AH 318 - American Art: Art for a Democracy

(3.00 cr.)

Although American artists looked to European models for their inspiration, their art consistently reflected the complexities of American culture. In America, English aristocratic portraits were transformed into Puritan celebrations of hard-earned and therefore, well-deserved wealth; American architects responded to the practical demands of climate and materials at hand; painters of American life glorified the wilderness even as it was disappearing; the democratic process was both glorified and satirized. Examines the American response to European art as it was assimilated and transformed by American artists from the seventeenth century to the Great Depression. Same course as HS 356 . IU