Western American Art

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Western American Art includes artistic work which depicts the subjects related to the Western American region, and was treated as impoverished, unwanted and unworthy art before the twentieth century, during which period it achieved respectability as a rewarding region for studying.^[1] The term holds a characteristic of narration that is different from the Modern art which focuses on abstraction. For the narration, Western American art focuses on subject than style. Considering as a national art, the subjects are distinct from the European art, namely, there is no elements from other region like Europe.^[2] Cowboys and Indians are two well-known subjects and they consist the important part of artistic work of Western American art, demonstrating the daily life and activities of cowboys and American Indian in western American.^[3]

The development of Western American art was affected by the social, political and also economic factors in American society. On the one hand, these factors helped it developed, like the era of U.S. westward expansion; on the other hand, the progress of western American art was also restrained by them, like the industrial development, which spread the modern lifestyle in the West.^[4] Western American Art experienced both prosperous and unvalued period during the art history.