Genre painting was understood to be 鈥渋n abeyance,鈥 archaic, nostalgic, or no longer a meaningful category for art at the start of the twentieth century. But Edmund Tarbell and John Sloan pictured contemporary life in compositions borrowed from Johannes Vermeer and Gerrit Dou; Elizabeth Shippen Green and Norman Rockwell remade familiar genre themes and motifs for mass market magazines; the Whitney and other New York galleries staged a 1930s genre painting revival; and Jacob Lawrence, Ben Shahn and Honor茅 Sharrer staked a claim to paint听after听or听beyond听genre in the 1940s. In his new book,听Re-envisioning the Everyday, John Fagg establishes a living tradition of painting everyday life that runs right through these decades; asks what happens when we see Sloan or Lawrence as genre painters; and reflects on what genre painting was and what genres, in general, are.
John Fagg听is Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of听On the Cusp: Stephen Crane, George Bellows and Modernism听(2009) and several articles and book chapters focusing on early-twentieth-century American literature and visual art, including the prize-winning 鈥淐hamber Pots and Gibson Girls: Clutter and Matter in John Sloan鈥檚 Graphic Art鈥 (2015) and 鈥淢odernist Writing and Painting鈥 in 迟丑别听Cambridge History of American Modernism听(2023). John also curated the exhibitions听Bellows and the Body听(2016-17) and听New York City Life: John Sloan鈥檚 Prints听(2018) at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and has听contributed catalogue essays to exhibitions on Doris Lee, John Sloan, American printmaking (at the NGA), and听Portraying American Workers听(at the NPG), as well as for听Ben Shahn: On Nonconformity, currently at the Reina Sof铆a. With Gordon Hutner he is co-editing a forthcoming Special Issue of听American Literary History听titled 鈥淯npublished America.鈥
Organised by Professor David Peters Corbett (The Courtauld) as part of the Centre for American Art Series.听
The Centre for American Art is supported by 迟丑别听Terra听Foundation听for American Art
