American Scene at British Museum
Exhibition of Prints from Edward Hopper to Jackson Pollock
The British Museum hosts "The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock" from April 10 to September 7, 2008.
The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock is on view at the British Museum from April 10 to September 7, 2008. The exhibition's 147 images by 74 artists describe American society from the early 1900s to 1960, a period characterized by the emergence of a distinctly American subject matter and artistic identity. Printmakers John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Josef Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock are represented in the show.
The British Museum possesses the most comprehensive collection of memorable American prints from the late 19th Century through 1960 outside the United States. The American Scene... is its first display of them in more than a quarter-century. The exhibition begins with the dawn of modernism in 1905 with works by the Ashcan School. Its poignant images chronicle the development of American printmaking and society from before the Armory Show of 1913 through the Jazz Age, Great Depression, World War Two and the 15 years after the conflagration's conclusion, culminating in the Abstract Expressionist works of Jackson Pollock.
Also included in the exposition are works on paper by George Bellows, Milton Avery, Jan Matulka, Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and others. The exhibition will tour to three additional venues across the United Kingdom after it closes at the British Museum.
