Through the centuries, there have been many artistic groups and movements, said artists often coming together to protest the status quo and assert a new style of expression. Names such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, French Impressionists, Fauves, Cubists, Futurists, Vorticists and Abstract Expressionists are all recognizably collective, yet then there are those talented individuals who either due to their own declaration or the labels of others become intrinsically and numerically defined.
The One and Only James McNeill Whistler
While American expatriate James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) never officially called himself The One, in a universe of grand artistic egos, Whistler ranked high on the list. Self-directed and a master of personal invention, Whistler created James Abbott McNeill Whistler as he wished him to be and not as Fate might make him.
As a young man, Whistler left the tiresome vocation of drawing military maps to pursue an artistic career and La Vie Bohème—first in Paris and then London. Whistler imposed his occasionally valid conceit upon the world along with his lush, dreamy Nocturnes; he later sued powerful art critic John Ruskin for calling Whistler an untalented coxcomb and penned the irresistibly titled The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. Never shy or afraid of self-promotion, Whistler not only did it his way, he showed others that followed how to do the same.
The Regionalist Three: Benton, Curry and Wood
The American Regionalists of the 1930s were sometimes referred to as The Regionalist Triumvirate and therefore led by a trio of artistic forces. The Regionalists felt that Europe was too influential in the artistic universe and that avant garde movements were perverting American painting. They also complained that New York was an overly important American art capital and wanted to shift focus back to the Midwestern heartland.
With a kind of epic pseudo-realism, painters Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood respectively represented the states of Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. Their subject matter included harvesting, farming, portraits of everyday Americans, saloon politics and historical figures. While Benton later suggested that the movement was more of a gallery owner’s angle than a sincerely organic philosophy, the Regionalists did bring artistic notice to corners of the American landscape that had been undeniably snubbed before.
The Glasgow Four
The turn of the 19th century Glasgow School brought a beautifully distinct Scottish contribution to the realm of Art Nouveau, with two husband and wife couples playing particularly key roles. Known as The Four, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald, along with Frances Macdonald and Herbert McNair, excelled at Arts and Crafts, painting, design, graphics and architecture and incorporated their own native style with Art Nouveau’s rhythmic, nature-based forms.
The Four found inspiration in various sources, including Japanese prints, the above-mentioned James McNeill Whistler, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Their own work was soon noticed by Austrian admirers, and The Four was invited to exhibit at the 1900 Vienna Secession where they received international praise.
The Group of Seven
Canada’s Group of Seven painters formed in the early decades of the 20th century and showed the art world how breathtaking their country truly was. Artists Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, Alexander Young (A.Y.) Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Frederick Varley depicted different aspects of the Canadian landscape, using strong Post-Impressionist influenced strokes and rich palettes.
Tom Thomson, an early friend and artistic ally, would have broadened the Group to eight members had he not died in a mysterious canoe accident in 1917. The stunning landscapes of British Columbia-based artist Emily Carr also made her an unofficial Group affiliate.
The Ashcan Eight
Around 1896, artist and educator Robert Henri galvanized a group of men into becoming The Eight, also called the Ashcan School. Henri’s initial members were William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn and John Sloan, all Philadelphia-based newspaper artists at the time who with Henri formed the Philadelphia Five.
This quintet later added three other members—Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson and Maurice Prendergast—and thus became The Eight. Aptly, The Eight had a debut exhibit in 1908 at the Macbeth Gallery in New York, their gritty realistic style of painting causing much exciting controversy and broadening the perspective of American art.
The Ten
At odds with The Eight was a cadre of mostly New England and New York-based American Impressionist painters known as The Ten. The Ten had defected from the Society of American Artists in 1897 because they felt that the organization was no longer representing true artists in America. The Ten included Frank Weston Benton, Joseph DeCamp, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Childe Hassam, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Robert Reid, Edward Simmons, Edmund Charles Tarbell, John Henry Twachtman and J. Alden Weir. Upon Twachtman’s untimely death from an aneurysm at the age of 49, William Merritt Chase filled out The Ten’s ranks.
The Ten are occasionally regarded as static painters who kept their easels inclined toward lovely women and landscapes rather than acknowledging any of the early 20th century’s divergent art energies. However, it can also be theorized that The Ten were hoping to preserve their preferred vision of a world in flux, memorializing the pristine landscapes and subtle moments that they sensed would soon give way to more urgent and dynamic times.
Sources
- The Flowering of Art Nouveau Graphics – Julia King (Gibbs Smith Books, 1990)
- American Salons – Robert M. Crunden (Oxford University Press, 1993)
- American Visions, The Epic History of Art in America – Robert Hughes (Knopf, 1999)
