Globalization has affected the art world as much as it has the financial markets. The global economy has definitely emphasized big international art fairs and international biennials. The American Scene steps back from that approach and instead offers a much smaller view, one that addresses the concerns of a nation that is going through difficult times and that is trying to redefine itself in light of a new administration with a changed global and domestic outlook. The exhibition asks the question: How do we see ourselves? The American Scene takes a look at the United States through the eyes of artists who concentrate on that subject in their works. Subjects include the legacy of slavery and attitudes toward race, immigration, land use and development and infrastructure problems, what it means to be an American, and the notion of a shared culture and memories.
The exhibition is divided into two separate sections: “People” and “Place.” In the first are images of people in which artists examine American culture--its residents’ goodness, eccentricities, and foibles. These works range from loving portrayals of individual characters to critical commentaries of American life. Some artists portray a sense of nostalgia that looks back to an earlier time, while others address current issues with a clear and insistent voice.
The second group of works speaks to issues related to icons of the suburban landscape—tract housing and the geography of subdivisions—and to the post-industrial view, the results of industrialization and its effect on the American suburban and urban topography. The historical antecedents for this show lie in the works of such artists as John Sloan, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, Reginald Marsh, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Jacob Lawrence, Stuart Davis, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist.
In keeping with the DCCA tradition of giving emerging artists the opportunity to exhibit their works next to artists with national and international reputations, The American Scene includes the work of a number of young artists, as well as a few mid-career artists and several who have achieved national and international fame.
2009 is the 30th anniversary of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. The DCCA was created in 1979 by a group of highly idealistic artists who believed that a small industrial city on the East Coast could and should support contemporary art and artists. These artists had grown up in the shadow of the traditional Brandywine school of painting exhibited at local art institutions, the Winterthur Museum and Gardens with its collection of historical American decorative objects, a huge collection of American illustration at the Delaware Art Museum, and a powerhouse PhD art history program at the University of Delaware (UD) that concentrated on the history of American art and culture. These artists, many of whom had studied at UD and the Delaware Art Museum, believed that American art could be something more than traditional or go beyond academic styles and banded together to form an organization that would support them and their colleagues. While the DCCA does feature work by international artists, it is by and large a space that exhibits the work of American artists, both regional and national. This exhibition represents that voice, and its subject and the nature of the artists represented in it celebrates the role that the DCCA has played in the local, regional, and national community. It is an appropriate and topical exhibition for a 30th anniversary celebration.
-J. Susan Isaacs, PhD
Adjunct Curator, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
ROBERT ANDERSON • Cedar Grove, NJ
CHRIS BALLANTYNE • Brooklyn, NY
WILLIE BIRCH • New Orleans, LA
TOM BIRKNER • Lambertville, NJ
AMY CASEY • Cleveland, OH
AMZE EMMONS • Allentown, PA
EDGAR JERINS • New York, NY
TODD KEYSER • Philadelphia, PA
WHITFIELD LOVELL • New York, NY
MEAGAN SHEIN • Ann Arbor, MI
SCOTT SHERK • Orefield, PA
ROGER SHIMOMURA • Lawrence, KS
TONY SHORE • Baltimore, MD
