Ashcan School
A group of realist painters who worked in New York early in the twentieth century. Their subjects, drawn from everyday, mostly working-class urban life, offended prevailing expectations about the purposes of art. In the face of conventional taste for idealized, morally elevating, or pleasurable subjects, their art seemed vulgar and even dangerous. Humanists rather than revolutionaries, the Ashcan artists broke no new stylistic or technical ground in their art, nor did most espouse a radical political program. Their imagery reflected the observational realism that had been the daily practice of several who worked in journalism early in their careers, while their brushwork generally displayed a vigorous and painterly freedom based on old master precedents.... ...
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