Struggling to create an identity distinct from the European tradition
but lacking an established system of support, early painting in America
received little cultural acceptance in its own country or abroad. Yet
despite the initial indifference with which it was first met, American
art flourished against the odds and founded the aesthetic consciousness
that we equate with American art today.
In this exhilarating study David Rosand shows how early American
painters transformed themselves from provincial followers of the
established traditions of Europe into some of the most innovative and
influential artists in the world. Moving beyond simple descriptions of
what distinguishes American art from other movements and forms, The
Invention of Painting in America explores not only the status of
artists and their personal relationship to their work but also the
larger dialogue between the artist and society. Rosand looks to the
intensely studied portraits of America's early painters--especially
Copley and Eakins and the landscapes of Homer and Inness, among
others--each of whom grappled with conflicting cultural attitudes and
different expressive styles in order to reinvent the art of painting. He
discusses the work of Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, and
Motherwell and the subjects and themes that engaged them. While our
current understanding of America's place in art is largely based on the
astonishing success of a handful of mid-twentieth-century painters,
Rosand unearths the historical and artistic conditions that both shaped
and inspired the phenomenon of Abstract Expressionism.
