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Picture of America: Art of the Southern Scene

TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina
March 9, 2017 – April 21, 2017

Popularized through iconic paintings by Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood during the 1930s and 1940s, the American Scene has long been considered the artistic movement of this country’s heartland. But its depictions of labor, agriculture, and rural life in the Midwest also spoke to conditions in the American South, prompting artists like John Biggers, Crawford Gillis, William Gropper, Robert Gwathmey, Margaret Law, and John McCrady to adapt the style’s intense palette, energetic brushwork, and exaggerated features to familiar subjects. Picture of America: Art of the Southern Scene considers the region’s distinct role in the development of a national aesthetic and its portrayal of Southern culture.