Boats, Flowers And White Babies: America’s Most “Beloved” Art, In Times Square And On Billboards Around U.S.

There are as many as 50,000 digital and static billboards in all 50 U.S. States that have been taken over by respected works of art on August 4th. As part of the Art Everywhere US, they’ll be up all month. Check out the map — there are a few cycling in the fluorescent ad displays of Times Square. As previously announced, 100 paintings and photographs were selected by experts at famous museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Gallery. You, if you cared, clicked to pick 58 of them. Artnet has rounded up all of the “beloved” art into a slideshow (you can also see them here) but what do they say about America? What does America like most about the art it was told by experts to like? Here is a very reductive break-down of the art into general thematic categories. A few didn’t fit. Most did.

AMERICANA
Jasper Johns, “Three Flags” (1958), “George Washington” (1821), Roy Lichtenstein, “Look Mickey” (1961), Childe Hassam, “Allies Day” (1917), Edward Ruscha, “Hollywood” (1968), James Rosenquist, “Paper Clip” (1973), Andy Warhol, “Campbell’s Soup Can” (1964)

WHITE BABIES
John Singer Sargent, “Dorothy” (1900), Mary Cassatt, “The Child’s Bath” (1893)

BOATSWinslow Homer, “The Water Fan” (1898—99), Winslow Homer, “Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) (1873—76), Thomas Eakins, “The Biglin Brothers Racing” (1872), John Singleton Copley, “Watson and the Shark” (1778), Fitz Henry Lane, “Boston Harbor, Sunset” (1850—55)

A WHITE BABY ON A BOAT
Mary Cassatt, “The Boating Party” (1893—94)

BLACK PEOPLE WORKING AND ENTERTAINING
William H. Johnson, “Blind Singer” (1942), Winslow Homer, “Cotton Pickers” (1876), Charles Wilbert White, “Harvest Talk” (1953), Romare Bearden, “Soul Three” (1968)

WOMEN SITTING DOWN
John Singer Sargent, “Nonchaloir (Repose)” (1911), Emil J. Bisttram, “Pueblo Woman” (1932), John Singer Sargent, “The Fountain” (1907)

ABSTRACT SHAPES IN HAPPY COLORS
Willem de Kooning, “Montauk Highway” (1958), Mark Rothko, “White Center” (1957), Richard Diebenkorn, “Ocean Park No. 29” (1970), Jasper Johns, “Device” (1961—62), Willem de Kooning, “Excavation” (1950), Frank Lloyd Wright, “Avery Coonley Playhouse Triptych Window” (1912)

FLOWERS
Imogen Cunningham, “Magnolia Blossom” (1925), Georgia O’Keeffe, “Summer Days” (1936), Charles Burchfield, “Noontide in Late May” (1917), Martin Johnson Heade, “Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth” (1890)

MAPPLETHROPE

Robert Mapplethorpe, “Ken Moody and Robert Sherman” (1984)

PEOPLE UNHAPPY IN THE CITY
George Tooker, “Subway” (1950), Margaret Bourke-White, “World’s Highest Standard of Living” (1937), Mrs. Fannie B. Shaw, “Prosperity is Just Around the Corner” (1930–32), George Bellows, “Cliff Dwellers” (1913), Millard Sheets, “Angels Flight” (1931), Edward Hopper, “Nighthawks” (1942)

BUILDINGSCharles Demuth, “My Egypt” (1927), Joseph Stella, “The Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme” (1939), Charles Sheeler, “Classic Landscape” (1931), Edward Hopper, “Early Sunday Morning” (1930)

SAD WHITE PEOPLE  Grant Wood, “American Gothic” (1930) , Roy Lichtenstein, “Cold Shoulder” (1963), Cindy Sherman, “Untitled”(2008), James McNeill Whistler, “Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl” (1862), Ivan Albright, “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1943—44)

WHAT IS THIS 

William Michael Harnett, “The Old Violin” (1886)

PARTYTIME

Archibald John Motley Jr., “Nightlife” (1943), Thomas Hart Benton, “Poker Night” (1948)

NATUREJasper Francis Cropsey, “Autumn on the Hudson” (1860), Frederic Edwin Church, “The Icebergs” (1861), Edward Hicks, “The Peaceable Kingdom” (1846—47), Erwin E. Smith, “Frank Smith, Watering His Horse” (1909), Thomas Moran, “Green River Cliffs, Wyoming” (1881), Georgia O’Keeffe, “Sky Above Clouds IV” (1965)

PHIL

Chuck Close, “Phil” (1969)

(Lead Image: ArtEverywhere)