Provocative, engaged, and passionate, these five North American painters have offered a sharp and realistic analysis of American society.
Today, we invite you to discover women and men who, years after their existence, continue to embody through their works subjects that remain as relevant and impactful as ever.
Obviously, this non-exhaustive list is just a glimpse of current and past American talents, and our teams would be delighted to receive your recommendations for a future article.
Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967)
The least that can be said is that Edward Hopper‘s universe is not the happiest. Often described as melancholic, voyeuristic, solitary, his works breathe solitude and perfectly convey the feeling of boredom. The themes addressed by Hopper are vast, often reflecting the everyday life of Americans of his time. Attached to details, the painter focuses on realism by depicting advertising signs, gas stations, motels… it is impossible to look at his paintings (Nighthawks or Automat, for example) and feel anywhere other than in the United States.
His battleground: depicting the life of the middle class, undergoing significant changes during the first half of the 20th century. The economic crisis of the 1930s or “The Great Depression,” the modernization of society, the allure of big cities… In his work, these moments seem frozen in time.
Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978)
A lover of drawing since his early years, Rockwell illustrated his first book at the age of 16. In 1935, his artistic career took a strategic turn when he decided to illustrate two iconic novels by Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Known for his attention to detail and the realism of his drawings and paintings, Rockwell began a series of four paintings in 1942 that would become the most famous of his career. These paintings, called “The Four Freedoms,” visualize the speech of the then-president, Franklin Roosevelt, representing freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In total, he illustrated more than 100 covers for Saturday Evening Post magazine, including his famous and whimsical Triple Self-Portrait in 1960.
Thanks to his fame, the painter began working for Look magazine in 1964 and created his most politically engaged works, including “The Problem We All Live With.” Created during the segregationist period, this illustration depicts Ruby Bridges, a black girl attending a New Orleans school exclusively for white children. Rockwell’s paintings perfectly embody his time, and his work is still associated with major events he witnessed (the civil rights movement, the Great Depression, World War II, etc.).
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Niki de Saint Phalle (1930 – 2002)
A free spirit and self-taught artist, Niki de Saint Phalle came from the Franco-American upper class. Interned in a psychiatric hospital at 23, she discovered art and began painting in 1952. Educated in an anti-racist context, she dedicated a series of sculptures called Black Heroes to black personalities insufficiently recognized.
Impressive, Saint Phalle’s Nanas allow her to celebrate women and their “grandiose madness” but also to detach herself from the world of the art market and address the difficulty for a woman to assert herself in a male-dominated world. Sometimes interpreted as light and joyful, her sculptures and paintings convey her own inner violence and the violence around her. Her “rifle-shot paintings” Tirs propelled her to international artist status in 1961. This series of paintings allowed the artist to express her revolt against the society of the time (Algerian War, Hiroshima…).
Involved in the fight against AIDS, Niki de Saint Phalle co-edited a book titled “AIDS is Easy to Avoid” in 1987. The profits made from the sale of 70,000 copies were directly donated to the AIDS association.
Keith Haring (1958 – 1990)
We know that you have already seen the iconic characters created by Keith Haring, but do you really know the story of this artist? Raised in a strict and conservative family, young Keith developed a passion for drawing at an early age. Inspired by the alternative culture of the 1980s, he realized in New York that art could be created outside of galleries and museums. Streets, subway stations, warehouses, gay bar restrooms—nothing stopped the creativity of the young man, resulting in several arrests for vandalism.
Firmly committed, he did not hesitate to denounce racism, apartheid, homophobia, police violence, and nuclear issues in his works. In response to the drug epidemic hitting New York, he created the unauthorized mural Crack is Wack in 1986, a mural that would later be protected and even restored in 2007. The artist learned in 1988 that he was HIV-positive and dedicated the last years of his life to this cause, making it more visible to the public. He established his foundation a year later and died at the age of 31 in 1990.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988)
A precocious child from the Brooklyn bourgeoisie, Jean-Michel Basquiat began tagging near Manhattan’s art galleries in 1976 with mysterious, provocative, and sarcastic messages under the pseudonym SAMO (Same Old Shit).
Describing his art as a mix of “80% anger and 20% mystery,” he quickly devoted his energy to creating unique and powerful works, denouncing racism and the inequalities suffered by black people in the United States. Proudly advocating his Creole identity, he highlighted in his paintings and tags iconic black figures such as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, or Malcolm X.
The young artist dies at the peak of his glory at the age of 27 and will forever mark contemporary art with the power of his approximately 800 paintings (created in just 7 years), which sadly remain relevant today.
Bonus: Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987)
How could we conclude this list without mentioning the “king of Pop Art”? Inspired by everyday life, Andy Warhol began his first series of silkscreens on American stars with the famous portrait of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 and Elvis Presley the same year. Witness to the post-war era and a society of rampant consumerism, he cast a not critical but curious and questioning gaze on consumer society and the role of the object in art. Warhol liked to highlight the material everyday life of Americans, such as Campbell’s soups, Brillo boxes, Green Coca-Cola bottles… The repetition of models symbolizes supermarket shelves.
In 1967, he created “Death and Disasters” and signed “Big Electric Chair.” In the context of controversy surrounding the issue of the death penalty in America, Warhol chose to represent electric chairs in a frontal, raw, and simple manner, reinforcing their impact. The use of red color is not without evoking a certain violence that shocks the viewer.
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