LibGuides: American Art: Media

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Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas (51:04) This documentary examines American realist painter Edward Hopper's life, including testimonies from people who knew him, and by those inspired by his work, like German filmmaker Wim Wenders. From Mad Men to Blade Runner and The Simpsons, Hopper's scenes of modern American life, most notably Nighthawks, have been recreated in myriad films and TV shows, while his style has influenced the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Terrence Malick. Obsessed with the everyday, Hopper depicted all-night diners, cinemas, gas stations, hotel lobbies, and a theater, filling them with seemingly isolated and alienated figures because he believed loneliness was an inherent feature of city life. This documentary reveals the social and cultural context surrounding Hopper's work, while also exploring his independence as a painter, the many references to his work in film, and the widespread reproduction of his works.
Great Artists: Whistler (23:56) Whistler was the first great international American artist, hugely well traveled, a painter and print maker who bridged the gap between Impressionist Paris and symbolist London. He was an intelligent and original artist who radically proclaimed that art rather than documenting the visual world around us—should be experienced for its own sake. His Arrangement in Grey and Black, a portrait of Whistler’s mother, is one of the great portraits in the history of art, not least for its elusive title. Whilst his Nocturne Black and Gold, was thought so radical that Whistler had to go to court to defend it.
Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko: Icons of Abstract Expressionism (23:29) The power of color. The power of freedom. The power of an aesthetic coming into its own in post-war America. Section one of this program explores the work of the rebel painter dubbed "Jack the Dripper" by Time magazine and launched into the American imagination by Life. Archival photos and film clips of Pollock in action provide a compelling glimpse of an artistic vision that defined its own space between art and chaos. Section two traces the career of the dissident modernist born Marcus Rothkowitz, from obscurity to celebrity. Joseph Solman—89-year-old co-founder of "The Ten"—and art historian Dore Ashton shed light on the works of an artist for whom success was both a triumph and a defeat.
Realism in 20th-Century American Painting (59:04) Always a strong artistic current in the U.S., Realism has kept pace with the times, first as regionalism and Social Realism—which defined early modernism—and then reemerging as contemporary Photorealism. This program examines: • Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930), from The Art Institute of Chicago • Georgia O’Keeffe’s The White Calico Flower (1931), from the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • Reginald Marsh’s Twenty Cent Movie (1931), from the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942), from The Art Institute of Chicago • Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World (1948), from the Museum of Modern Art, New York • Richard Estes’ Ansonia (1977), from the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Series: Art of America In this three-part series, art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon journeys across America to explore themes and styles in American art from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Beginning with the early Puritans, he examines a persistent paradox in American history—an ideology rooted in God and nature, but a reality seeped in blood and the destruction of the natural world. Next up is the rise of mechanization, modernism, and Abstract Expressionism, and then Graham-Dixon takes a look at the age of capitalism and beyond, including Pop Art, a return to pantheism, and the “filthy money” versus “pure art” divide. A BBC Production. 3-part series, 50 minutes each.
Series: Native American Artists This classic six-part series, which aired on PBS during the nation’s bicentennial, examines the careers of some of the most talented Native American artists of the Southwest as they were unfolding at that time. The many examples of their work, combined with intimate glimpses of Indian cultures, make each program a valuable time capsule of an era when Native American art first began to attract the attention of the mainstream modern art community both in the U.S. and around the world. Rod McKuen narrates. 6-part series, 29 minutes each.

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Bridgeman Images: Peter Newark American Pictures