Comments on: John Sloan http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/ Wed, 3 Dec 2008 21:44:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Liz http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/#comment-500546 Liz Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:21:03 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/#comment-500546 Wow, what a great post! I love the second painting in the lineup; he really captured the vibrant-yet-muted colors of trees in the rain. Wow, what a great post! I love the second painting in the lineup; he really captured the vibrant-yet-muted colors of trees in the rain.

]]> By: Brian L. http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/#comment-500386 Brian L. Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:37:55 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/#comment-500386 For those interested, the Detroit Institute of Arts has quite a few Sloan etchings (as well as Martin Lewis and George Bellows) on display as part of its fantastic exhibit "Give it a Rest: People at Play in American Prints and Drawings, 1890–1945", through August 3. For those interested, the Detroit Institute of Arts has quite a few Sloan etchings (as well as Martin Lewis and George Bellows) on display as part of its fantastic exhibit “Give it a Rest: People at Play in American Prints and Drawings, 1890–1945″, through August 3.

]]> By: Daniel van Benthuysen http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/#comment-500296 Daniel van Benthuysen Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:04:34 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/07/12/john-sloan/#comment-500296 As someone who worked in a newspaper art department for 29 years it's fascinating to me how many of these ashcan artists did the same. Reginald Marsh was another: He worked at the Daily News in NYC and later contributed drawings to the New Yorker. But where many artists continue to grow and evolve as they age (Andrew Wyeth continues to surprise even at ninety or so) Sloan disappoints at the end of his career. His nudes in particular get seriously weird in the last 5 to ten years of his life while he experimented with a linear style of painting that made the women look as if they'd been grilled on the barbecue. (See "Looking out at Washington Square" in the Smart Show for example.) It's as though at the end he jettisoned his own advice about drawing and tried to adopt the Hawthorne approach. But for him it didn't work. The rendering got clunky, self-conscious and distracting and the color didn't save it. Nonetheless, he created so many of the most iconic images of early 20th century America in his early and mid-career. Thanks for a great post and some panoramic art context, Charley. As someone who worked in a newspaper art department for 29 years it’s fascinating to me how many of these ashcan artists did the same. Reginald Marsh was another: He worked at the Daily News in NYC and later contributed drawings to the New Yorker.

But where many artists continue to grow and evolve as they age (Andrew Wyeth continues to surprise even at ninety or so) Sloan disappoints at the end of his career. His nudes in particular get seriously weird in the last 5 to ten years of his life while he experimented with a linear style of painting that made the women look as if they’d been grilled on the barbecue. (See “Looking out at Washington Square” in the Smart Show for example.)

It’s as though at the end he jettisoned his own advice about drawing and tried to adopt the Hawthorne approach. But for him it didn’t work. The rendering got clunky, self-conscious and distracting and the color didn’t save it.

Nonetheless, he created so many of the most iconic images of early 20th century America in his early and mid-career. Thanks for a great post and some panoramic art context, Charley.

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