The theme of the March meeting of the Art Appreciation Group 2 was America Through the Eyes of American Artists. Members of the Group went for the eclectic in the individual artists and artworks they chose for this theme, featuring photographs, installations, paintings, an earthwork, quilt and mural.
 
Some were more familiar names, Norman Rockwell, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe, Grandma Moses and of course the painter of the iconic American Gothic, Grant Wood. Others were far from well know, none more so than native American Wendy Red Star with her intriguing Last Supper styled self-portrait. Charles Sheeler once studied with the leading artist and teacher William Merritt Chase who had introduced European styles to the New York Art Scene. Stuart Davis was also influenced by European art.
 
But rather than copying European contemporaries, American artists created their own, often vibrant styles, seen in the vivid murals of Thomas Hart Benson and the story-telling quilts of Faith Ringgold. George Bellows captured the drama and energy of New York streets and Robert Smithson created an extraordinary earthwork on the shore of the Great Salt Lake.
 
We had to include a picture by the great Edward Hopper and there are similarities to Hopper’s intriguing paintings in the extraordinary photographic works by Gregory Crewdson, a curve ball thrown into the session.