The Shaping of Art and Architecture in Nineteenth-Century America

Clark, Robert J., et al. (1972)

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In conjunction with its centennial exhibitions "Nineteenth-Century America" and "The Rise of an American Architecture," the Metropolitan Museum was host in May 1970 to a four-day gathering of scholars, historians, critics, and collectors. This was the first formal exchange of ideas about nineteenth-century American art by such a group. Twenty years ago, these exhibitions, much less this symposium, could hardly have taken place. Unfashionable American paintings for years remained in the storerooms and basements of museums; many buildings and interiors of the nineteenth century were condemned to demolition or consigned to the rubbish heap. But we have finally become interested in our heritage and concerned enough to hold a meeting such as this one. We hope the ideas generated here helped to give impetus to the movement to preserve what is left of nineteenth-century America.

The eleven papers in this volume, the core of the symposium, throw new lights on our art and architecture. For example, the interaction between American and European art and architecture during the nineteenth century was reviewed and proved to be much more complicated than was thought before; and some new principles for art history, in which style was related to political, social, and philosphical movements, presented us with a particularly challenging problem. Perhaps ideas such as these will lead to more research, more knowledge, and ultimately acquaint more Americans with the charms of this enormously imaginative and lively period.

Table of contents

Directions in the Study of American Painting
James Thomas Flexner

Influences and Affinities: The Interplay between America and Europe in Landscape Painting before 1860
Barbara Novak

American Neoclassic Sculpture
William H. Gerdts

Foreign Influences in American Painting and Architecture after 1860
Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Stylistic Interplay between Central Europe and America: Architecture and Painting from 1860 to 1914
R. J. Clark

The Interplay between American and Japanese Art
Benjamin Rowland, Jr.

American Art and the Urban Fair
Alfred Frankenstein

How a Few Artists Wormed Their Way in the Course of a Century into the Confidence of a Small Percentage of Their Compatriots
Russell Lynes

The Nineteenth-Century Artist and His Posthumous Public
Stuart P. Feld

Design and Chaos: Some Heretical Conjectures about the Artist and the Public in America
John A. Kouwenhoven

Taste and Ideology: Principles for a New American Art History
Alan Gowans

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Authors: Robert Judson Clark

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