American 20th-21st Century Genre / Scene Art
(above: Theodore Wores, New Year's Day in San Francisco's Chinatown, Unknown source. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Introduction
Genre paintings are scenes from everyday life.
This section of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "American 20th-21st Century Genre Scene Art." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in TFAO's Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to these articles and essays. The date at the end of each title is the Resource Library publication date.
Following are links to valuable online resources found outside our website. Links may be to museums' articles about exhibits, plus much more topical information based on our online searches.
Following online resources is information about offline resources including museums, DVDs, and paper-printed books, journals and articles.
(above: George Benjamin Luks, Houston Street, 1907, oil on canvas mounted on masonite, 23.8 x 41.6 inches, Saint Louis Art Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Our 162 Resource Library articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art:
(above: John Baeder, John's
Diner with John's Chevelle, 2007, oil on canvas, 30 x 48 inches, photosubmission@wikimedia.org
by John Baeder. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
From other websites:
American Visions: Selections from the C. Leonard Pfeiffer Collection, an exhibit held November 22, 2013- March 24, 2014 at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. Includes teaching materials. Accessed May, 2015.
Ballad of the Farm: Then, Now, Tomorrow, an exhibit held May 13 - September 13, 2015 at the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art. Accessed December, 2015.
Dan McCleary: Every Day Sacred. Paintings, 1993-2013, an exhibit held January 14-March 7, 2015 at the USC Fisher Museum of Art. Includes press release and press coverage. Accessed May, 2015.
Forsaking All Comfort and Prosperity: Works by Maryam Safajoo is a 2022 exhibit at the Albany Museum of Art which says: "Persian-American painter Maryam Safajoo's paintings tell stories of persistent persecution that the Iranian Baha'i community has experienced since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Many of her artworks tell stories the artist, now based in the United States, has witnessed first-hand." Accessed 12/22
Jay Lynn Gomez: Domestic Scenes Reconsidered is a 2023 exhibit at the University of Richmond Museums which says: "Jay Lynn Gomez brings a captivating experience to the narratives of love, intimacy, and work through irreverence and empowerment. The artist makes visible the invisible labor of caretaking, housekeeping, and landscaping. This exhibition considers social reflection on the symbolic and material realities of the immigrant workforce and its stereotypical representations. Through intertextuality with iconic works by Hockney, Matisse, and Manet, the images speak to and about the perceptions of class, gender, and belonging intersections." Accessed 1/24
Jonas Wood is a 2019 exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art which says: "Known for his colorful and compressed depictions of the people, places, and things that populate his daily life, Los Angeles-based painter Jonas Wood creates works that bear clear traces of his biography in both form and content." Also see interview in artnet Accessed 5/19
(above: William Gropper, Automobile Industry, 1941, oil on canvas, 72 inches x 20 feet, Detroit, Michigan Post Office. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
DVD/VHS videos:
began with experimentation in Expressionism,
Cubism, and other European styles abroad. Later, while in the military,
Benton was assigned to illustrate army equipment, discovering in the process
a realistic style that finally satisfied him. Returning to civilian life,
he became a Regionalist painter, portraying Americans as down-to-earth
types who expressed their "American-ness" through their everyday
actions and their appearance." Director Ken Burns combines samples
of Benton's work and interviews with art critics, family, and friends as
well as footage of Benton himself. Produced by Ken Burns and Julie Dumphey.
(Quote from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
is the 1994 story
of California Scene Painting 1925-1950. Bockhorst, working with scores
of collectors and dozens of institutions and museums nationwide, has created
a three-part series of artistic delight and intellectual insight that features
almost 150 works of art.
TFAO does not maintain a lending library of videos or sell videos. Click here for information on how to borrow or purchase copies of VHS videos and DVDs listed in TFAO's Videos -DVD/VHS, an authoritative guide to videos in VHS and DVD format.
Go to Genre Art: 18-19th Century,
19-20th Century,
20-21st Century
Return to Topics in American Representational Art
See our Museums Explained to learn about the "inner workings" of art museums and the functions of staff members. In the exhibitions section find out how to get the most out of a museum visit. See definitions for a glossary of museum-related words used in articles.
To help you plan visits to institutions exhibiting American art when traveling see Sources of Articles Indexed by State within the United States.
Unless otherwise noted, all text and image materials relating to the above institutional source were provided by that source. Before reproducing or transmitting text or images please read Resource Library's user agreement.
Our catalogues provide many more useful resources.
American Representational Art has links to dozens of topics.
Distinguished Artists is a national registry of historic artists.
About Resource Library
Resource Library is a free online publication of nonprofit Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Since 1997, Resource Library and its predecessor Resource Library Magazine have cumulatively published online 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of identified authors, thousands of other texts not attributable to named authors, plus 24,000+ images, all providing educational and informational content related to American representational art. Texts and related images are provided almost exclusively by nonprofit art museum, gallery and art center sources.
All published materials provide educational and informational content to students, scholars, teachers and others. Most published materials relate to exhibitions. Materials may include whole exhibition gallery guides, brochures or catalogues or texts from them, perviously published magazine or journal articles, wall panels and object labels, audio tour scripts, play scripts, interviews, blogs, checklists and news releases, plus related images.
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