The 'American School' in Paris: The repatriation of American art at the universal exposition of 1900.

摘要

The primary goal of the American Department of Fine Arts at the Paris exposition of 1900 was to prove the existence of an "American School" of art and its parity with the European Schools. This was a direct response to French criticism at the Parisian exposition of 1889 that American art was a "brilliant annex" to the French School. American art had looked French in 1889 because most American artists during the last quarter of the nineteenth century attended Parisian academies and emulated their masters. However, artists returning home in the 1890s, searching for a national expression, relinquished academic subjects in favor of distinctly American themes. Establishing an independent culture, in the wake of U.S. economic and military imperialism during the 1890s, appeared to be the final frontier in fulfilling the American Renaissance assumption that the United States would soon inherit the mantle of Western Civilization from a decadent France.;This dissertation examines the creation, promotion, and justification of an American School of art at the 1900 exposition, within the context of the cultural, political, and economic conditions of the 1890s, by investigating American and French literature and government documents. The first of five chapters focuses on events prior to 1900, including Franco-American exchanges at the expositions and the impact of Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Chapter two considers the preparations for the 1900 exposition, its organizational framework, and the composition of exhibitors. In the third chapter, installations of American architecture, sculpture, murals, decorative arts, and paintings are interpreted as advertisements for the United States as a self-reliant and culturally mature nation. Chapter four evaluates the paintings exhibition according to subject matter, style, and national character. The final chapter analyzes the preceding data, and evaluates American art's unprecedented success in terms of medals, purchases, and criticism, coupled with increasing French appreciation of American art and, conversely, American disenchantment with French academicism. From this material, a definition of what the critics believed constituted an American School is constructed. Finally, the 1900 exposition is assessed as a bridge to twentieth century art via subsequent expositions.