1945 – 1980

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videos + essays

Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.

Alma Thomas, <em>Lunar Rendezvous—Circle of Flowers</em>
Alma Thomas, Lunar Rendezvous—Circle of Flowers

Thomas takes inspiration from both the 1969 moon landing and her backyard garden

Sari Dienes, <em>Star Circle</em>
Sari Dienes, Star Circle

A plaster cast of a manhole cover from the streets of Manhattan is a testament to this artist's experimental use of materials

Harry Fonseca, <em>Two Coyotes with Flags</em>
Harry Fonseca, Two Coyotes with Flags

Cartoonish coyotes play on Fonseca's overlapping identities as queer, American, and Indigenous.

Brummett Echohawk, <em>An Island of Redbuds on the Cimarron</em>
Brummett Echohawk, An Island of Redbuds on the Cimarron

Light and color take center stage in this soul illustration of the Oklahoma landscape where Echohawk and his family have lived for generations.

Hedda Sterne, <em>Number 3—1957</em>
Hedda Sterne, Number 3—1957

Stripes of industrial spray paint on this canvas recall the industrial city and undersides of highways

Norman Lewis, <em>Untitled</em>
Norman Lewis, Untitled

Lewis leaves behind the figure for abstracted fragments at the end of World War II

Sam Gilliam, <em>Purpled (Chasers Series)</em>
Sam Gilliam, Purpled (Chasers Series)

Sam Gilliam trespasses the distinction between painting and sculpture

Gee’s bend, quilting over generations
Gee’s bend, quilting over generations

Gee's Bend quilts challenge notions of what is — and what is not — modern art

Representing the inner self: Charles Sebree’s <i>The Mystic</i>
Representing the inner self: Charles Sebree’s The Mystic

Charles Sebree expresses his inner self in The Mystic.

Mies in Manhattan, mid-fifties modern: The Seagram Building
Mies in Manhattan, mid-fifties modern: The Seagram Building

An International Style gem on Park Avenue

Romare Bearden, <em>Three Folk Musicians</em>
Romare Bearden, Three Folk Musicians

Bearden thought about painting like music.

A modern icon: Beauford Delaney’s <i>Marian Anderson</i>
A modern icon: Beauford Delaney’s Marian Anderson

Delaney celebrates the famous opera singer Marian Anderson as a modern icon of Black excellence and civil rights