Gashes in the land and a scarecrow crucifix speak to the environmental crisis of the Dust Bowl
Social Realism
A dream-like flooded landscape—does is suggest bleakness or hope?
Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape
Woodruff reimagines racist tropes of Black banjo players with a figure who is confident and joyful
Hale Woodruff, The Banjo Player
This swaying juke joint belies its purpose as a central meeting place enlivened by music and dance in many African American communities.
Vertis Hayes, Juke Joint
Ben Shahn's painting asks: Who belongs in the art world?
Ben Shahn, Contemporary American Sculpture
A horrifying painting of racial violence that can help us see where we are and where we need to be in terms of tolerance and empathy
Vertis Hayes, The Lynchers
Contemporary artist discusses Horace Pippin as a so-called "outsider" artist and the importance of his perspective into every-day American life
Josiah McElheny on Horace Pippin
A black painter confronts white supremacy amidst the two world wars.
Horace Pippin, Mr. Prejudice
Finding beauty in American industry
Elsie Driggs, Blast Furnaces
An explosion in a mine kills 111, Shahn captures the devastation of those left behind.
Ben Shahn, Miners’ Wives
According to the artist (Reginald Marsh), at Coney Island, “The best show is the people themselves.”
Reginald Marsh, Wooden Horses
During World War II, racism flourished the United States even as the war effort sought to bring people together.
Romare Bearden, Factory Workers
Geller captures the tensions of the Jewish immigrant experience in the early 20th-century United States.
Todros Geller, Strange Worlds
Wood infuses a famous folktale about George Washington with theatricality, humor, and a Gilbert Stuart sample.
Grant Wood, Parson Weems’ Fable
Representing women who entered the workforce during WWII, Rosie is strong, determined, and eating a ham sandwich.
Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter
Though often thought of as a simple image of American values, this painting resists easy interpretation.
Grant Wood, American Gothic
Shahn makes an not-so-subtle comparison between Christ and two Italians executed for a crime they didn’t commit.
Ben Shahn, The Passion of Sacco and ...
Lawrence carefully documents the migration of African Americans from the agricultural South to the industrial North.
Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series
Hopper gives us a window into the urban isolation and anxiety of WWII-era New York.
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