The Artesia Art Collection
of the Frentress-Humphreys-Warren Families

This exhibition was comprised of works from the private collection of the Frentress-Humphreys-Warren families and is not a part of the Amarillo Museum of Art's permanent collection.

These works can perhaps explain the melange of aesthetic tastes in American art during the turn of the century. Looking at this period, broadly the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, one should note two major currents: one that bolstered American art and progressive styles, and one that flaunted learned excellence through international study at the European academies. Though American art schools were experiencing a new and exciting unity of spirit evident in the cohorts of the "Ashcan School", the works of the American students taught in the European tradition were mainstream. In many cases these artists brought their European acquired knowledge home to later incorporate American subject matter.

The "Ashcan" group, comprised of Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, Ernest Lawson, William Glackens, John Sloan, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast and Arther B. Davies, radically exposed the confines of the academic style. They advocated the American spirit, liberty and freedom of expression. An element of sympathy for the common man or perhaps even the Native American was depicted in most works. Many said that their art was fit for the ashcans because of their choice of lowly subjects.