To be considered a serious artist in late-19th-century America, you had to have studied in a European, academic workshop, testing your brushtrokes among the masters of the continent. But art is nothing if not transformation, and almost as soon as American artists embraced the European traditions, they rebelled against it. Taking a cue from the French Impressionists who made their debut in their own private exhibition in 1874, these Americans grappled for a style that reflected the new realities of the post-war industrial American city.
It is this journey—from the European tradition of impressionism to the avant-garde movement of Modernism—that will be on display at the Smithsonian Affiliate Peoria Riverfront Museum from September 26 through January 11, 2015. Featuring works spanning from the 1880s to 1950s, the exhibition “Impressionism Into Modernism: A Paradigm Shift in American Art,” covers the Industrial Revolution, two world wars and a depression—all of which shaped the way American artists worked. “I felt that it would be interesting and appropriate to use American impressionism as a jumping off point as the story of the process of American artists embracing change,” says Kristan McKinsey, the show's curator. “It's a time where American artists are moving away from academic art traditions and looking to create an art that was original and not derivative of European art.”
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