John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) is considered to be the foremost artist of the colonial America (that is 1607-1776 also called Early American Period). One of his famous paintings is The boy with a Squirrel.
Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is one of the most outstanding representatives of the Hudson River School which was formed in 1820s. He managed to combine great technical style with a romantic American scenery. One of his famous paintings is „Home In the Woods”.
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) portrayed rural America which we can admire in „The Veteran in a New Field”.
Robert Henri (1865-1929) who was the leader of the Ashcan School presented the often ugly realities of the city life.
James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) is regarded as a precursor of Abstract Expressionism and his an author of many realistic portraits like „The portrait of the artist's mother”.
In 1930s an art. movement arose, called „Regionalism” whose members like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Grant Wood (1892-1942) and Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) painted scenes of everyday American life or the American Indians to preserve their culture.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was another outstanding representatives of the realist tradition of American scene painting. He studied at the New York School of Art and he often depicted people's loneliness, isolation and lack of variety of the daily life. One of his paintings which represents this is „Nighthawks” or „Hotel Lobby”.
Another significant member of Am. Scene Painting was John Stuart who spent much of his life depicting his native Kansas.
After the Second World War a group of young artists in New York formed movement known as Abstract Expressionism. One of the leader of the movement was Jackson Pollock (1942-1956) whose reputation was established by his revolutionary „drip paintings”. As a reaction against Abstract Expressionism artists began to produce works of „mixed” media which means they used photos, newspaper and discarded objects in their paintings.
In 1960s Pop Art became famous and it has been described as a breaking away from abstract expressionism and a return to visual communication. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is famous for creating a series of enlarged images such as Campbell Soup, the Coca-Cola bottle or images of Marilyn Monroe.
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) presented bright and colourful images from popular comics and cartoons.
Robert Rauschenberg (b.1925) executed inventive collage paintings in which he used photographic images and everyday objects like in „Riding Bies” from 1998.
Claus Oldenburg (b.1929) is one of the most original and spectacular contemporary artists. He is known for creating a giant hamburger made of plater and enamel or some `soft sculptures' such as a baked potato, a soft electronic fan and a giant red lipstick.
Jasper Johns (b.1930) placed common objects in an art context. His well-known piece of art is the painting called „American Flag”.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was one of America's best known sculptors, painters and illustrators. His sculptures were brightly coloured and abstract in form, one of them(from 1967) can be seen in Montreal, it's called L'homme = The Man.