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Art Criticism in America 1865–1880: The Early Voices of Dissent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Earl  and
Ellen Harbert
Ellen Harbert
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Extract

In his influential study, Art and Life in America, Oliver W. Larkin describes the famous Armory Show of 1913 as an ‘explosion’ in the history of American art. Few would quarrel with this view; indeed, the author's choice of the noun does no more than proper justice to the sudden and powerful impact of the Armory event upon the American public. Certainly, at least with regard to a popular audience for art ‘explosion’ is an appropriate description. Unlike the public, on the other hand, the select group of artists represented by works in the Show itself proved that they were ready for that historic moment. They had practised and created, and over the years the biographical accounts of how they prepared themselves and their art have gradually filled an important place in the larger explanation of why the ‘explosion’ went off at all.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , August 1974 , pp. 203 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Rev. ed., Rinehart, Holt, N.Y., 1960, p. 364.Google Scholar

2 The magazines and art journals used for this study were surveyed from the late 1860s until the end of the 1870s. They included: Aldine, a journal of the graphic arts which also printed a small amount of literary and musical criticism; Appleton's Journal, a semi-literary magazine which frequently carried columns devoted to art criticism; Art Journal, an American edition of the London Art Journal which dealt almost entirely with American art; Atlantic Monthly, a publication devoted to literature and criticism which printed a monthly column on art criticism; Galaxy, a magazine which from 1866 to 1872 contained an art column written by Eugene Benson: Harper's New Monthly Magazine, which frequently contained art columns; Harper's Weekly, a publication which covered a wide variety ot aesthetic topics; articles on painting appeared irregularly in issues of the 1870s.

3 Benson, Eugene, ‘The Pagan Element in France’, Galaxy, 1 (06 1866), 203–9Google Scholar; Benjamin, S. G. W., ‘Contemporary Art in France’, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 54 (03 1877), 481–503.Google Scholar

4 Benjamin, S. G. W., ‘Contemporary Art in France’, p. 481.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Benson, Eugene, ‘The Pagan Element in France’, pp. 203–9Google Scholar; McCarthy, Justin, ‘John Ruskin’. Galaxy, 13 (02 1872), 164–172Google Scholar; and Benjamin, S. G. W., ‘Contemporary Art in France’, pp. 481–503.Google Scholar

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7 ‘John Ruskin’, p. 168.Google Scholar

8 See Benson, Eugene, ‘The Pagan Element in France’, pp. 203–9Google Scholar; ‘Art’, Atlantic Monthly, 39 (February 1877), 251–2Google Scholar; Benjamin, S. G. W., ‘Fifty Years of American Art’, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 59 (07 1879), 241–257Google Scholar; ‘London Exhibition – Society of French Artists’, Art Journal, 1 (May 1875), 57–60.Google Scholar

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11 Larkin explains the political impact in this way: ‘Although the Greek War had ended a decade before Powers modeled his Slave in 1843 it was still vivid in men's minds; and Powers read that the female prisoners of the Turks had been sold in slave markets. “As there should be a moral in every work of art”, the sculptor explained, “I have given to the expression of the Greek slave what trust there could still be in a Divine Providence for a future state of existence, with utter despair for the present, mingled somewhat of scorn for all around her … It is not her person but her spirit that stands exposed.” Art and Life in America, p. 180.Google Scholar

12 ‘The Stewart Art Gallery’, Harper's Weekly, 23 (3 May 1879), 350.Google Scholar

13 See, for examples, ‘Editor's Table ’, Appleton's Journal, New Series 4 (June 1878), 577Google Scholar; ‘Editor's Table’, Appleton's Journal, New Series 4 (January 1878), 89Google Scholar; ‘Art’, Atlantic Monthly, 37 (May 1876), 629–633.Google Scholar

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17 ‘Water-Color Exhibition, New York’, pp. 92–3.Google Scholar

18 ‘Art’, Atlantic Monthly, 37 (May 1876), 629–633Google Scholar; ‘The Philadelphia Academy Exhibition’, Art Journal, 2 (July 1876), 222–3.Google Scholar

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20 ‘Progress of Photography’. Aldine, 6 (November 1873), 227.Google Scholar