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Article: BORN OF THE LAND TACOMA ART MUSEUM EXHIBIT SAMPLES THE GLORIES OF OUR COUNTRY'S ARTISTIC BIRTH.(Entertainment)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- November 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Nineteenth-century America did not appreciate art. The national drive for concrete achievement, for progress, shouldered aside what was seen as a mere leisure-time occupation, a frill of a dying, old European order.
Love it or leave it: Those who needed such frills went to Europe to sample them. Those who stayed home cheerfully did without.
The artists who lived here enjoyed what was at best a narrow ecological niche, painting portraits of the wealthy and their possessions, carving commemorative sculptures and providing furniture and other practical decorative items on demand.
While there were exceptions - John Singleton Copley in Boston, the ...