Americana art isn’t just about patriotic flags and prints of Uncle Sam. It is a unique slice of the American experience. The term is used to categorize many different images that reflect the charm and nostalgia of America’s past. It evokes a sense of patriotism and reflects the history, traditions, folklore, artifacts and culture of the United States.
Well known are the paintings and illustrations of rural life and street life, farms and factories, workers and families by artists such as Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper and Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses.
Though many artworks can be labeled Americana, its most original form is traditional folk art. Many paintings were executed by self-taught artists who would paint family portraits, scenes of the rural landscape, or still-life paintings of everyday utilitarian ware.
This collection includes an array of current exhibitions, sculptures and paintings that span back to the 19th century. Subjects range from U.S. presidents and the Civil War to Hudson River landscapes and birds of America—a mix as diverse as America itself.
Watch the special NYC-ARTS Presidents Day episode for more.
American Identities: A New Look
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn
Ongoing
This major installation of more than 350 objects from the Brooklyn Museum's premier collection of American art integrates a vast array of fine and decorative arts (silver, furniture, ceramics, and ...
American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe
Whitney Museum of American Art
Manhattan
Ongoing
"American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe" showcases the Whitney’s deep holdings of artwork from the first half of the 20th century by the 18 leading artists. Organized as one- and ...
Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior Revealed
American Folk Art Museum
Manhattan
Thu, Jan 24, 2013 - Sun, May 26, 2013
Organized by the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, this exhibition includes more than 40 oil paintings spanning William Matthew Prior’s career from 1824 to 1856. Through his pragmatic marketing ...
…As Apple Pie
Whitney Museum of American Art
Manhattan
Thu, Aug 23, 2012 - Sun, Jun 09, 2013
Images, like words, can trigger a cultural or emotional response to a shared national ethos. Artists have employed images—sometimes straightforwardly, often obliquely—in order to comment on a country, its people, ...
Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Ongoing
The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns some 50 sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), the American Beaux-Arts sculptor who worked in New York, Paris, and Cornish, New Hampshire.
Audubon: National Treasures—Birds of Winter for The Birds of America (1827–38)
New-York Historical Society
Manhattan
Mon, Jan 07, 2013 - Mon, Mar 04, 2013
Looking at these four watercolors you are enjoying an experience similar to that of John James Audubon’s (1785–1851) original subscribers to The Birds of America (1827-38).
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The Civil War and American Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Mon, May 27, 2013 - Mon, Sep 02, 2013
This major loan exhibition considers how American artists responded to the Civil War and its aftermath. Landscapes and genre scenes—more than traditional history paintings—captured the war's impact on the American ...
Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions
Seaport Museum New York
Manhattan
Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 12:00 pm - Sun, Oct 07, 2012, 6:00 pm
The exhibition “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions,” organized by the American Folk Art Museum, encompasses the rich history of New York City’s harbor activities and urban environment. Through lively ...
Currier & Ives and Other Winter Tales
Museum of the City of New York
Manhattan
Sat, Dec 15, 2012 - Sun, Mar 31, 2013
New York printmakers Currier & Ives’ iconic winter scenes of skaters in Central Park, along with bucolic scenes of snow-covered small-town life, became the standard imagery for the American holiday ...
George Bellows
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Thu, Nov 15, 2012 - Sun, Feb 17, 2013
George Bellows (1882–1925) was regarded as one of America’s greatest artists when he died, at the age of 42, from a ruptured appendix. His early fame rested on his powerful ...
Great Hall of Van Rensselaer Manor House
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Ongoing
This entrance hall from the Van Rensselaer manor house outside of Albany, New York, was one of the grandest domestic spaces in colonial America.
John Rogers: American Stories
New-York Historical Society
Manhattan
Fri, Nov 02, 2012 - Mon, Feb 18, 2013
John Rogers (1829-1904) was unquestionably the most popular sculptor of the 19th century. In his lifetime he sold more than 80,000 works and earned the epithet “the people’s sculptor.”
Keeping the Revolution Alive: The John Ward Dunsmore Collection
Fraunces Tavern Museum
Manhattan
Ongoing
Painter John Ward Dunsmore, known for his faithful and realistic depictions of the battles of the Revolutionary War, is the subject of this exhibition dealing with the iconography of American ...
Morris-Jumel Mansion
New York
One of the city's few remaining pre-Revolutionary buildings, the Morris Jumel Mansion served as George Washington's headquarters for the Continental Army and the American war room for the Battle of ...
National Academy Museum and School
New York
Founded in 1825, the National Academy is an honorary association of professional artists, a school of fine arts and a museum.
The Return of The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision
New-York Historical Society
Manhattan
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 - Thu, Feb 21, 2013
After a national tour, 45 iconic works will once again be on display at New-York Historical, including Thomas Cole’s five-part series "The Course of Empire," as well as masterworks by ...
Sailor Twain’s New York: Secrets and Mysteries of the River Hudson
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building-New York Public Library
Manhattan
Fri, Feb 01, 2013 - Sun, Apr 28, 2013
For Mark Siegel's latest novel, "Sailor Twain, or the Mermaid in the Hudson," he uncovered evocative images, printed ephemera, and other historical documents to inform a narrative that is both ...
Storylines: Tracing the Narrative of “Outsider” Art
Galerie St. Etienne
Manhattan
Tue, Jan 15, 2013 - Sat, Mar 30, 2013
Humans are a story-telling species. From carefully selected fragments of information, we construct narratives that give coherence and meaning to our lives.
Tiffany: The Glass
Queens Museum of Art
Queens
Ongoing
Taking a close look at the patterns, textures and colors of glass used by the Tiffany Studios overseen by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the exhibition highlights some of the most commonly ...
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Ongoing
Emanuel Leutze's depiction of Washington's attack on the Hessians at Trenton on December 25, 1776, was a great success in America and in Germany. Leutze began his first version of ...
Women’s Studies
American Folk Art Museum
Manhattan
Thu, Jan 24, 2013 - Sun, May 26, 2013
This exhibition presents drawings and photographs of women by four self-taught artists from the 1940s through the late 20th century, two male, two female. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Paul D. Humphrey, ...
WWII & NYC
New-York Historical Society
Manhattan
Fri, Oct 05, 2012 - Mon, May 27, 2013
This exhibition explores the impact of the war on the metropolis, which was a center of both isolationist and interventionist sentiment before the Pearl Harbor attack. The presence of troops, ...