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Maurice Prendergast
Salem, ca 1918
Boston-based Maurice Prendergast participated in the famous "Eight" exhibition of 1908, the first of many challenges that led to the greater visibility of modern art in America. While he shared his colleagues' interest in modern amusements and vibrant crowd scenes -- evidenced by this image of strollers in Salem, Massachusetts -- stylistically, Prendergast stood apart from the other independent artists' predominantly realist approach.
By the late 1890s, Prendergast had developed a distinctive (even radical, by conventional American standards) approach to painting. His early studies in Paris had introduced him to the broken brushwork and vivid colors of the Post-Impressionists, particularly the Nabis and the so-called pointillists. This painting, produced in Prendergast's mature style, demonstrates his increasingly tactile and tapestry-like imagery, with its emphasis on abstract qualities of color and form. |