Stories from Home

The fifteen Southern-related works included in Stories from Home illustrate a variety of approaches to narrative painting that flourished in the region between the two world wars. After the chaos and destruction of World War I, many American artists retreated from the cutting edge of European abstraction. They developed more conservative approaches to their depictions of everyday life here at home without completely abandoning modernist experimentation with color and form. Powerful storytelling techniques, grounded in characterization and context, as well as allegory and symbolism, were employed to inspire viewers to draw personal meaning from key elements in each composition.

From the Roaring Twenties through the Great Depression to the coming of age of America’s “Greatest Generation,” the three decades encompassed by Stories from Home witnessed this country’s extraordinary cultural transformation from embracing a simplistic nationalism to shouldering the unprecedented responsibilities of global leadership.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website