Rooms 28 e 29. The second half of the twentieth century in the United States
Photogallery
Rooms 28 and 29. The second half of the twentieth century in the United States
In the years following the Great Depression of 1939, the Roosevelt administration promoted initiatives aiming at reactivating the national economy, with a significant investment in the cultural sector. The immigration caused by the spread of dictatorships throughout Europe caused a concentration of exponents of the most diverse avant-garde tendencies to arrive in the United States, bringing exceptional levels of innovative energy. The co-existence of such heterogeneous figures gave rise to a very variegated panorama, as shown by the works on display in the rooms dedicated to art from the United States. There are allusions to Cézanne in the work of the Russian Max Weber, whereas the sculptural language of Jacques Lipchitz reflects his encounter with Picasso. The pictorial work of Charles Burchfield and Franklin Watkins is linked to the persistent traditionalism of a figurative type, while Abraham Rattner links French abstraction to American expressionism. Finally, a spirit of protest inspires the social Realism of Ben Shahn and the afro-American Jacob Lawrence, who give voice to their objections with personal languages and great communicative effectiveness.