It Was a New Century

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Most of us alive today have little or no memory of the life and spirit of urban life in America at the beginning of the 20th century, which is why a major university’s art gallery is using art to bring those times back.

Yale University’s Art Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition that seeks to illustrate the life and times of America during one of its most incredible periods of modern development. “It Was a New Century: Reflections on Modern America” opened on December 23, 2016 and continues through June 4.

George Bellows, “A Stag at Sharkey’s,” 1917, lithograph, (c) Private Collection
George Bellows, “A Stag at Sharkey’s,” 1917, lithograph, (c) Private Collection

Drawn largely from a private collection, the show features some 60 paintings, prints, watercolors, and drawings by many of America’s most iconic artists. Among the masters included in the show are George Bellows, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Walt Kuhn, Maurice Prendergast, and Everett Shinn.

Maurice Prendergast, “Piazza of St. Marks,” circa 1898-1899, watercolor and pencil on paper, (c) Private Collection
Maurice Prendergast, “Piazza of St. Marks,” circa 1898-1899, watercolor and pencil on paper, (c) Private Collection

The gallery reports, “[the artists] depicted a wide range of popular themes, from the gritty to the glamorous: busy street scenes in working-class neighborhoods; boxers doing battle in private clubs; patriotic flags lining New York’s Fifth Avenue; performers donning costumes and face paint; and sunny retreats for the wealthy, from Shinnecock, Long Island, to Venice. Taken together, these exceptional works present a compelling panorama of a new, modern America.”

To learn more, visit the Yale University Art Gallery.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.


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Andrew Webster is the former Editor of Fine Art Today and worked as an editorial and creative marketing assistant for Streamline Publishing. Andrew graduated from The University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.A. in Art History and Ceramics. He then moved on to the University of Oregon, where he completed an M.A. in Art History. Studying under scholar Kathleen Nicholson, he completed a thesis project that investigated the peculiar practice of embedded self-portraiture within Christian imagery during the 15th and early 16th centuries in Italy.

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