The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (397 page)

Regionalism
.

A movement in American painting, flourishing chiefly in the 1930s, concerned with the depiction of scenes and types from the American Midwest. The term is often used more or less interchangeably with
American Scene painting
, but Regionalism can be more precisely thought of as the Midwestern branch of this broader category. Like all American Scene painters, the Regionalists were motivated by a patriotic desire to establish a genuinely American art by using local themes and repudiating avant-garde styles from Europe. Specifically they were moved by a nostalgic desire to glorify, or at least to record, rural and small-town America, and it was on this that their widespread popularity depended. The period when they flourished coincided with the Great Depression, and at this time of profound national doubt, they reasserted America's faith in itself, giving the public pictures with which they could readily identify. Their work was often produced under the auspices of the
Federal Art Project
and it was supported by the fanatically patriotic critic Thomas Craven. The three major Regionalists were Thomas Hart
Benton
, John Steuart
Curry
, and Grant
Wood
, who were all Midwesterners but differed greatly in temperament and style. They scarcely knew one another personally, but the idea of a group identity was skilfully promoted by Maynard Walker , a Kansas art dealer. Walker got a Benton self-portrait on to the cover of the Christmas 1934 issue of
Time
magazine and this largely created the image of Regionalism in the public eye; as Benton put it, ‘A play was written and a stage erected for us. Grant Wood became the typical Iowa small towner, John Curry the typical Kansas farmer, and I just an Ozark hillbilly. We accepted our roles.’ On the fringes of the Regionalist movement were Charles
Burchfield
and Ben
Shahn
. Burchfield's work has a streak of fantasy absent from that of the others, and Shahn was driven by a spirit of social protest. Specifically local styles did not develop anywhere and Regionalism died out in the 1940s in the more international spirit that prevailed during and after the Second World War.

 
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(1935– )
. Portuguese-born British painter of figure, animal, and fantasy subjects. She studied at the
Slade
School, where she met her husband, the painter Victor Willing (1928–88). In the 1980s Rego became well known for her colourful expressionistic paintings, which often have a feeling of caricature as well as of fantasy. In 1990 she was appointed the first Associate Artist of the National Gallery, London. She painted murals in the restaurant of the gallery's new Sainsbury Wing in 1991, and in 1992 she became the first living artist to be given an exhibition in the gallery.

 
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(1913–67).
American painter. From the beginning his painting was abstract, but it changed radically in style over the years. Through the 1930s he used a crisp, boldly contoured geometrical style which owed something both to
Cubism
and to the
Neo-Plasticism
of
Mondrian
. In the 1940s he passed through a phase of
all-over painting
which has been likened to that of Mark
Tobey
, and in the late 1940s he was close to certain of the
Abstract Expressionists
, particularly
Motherwell
, with whom he jointly edited
Modern Artists in America
(1950), a book based on conversations with contemporary artists. During the 1950s he turned to monochromatic paintings. At first they were usually red or blue, but from the late 1950s he devoted himself to all-black paintings with geometrical designs of squares or oblongs barely perceptibly differentiated in value from the background colour. This reduction of his work to ‘pure aesthetic essences’ reflects his belief in the complete separation between art and life—‘Art is Art. Everything else is everything else.’ Reinhardt was particularly influential on the development of
Minimalism
. His views were extremely uncompromising and he was a noted critic of trends in modern art of which he did not approve, both as a polemical writer and a satirical cartoonist.

 
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relief
(or relievo)
.

Term, from the Italian
rilevare
(to raise), applied to sculpture that projects from a background surface rather than standing freely. According to the degree of projection, reliefs are usually classified as high (
alto rilievo
), medium (
mezzo rilievo
), or low (
basso rilievo
or bas-relief). The name
rilievo stiacciato
(also
schiacciato
) is given to a form of very low relief that was invented by
Donatello
and memorably used also by
Desiderio da Settignano
.

 
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relief etching
.

A method of
etching
plates for relief printing (ordinary etching being in
intaglio
). The design is drawn on the plate in an acid-resisting
varnish
. The plate is then immersed in acid, which eats away the unprotected parts so that the design stands out in relief and prints can be taken in the same way as from a
woodcut
block. The method dates from the 18th cent., but was little used except by
Blake
, who called it ‘woodcut on copper’. In the 20th cent. the process has been revived and combined with intaglio printing by S. W.
Hayter
and Joan
Miró
.

 
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