, there were people within its borders that had an undying belief in what this country stood for. Though often overlooked and underappreciated in their time, artists had an advantage of using the suffering of the country and its industrial growth as a concentration for their bodies of work.

As the kinks of war were being worked out, and people were learning to move on with their lives, a woman by the name of Georgia O'Keefe , born in the rural countryside of Wisconsin was a teacher of art from 1907-1915 specializing in Charcoals. At this time in her life she was introduced to Stieglitz by a friend in New York. Steiglitz helped her set up shows by 1916 and gave her her own exhibition the following year. This much publicity at the time for a female artist was often criticised in the public eye. O'Keefe is most well known for her close-up images of flowers. While that had been flourishing, she began to paint the skyscrapers of New York which at the time, was in itself a model of America's productivity and inventiveness. In City Night, she depicts the city from a view on the street which makes them seem ominous and overbearing. O'Keefe's interpretation was that it was the city being too confining. New York being depicted as a prison of skyscrapers. This was an interesting interpretation of American growth at the time.

Another popular focal artist of this ...

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...is was a tactic used by the Government to sow-up the financial distress of the first World War which urged farmers to push the agricultural frontier beyond its natural limits. The suffering that became of it is undoubtebly notable and many paid with their lives.

Throughout the suffering, the hardship and the pain, America continued to strive for its unities, freedoms, growth and production. Much of the documentation of American histiory in this time and its diverse emotional inlook to the American individual is solely thanks to the extordinary talents and love of these modern artists. Without the visions and sacrifices of these remarkable artists, present day America may have never known, or come to appreciate the suffering that its predecessors underwent, and the growing consciousness that the country came to see which has and will continue to change us forever.