A painting by American Ashcan artist Robert Henri shows his use of a simple black background and detailed shading. Image provided.

By Darla McCammon
and DeeAnna Muraski
Guest Columnists

WARSAW — When you think about your life and the transitions that have impacted it — a move here, someone you care about moving away, a decision made — and how those changes affected the formation of your life, it becomes easier to see how similar changes and adjustments have impacted the art in America.

America experienced many dramatic, impactful changes, and we are still reeling from fallout. The Civil War (1861-1865) required social and emotional healing that is still being felt. That was followed by the Spanish-American War, World War I, the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and World War II in the ’40s. Each event was a dramatic, life-crushing blow. America was trying to survive, find its identity, yet still be influenced by the European art scene.

Although this was a dark, dismal period in history, there was a sliver of light in 1935. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Federal Art Program. Artists could apply for and receive a monthly stipend for their art, which would then be owned by the government (us, the public) to display in public areas. This resulted in more than 100,000 paintings and thousands of sculptures and murals throughout the United States.

America was slowly climbing out of the hole and making its own mark. Because of the occupation of Paris by German dictator Adolf Hitler’s armies, Paris was no longer the undisputed art capital of the world. Hitler, an artist himself, had banned all modern art sentimentalities, thus, causing artists of this vernacular to look toward America as a modern mecca. This eventually also led to the Ashcan Art school, which strove to create art in its raw form, depicting life in America essentially without our makeup on.

One of those instrumental American Ashcan artists was Robert Henri. He was the guiding force behind eight artistic colleagues who created and established the Ashcan Art. Of those eight, Everett Shinn was the last of those eight to die in 1953. They sought realism in their paintings and did not want to sensationalize with rowdy scenes but rather the genteel everyday life they were experiencing. Essentially, they were trying to focus on the good they saw since they had all been through so much darkness. On the image provided of actress and Ziegfield dancer Jessica Penn, painted by Henri, he broke from bold distracting backgrounds to a simple black and included ruffles of bright white and bold blues. The shading is exquisite on the dark blue dress and folds indicating a light source from the left disappearing into the right. Not as apparent are the bold distinctive brushstrokes, which were a hallmark of this movement.

We will continue this series on those artists who were instrumental in helping America transition through the dark and changing times in our culture to movements that created hope.

Darla McCammon is an artist, columnist and author. DeeAnna Muraski is executive director of Operation Read USA Inc.