Movies
Artist: John Sloan (American, 1871-1951)
Date: 1913
Dimensions:
20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: 1940.16
Label Text:The seductive electric glow of a movie theater draws passersby like moths. The featured film, A Romance of the Harem, promises lurid entertainment and capitalizes on the “Orientalism” craze—Western fascination with exotic Eastern cultures. Film itself was still an exotic spectacle. Just like in the silent films of the day, the interplay of glances between the people in the painting engages the viewer and establishes drama.
John Sloan was one of a group of New York-based artists who created a particularly American style of painting: gritty urban scenes often painted with quick brushstrokes that suggest, rather than define, form. Though the group was later dubbed the “Ashcan School” for its unglamorous subjects, Sloan and his peers found a kind of beauty in the ordinary realities of city life in the first decades of the 20th century.
John Sloan was one of a group of New York-based artists who created a particularly American style of painting: gritty urban scenes often painted with quick brushstrokes that suggest, rather than define, form. Though the group was later dubbed the “Ashcan School” for its unglamorous subjects, Sloan and his peers found a kind of beauty in the ordinary realities of city life in the first decades of the 20th century.
On view
In Collection(s)