ABSTRACT
Expressionism was a powerful impulse among North American artists, one that resonated through a number of local developments and attitudes, though received in very different ways in the United States and Canada. In both the United States and Canada, expressionism proved useful in depicting and commenting on social issues and political problems. Expressionism, with its intense emotion and spirituality expressed through distorted forms and strong colors, has comprised a powerful impulse on North American, particularly American art since the 1910s. In the 1920s, American art critics disagreed on expressionism’s significance as a style and as an expression of German identity. Although more realistic styles became popular, modernism never disappeared and some artists found expressionism particularly useful in emphasizing meaning. In the 1930s, some of the leading social realists, including Ben Shahn and Philip Evergood, were influenced by expressionism in their depictions of urban blight, poverty, moral corruption, and sickness.
