The American Renaissance is by far the biggest explosion of artist creativity the world has ever seen. Two things were needed to trigger this explosion. 1: The average person could read. 2: The average person could afford to buy color magazines. Color images in magazines finally gave the average person what royalty and nobility and the rich had monopolized since the dawn of history: art. The first country that gave the public access to color magazines on a significant scale was the United States. The most interesting part of this American Renaissance is that it will probably take historians three hundred years to figure out that something happened between the Industrial Revolution to get mankind into the Atomic Age. Only when historians start trying to figure out what happened will they have to discover that the modern era with all its Modern Art came from this explosion of artistic creativity the likes of which the world has never seen, the American Renaissance. The reason for this huge lag of about 300 years is what makes this American Renaissance of artistic creativity unique. For the first time in History it was the average man who could read and finally afford to buy books and magazines who caused and controlled this explosion of artistic creativity. Previously all “art” was in the control of Royalty, Nobility and the rich who controlled not only art but also history. With this American Renaissance the likes of royalty, nobility and the rich finally lost control of art and its creativity that they had monopolized -- but they have never lost control of history, they still monopolize history. It took History well over three hundred years to figure out that something must have happened between the Dark Ages and the Reformation. So historians came up with the word Renaissance. In the mid 1850s, well over three hundreds years after it started, history would find the word Renaissance that explained what happened. Three hundred years after the Renaissance in Italy historians finally figured out that it was this Renaissance that gave us the Reformation. This unleashing of artistic creativity that for the first time in history the average person controlled through his money ... and what he wanted to buy, read and see .. gave us the foundation for the Atomic Age and the explosion of technology ... everything we have today including all our Modern Art movements. There is absolutely nothing in Modern Art that directly or indirectly does not originate from the published images of the professional illustrators that gave us the American Renaissance. It was the professional illustrator who worked for the publishing industry who supplied the public with its intellectual and artistic needs and wants that gave us the explosion of artistic creativity the likes of which the world has never seen -- The American Renaissance. And the greatest concentration of illustrators that destiny would bring together was in New York City. Of all the illustration agencies that fed the booming publishing industry at its height the one that stands out the best is Charles E. Cooper Studio. It has no rivals. It was nothing subtle. The leading publishing houses from all over the world were forced to come to the Cooper Studio if they were going to have the images they needed to keep selling their books and magazines to their readers. Only when historians and intellectuals started to look at and compare what characters like Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo did.. only then did they finally start to realize what this Renaissance was all about. Only when History starts to fathom and compare the artistic works of the giants of American Illustration like Arthur William Brown, Alfred Charles Parker, Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle... Norman Rockwell, will they realize that the greatest explosion of artistic creativity mankind has ever seen came to us from these professional illustrators that gave the world the American Renaissance. And if there is one illustrator whose works and skills can give us some of the best clues to the unfathomable creativity and skills of these professional illustrators it might just be a Norman Adams . And perhaps the best clue a historian needs to realize that indeed this Norman Adams might just be the best benchmark we need to fathom the artistic creativity of this American Renaissance is that today he is a far far bigger unknown than was Leonardo da Vinci when history woke up to him about a hundred years ago.
Shame that the same thing happened in all the western world at the same time. Takes the 'american' out of the renaissance.
Modern art began, more or less, with the Impressionists (Monet's Impression) in France in the 19th century. It was in response to the control some French art school had over salon shows at the time. Modern art movements sort of grew from there, and all were very aware of what they were doing. The Impressionists, Cubists, Dadaist, Modernists, and so forth worked under a paradigm of creating art to be different. They were leading a revolution, and they knew it. And most of it occurred in Europe. It wasn't until the Armory show that Americans really began to grow aware of modern art and have their own spin off movements. Even then, most of the great American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries spent time abroad.
who here thinks the american renaissance began with the playboy magazine Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
