LGM Film Club, Part 423: Art Discovers America

This fascinating 1943 film, surprisingly out of MGM, is a great 10 minute introduction in the midcentury American art scene. It focuses on a few painters, some of which don’t have huge reputations today, but also include John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, and Reginald Marsh. We are in a funny time around art, where top painters have works that go for ungodly amounts of money, but there’s not even the pretension that everyday Americans would possibly care about this and so you don’t get these kinds of films today, suggesting that maybe they should. The framing is the development of America is a real, mature nation, where our young artistes don’t want to follow the next Paris thing but rather are comfortable with following an American path. I love it.

The Smithsonian’s website has a bit of the film, and it seems probably few saw it at the time, despite the intention of the film.