ORIGINAL PRE-WAR MODERN AMERICANART FOR SALE

Early 20th century Pre War Art in American found its first major introduction to the United States, with the Armory Show of 1913 and through the many European Modernists fleeing World War I who made America their home.

Around the turn of the 20th century, artists began to rebel against the popular and sometimes more traditional art movements of the day such as (the once radical) Impressionism as well as Luminism, Tonalism, Academic Realism and others. The Ashcan School, a group of Social Realists led by Robert Henri sought to portray the “truths” about modern urban life, that they asserted was being ignored by the “suffocating influence” of the more tradition academicians working in the visual arts. “The Eight” as they later called themselves, began forming their own exhibitions, in opposition to the prevailing institutional system of juried exhibitions held by the conservative “old guard” in control of the National Academy of Design in New York. Another realist modern art movement of the 1930’ – 40’s, American Regionalism, depicted stylized scenes of rural and small-town America - primarily of the Midwest and Deep South. While the American Regionalist artists associated with the movement rejected the styles and theories of modernism, American Regionalism is considered an American realist modern art movement today. The phrase “American Scene" is an umbrella term for both “American Regionalism” and “Social Realism”, but its specific boundaries remain ambiguous.

Major participants of Social Realism and American Regionalism include Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks, William J. Glackens, George Bellows Edward Hopper, Gifford Beal, Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Norman Rockwell. 

Key figures associated with early Modern American art that explored the intersection between abstraction and representation in their works include Alfred Stieglitz, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Konrad Cramer and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Early proponents of pure abstraction in America, working prior to World War II include Rolph Scarlett, Alice Mason, Jean Xceron, Alexander Calder, Burgoyne Diller, Theodore Roszak, Ezio Martinelli, Isamu Noguchi, John Ferren, Irene Rice Pereira, Suzy Frelinghuysen, George L.K. Morris, A.E. Gallatin, Balcomb and Gertrude Greene, Harry Holtzman, , Charles Green Shaw, and others

Associated Movements include Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Pointillism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Social Realism, American Scene painters, American Regionalism, Magic Realism, Futurism, Non-objective art, and others.

The potential for art aficionados to discover relatively undervalued and/or under-appreciated artists amongst the ones working in America in the first half of the 20th century may present discerning collectors with great acquisition opportunities. With historic sales like the Barney A. Ebsworth Collection of American art selling at Christie’s in New York for $317,801,250 including thirteen world auction records, (many for artists of this period) collectors are taking note. The Ebsworth collection sale included the most expensive work of pre-war American art ever sold at auction “with Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey, which sold for $91,875,000 (including buyer’s premium).” Numerous other up-and-coming early American modern artists achieved world record prices at the sale. Some of the artists at the sale who might fall into the under-appreciated category include Andrew Dasburg, Jan Matulka, Jean Xceron, James Brooks, Esphyr Slobodkina, Rolph Scarlett, Theodore Roszak, Alice Mason, Byrone Browne and others.