Images that were everything
By Judith S. Gillies
Washington Post
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"Imagining America: Icons of 20th-Century American Art" looks at how art and artists helped frame Americans' views of themselves, from Georgia O'Keeffe's inspirational landscapes to Andy Warhol's pop creations.
"What we wanted to do was see if we could talk about what was unique to the American experience through our visual culture," said Jonathan Fineberg, an art historian instrumental in making the PBS special.
"Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol — everybody has heard of them. So people are on familiar ground" when these artists are featured in the film, Fineberg said. "But what we had to say about them is what is different."
Understanding the power of visual images in today's world is essential, he said. "Artists help us see the realities of the world we live in, in a way that we can't see without them."
The two-hour program, narrated by Peter Coyote, covers three themes:
