The American Experience Through the Artists' Eyes

Hampton Fine Art Fair July 9-12

Museums and galleries across America are exhibiting artworks that reflect the history and spirit of America.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. has put together several exhibits that focus on different ways in which artists explore the American experience.

American Icon: The U.S. Flag in Art contains works, from the 1800s to today, with a variety of artists’ interpretations of the American Flag.

A second exhibit, Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience focuses on the way in which artist have explored what it means to be an American.

A third exhibit, Iconic American Landscapes, Through Artists’ Eyes, looks at familiar landscapes, like Niagara Falls, as interpreted by a variety of artists.

A fourth exhibit, Artistic Visions of Our Nation’s Nature, looks at the way artists have been inspired by the flora and fauna across America.

Included in the exhibits are works by Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha and other artists who have embraced the American experience and chronicled what they’ve seen and felt in a variety of styles and medium.

In 1943, Roy Lichtenstein was inducted into the U.S. Army. He was stationed in England in 1944, where he saw exhibitions of Cézanne and Toulouse Lautrec in London. He bought a book on Chinese painting that he said had a profound effect on his work. Lichtenstein was able to complete his studied at Ohio State, through the G.I. Bill.

Some of his most iconic works are of American symbols: the flag, the statue of liberty and even a work to celebrate America’s Bicentennial in 1975, available at VFA.

Robert Rauschenberg was drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1943. The G.I. Bill helped pay for art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. During his travels throughout the U.S., he photographed the everyday scenes and objects that he encountered. The results are American Mix, available at VFA.

Many modern and contemporary artists, like Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol. Mel Ramos, Bob Gruen. Steven Gagnon and others, have created American Art that has a universal appeal.

We’re getting ready for the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, at the Southhampton Fairgrounds, on July 9-12. In its 20th year, the fair will celebrate America’s birthday with a 10-foot bronze sculpture of the Statue of Liberty. The sculpture is a limited bronze edition of 12 artist proofs of Féderic Auguste Bartholdi’s original plaster of The Statue of Liberty, from the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.