When you think of American artist, who expresses American culture the best in your opinion?

40 comments

1. George Gershwin

2. The Ramones

3. Norman Rockwell

4. Edward Hopper expressed American loneliness, isolation and alienation in his iconic paintings, early to mid 20th century.

5. Warhol is the first answer that comes to mind, particularly in terms of modern American culture. He captured the uniquely American relationship with celebrity, consumerism, fame, and commodification.

6. Technically Mexican but did a lot of mural art in the US: José Clemente Orozco

   Also Lana Del Rey with all her Americana themed stuff

7. Martin Scorsese

8. As a group, [the WPA artists](https://www.loc.gov/collections/works-progress-administration-posters/about-this-collection/)

9. BB King

10. If we’re including musicians, I’d say Aaron Copland.

11. Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer

12. Thomas Kinkade and Bob Ross

13. Robert Mapplethorpe.

14. John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash

15. Bruce Springsteen.

16. Wyeth or Hopper. Hopper wasn’t only a city artist but painted here in New England. He captured a lot of Maine’s beauty.

17. John Steinbeck is quintessential.

18. Frederick Remington

19. Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, two very different artists.

20. Bob Dylan, obviously. The only right answer imo.

21. Martin Scorsese

22. I’ll point out that a man named Emanuel Leutze produced that greatest of American paintings, George Washington crossing the Delaware. But the overall greatest American painter is either Norman Rockwell of Winslow Homer. Which one I pick might depend on which side of the bed I got up on that morning.

23. Jim Morrison. As a poet, more than as a song writer and performer.

24. Siegel and Shuster.

25. John Prine

26. Mark Twain

27. Diane Arbus.

28. Matt Stone and Trey Parker

29. Ansel Adams, Henry David Thoreau, John Steinbeck

30. This is tough because I think the major issue is that artists usually represent their era, and that era could be long gone and thus not part of our experience. Norman Rockwell was known for his Americana Art but he has also been dead for nearly 50 years. He caught the great depression era and mid century era amazingly well. American culture is getting older and older to where it is getting more difficult for an artist who represents a brief era to represent the grand picture.

    I think Edward Hopper really captured his world, and his era sort of parallels our era regarding themes of loneliness, isolation, and liminality. The 1930s and 1940s, his work captured the feeling of the era which in many ways resonates with our era.

    As far as American Culture 2023. I have no idea. Especially for painters. I think in terms of general artists, I put the Casey Neistat vlog series of the 2010s as potentially one of the great works of art that people will value more and more as a piece of 2010s American culture.

31. America has many different subcultures under a broader American culture. For African Americans such as myself, I would say John Coltrane, Miles Davis, BB King, Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, and Jay-Z to name just a few..

32. John Mellencamp.

33. The whole Heartland Rock genre.

34. Bruce Springsteen

35. Kendrick

36. When it comes to Broadway I think of Stephen Sondheim.

37. Alan Jackson or Tim McGraw

38. Bourdain, Vonnegut and Groening.

39. Jason Aldean

40. There have been a lot of great answers to this question. It would be a cool VH1-style Top 100. The type of thing the History Channel would put out before it became all about aliens and pawn shops.

    I think the right answer is Mark Twain. Extremely hard to argue with a lot of these though. Norman Rockwell. Henry David Thoreau. John Steinbeck. So many of the great blues artists, or jazz, or even Elvis if you wanted to go that route. John Philips Sousa. Andy Warhol. Take your pick of movie directors or actors. Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando… John Williams… Stephen King.

    I really am tempted to put together a top 100. It’d probably start by selecting the “most American” artist of each artform. Like Kubrick was probably a better director than Tarantino, but is his work as quintessentially American, or is it more international? Tarantino seems the most American director.