1940s

New York in the 40s: European Abstraction | American Originality

Southern Trained | Migration Made

Playlist: Slave Hymns | Black Spirituals

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2akCBpyyaUU3Yio2qaJs3Y?si=uDRaYzh8SnGoVtafKwkkBQ

Born into slavery in Alabama, Bill Traylor spent his life as a rural farm worker after the Thirteenth Amendment emancipation in 1865 freed him. While his 15 children moved to different areas, many migrating North, he remained in Alabama. He started working as an artist at the age of 80, in 1936, producing over 1000 works of art often by the side of the street in Montgomery County.

Art Terms
Naive Art
Outsider Art

Bill Traylor
b. Alabama 1854d. Alabama 1949

Bill Traylor, Man With Yoke, circa 1939-42

Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor," 2018

Audio at bottom.

Jacob Lawrence with a panel from the Frederick Douglass series, c. 1939.

Jacob Lawrence
b. New Jersey 1917
d. Seattle 2000

Jacon Lawrence, "The Migration Series", 1941

Jacob Lawrence, #46 Industries attempted to board their labor in quarters that were oftentimes very unhealthy. Labor camps were numerous, Migration Series, 1941

Jacob Lawrence, One Way Ticket, Migration Series, 1941

New York in the 40s: European Abstraction | American Originality

“No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Art Terms
Cubism
Dada
Abstract Art

Maya Deren
b. Ukraine 1917
d. New York 1961

Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943

Maya Deren, "Meshes of the Afternoon," 1943

"Modern Women: Barbara Hammer on Maya Deren," 2010

Arshile Gorky
b. Turkey 1904
d. Connecticut 1948

Arshile Gorky, How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life, 1944

Aaron Siskind
b. Manhattan 1903
d. Providence 1991

Aaron Siskind, [Jerome] Arizona, Gelatin Silver Print, 1949

Abstract Expressionism

"Breaking away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, the artists made monumentally scaled works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches—and in doing so, attempted to tap into universal inner sources." Stella Paul

Art Terms
New York School
Abstract Expressionism