Rethinking American Art

I don’t have the faintest idea who the audience is for this book. I just thought it would be good to write a book, so my wife and I spent the last six or seven years doing it. It was very good during COVID—everyone else was wondering how to keep busy and we were very busy and happy. I have no idea who’s going to understand it, read it, or buy it. The publisher, Godine, did such a great job. It is such a beautifully printed book. The book speaks to the canon of art. We did a survey among family and friends—college-educated people—and at least half didn’t know what “canon” meant. We considered changing the title, but I hoped they’d learn it. In most fields—literature, religion, every field—the word “canon” means the ranking figures, the standard. But in art, the canon constantly changes. Everything constantly changes—politics, nations, technology, medicine. In art, people think the great artists will always be great. It’s almost like religion. Will we ever have a period when Rembrandt isn’t admired? I love Rembrandt, but the answer is yes. Every generation sees for itself. Fashion, furniture design—everything changes. The taste in art changes with each generation.In the 1930s and ’40s, the most admired art was the School of Paris—Matisse, Picasso, Dufy. Then came America and Abstract Expressionism—Pollock, Kline, de Kooning. The U.S. became the most powerful nation, and its art became dominant. Then people wondered, what’s next? They expected figurative realism—but instead came Pop Art: Warhol, Lichtenstein painting cartoons. That outraged the previous avant-garde. They thought, “That can’t be art!”—but it was accepted. Warhol’s soup cans were laughed at—and then they were the hottest thing in the art market. Some movements are rejected and never become the canon. Pop Art became the canon.There are movements that never become canon. There’s tremendous jockeying among dealers, collectors, and artists to get their movement into the canon. People’s lives, fortunes, and fame rest on it. In the 1970s came photorealism—Richard Estes and others—it seemed dominant, but didn’t last. That happens throughout history.