American Art 1900–1950

On View: East Building, Ground Level

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38 artworks on view.

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This painting depicts a rural landscape with exaggerated rolling hills crossed by a curving road. On the left is a tall gray telephone pole, and on the right is a white house. Another small gray house is visible on the highest hill in the center of the painting. The sky is blue with curving white clouds. The hills are primarily tan and yellow, with lumpy green shapes suggesting bushes or hedges, and some areas of gray road.

Martha's Vineyard

Thomas Hart Benton

c. 1925

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2016.22.20

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
This painting depicts a lively gathering of people in a vibrant outdoor setting. People wearing colorful clothing in shades of orange, teal, pink, white, and purple stroll across the green grass or sit on a blue bench in the bottom right corner. Tall trees with green leaves line the edge of the park, and beyond them small sailboats sit atop bright blue water. Dark gray rocks surround another grassy island or strip of land visible across the water on the right side, and more gray rocks are visible in the distance on the left. A small green kayak or canoe appears to navigate the water near the edge of the park. The painting was created using short, thick brushstrokes of bright colors inside of thin brown outlines, obscuring fine details and giving the appearance of a mosaic.

Salem Cove

Maurice Prendergast

c. 1915/1918

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1985.64.33

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
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From an elevated perspective, we look slightly down on a tan tepee and two shed-like structures on sandy ground overlooking a glistening sea in this almost square, loosely painted landscape. In the left third of the composition, the tall, pyramidal tepee has thin, dark brown horizontal stripes that divide the sides facing us into sections with blended bands of sage green, pale blue, pink, and mustard yellow. A window in the side of the tepee opens onto unidentifiable brown and cream-white shapes, perhaps objects on a table. One shed is near the tepee and the other is near the right edge of the canvas. Openings and awnings in both face each other. Two people inside the left-hand shed have brown skin, black hair, and wear pink or blue. Beyond the structures, the sandy ground gives way to grassy dunes painted with visible strokes of emerald and avocado green. A sailboat floats on the sparkling, topaz-blue water, which reaches back to the horizon. In the top fifth of the painting, the sun lights a bank of clouds to cream white and pale peach. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “Lois M. Jones '40.”

Indian Shops, Gay Head, Massachusetts

Lois Mailou Jones

1940

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.212

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
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Waterfront - New York

John R. Grabach

c. 1923

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.68

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
This painting shows a crowded scene filled with people dancing. Several couples are visible, all facing different directions, their arms around each other. The people are painted with thick lines in bright colors, with skin in shades of tan, brown, pink, and red. On the left side is a couple wearing yellow, and on the right is a couple wearing bright green. In the back are two more couples, including one woman wearing a red dress and another wearing a white dress. The hair of the women is painted in thick swirls of brown, yellow, red, and green. The floor beneath the couples appears to be a checkerboard of red and yellow, while the wall behind them is made of vertical stripes of yellow and white.

Sophomore Society

David Park

c. 1953

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.139

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
A hilly terrain with ridges, bushes, trees, and rocks outlined in dark brown and filled in with earthy tan and pecan brown, goldenrod yellow, and moss and emerald green almost fills this nearly square, stylized landscape painting. Framing the scene is a steel-gray, broken tree trunk to our left and a small grove of leafless bushes, with vertical, nearly straight branches to our right. Another grove of tightly spaced tree trunks is clustered near a smoky, plum-purple ridge at the back center, and a touch of clear blue toward the lower right corner suggests a winding stream. A narrow band of sapphire-blue sky along the top edge of the canvas is streaked with white clouds painted with long swipes of the brush. The artist signed the work in the lower left corner, “Hale Woodruff.”

Landscape

Hale Woodruff

1936

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2014.136.160

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106

Sleeping Calf

Grace H. Turnbull

1944

Kingwood sandstone  Accession ID  2015.19.3722

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
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Grey Tree By the Road

Georgia O'Keeffe

1952

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.184

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106

North Carolina Landscape

Theodoros Stamos

1950

Oil on masonite  Accession ID  2009.123.1

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
A brown-skinned man stands on a beach among poles driven into the sand, near a line of six rowboats pulled onto the shore near a slate-blue body of water in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted in some areas so brushstrokes are visible, especially in the landscape. The man stands to our left, facing away from us with his head bowed. He has broad shoulders, muscled arms, and a narrow waist. His left arm is bent so that hand tucks into the waistband of his olive-green pants. His right elbow is bent so his body obscures his hand. He wears a white, sleeveless undershirt tucked into his pants. Wind blows the wide cuffs of his pants to our right. Seventeen gray, irregularly spaced poles, at least half again as tall as the man, stand upright around the man and along the beach. Pink ribbons hang between the poles, connecting many of them. The six rowboats sit in a line to our right, with the far end of the boats slightly tipped up so we can look down into them. The beach is made of rough mounds of peach and caramel-brown sand, with oyster-white rocks casting dark shadows. Beyond the shore, the flat surface of the water stretches to the horizon, which comes just over halfway up the composition. Horizontal strokes of flint-gray along the right half of the horizon could be distant hills or land. The sky above is streaked with dove gray against slate blue, with a few touches of pale, butter yellow. The scene is lit low from our left, highlighting the white stones, the man’s white shirt, and the front ends of the rowboats. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right: “Lee-Smith ‘57.”

Reflection

Hughie Lee-Smith

1957

Oil on particle board  Accession ID  2015.19.207

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
This painting features a large group of people sitting closely together and facing the left, primarily shown from the waist up. The people all appear to have light skin, although some are in shadow, and they have a variety of facial expressions and clothing styles, with many individuals wearing hats. The people appear serene, and some have their mouths open as if they were speaking or singing. The group is a mix of men, women, and children, some holding open books. They are dressed in shades of white, brown, light pink, and yellow. The background appears to show architectural elements, including red and brown walls and blue areas which could be windows. The brushstrokes of the painting are thick and visible, especially in the background and on the clothes of the people.

Polish Church: Easter Morning

Theresa Bernstein

1916

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2018.146.2

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106

Water-Flow Monitoring Installations on the Rio Grande Near Presidio, TX

Rackstraw Downes

2002 - 2003

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2024.94.29

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106

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