Welcome Home by Jack Levine and City Landscape by Francis Criss

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Recommended: Art analysis

Both Welcome Home by Jack Levine and City Landscape by Francis Criss are pieces that can be seen in the “American Moderns, 1910-1960 From O'Keeffe to Rockwell” exhibit at Reynolda House, which is on loan from the Brooklyn Museum. The two pieces look quite different at a first glance, and this is true to an extent. The main similarity between the two, of course, is that they were both made by American artists in the modern art time period. Welcome Home was made in 1946, while City Landscape was made in 1934.
The most obvious difference between the two pieces is the subject matter. Levine's piece focuses on people, such as a war general, his acquaintances, and a waiter. They are all at a very fancy place, dressed to the nines and being served on by a waiter in a suit with a bow-tie. Criss, however, chose to focus on a place. His piece is of the city landscape, as stated in the title. We see buildings, cars, streetlights, sidewalks, and more city features of New York City.
When looking at these pieces, it is best to use certain modes of analysis. Levine made art that showed how corrupt and unjust he felt that America was. Welcome Home is a work of satire, where he mocks the major general of the army that he himself served in during World War II. The contextual mode of analysis can be used when looking at this work, because it was made right after World War II and it is in context of the historical time period. The biographical analysis can also be used, since Levine was so strongly influenced by what he saw in the army, and he therefore displayed his strong views against what he saw as “undemocratic” leaders.1 When viewing City Landscape, it is best to use a contextual mode of analysis. This piece was made during the ...

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...nd. The sizes of everything seem more lifelike and proportional. It creates a feeling as if one could actually be standing in front of this scene that is out in the open and goes on for a long distance.
The biggest similarity between the two pieces is their medium. Both Levine and Criss chose to make their pieces by using oil on canvas. The two pieces are very different when it comes to the elements and principles used, and the appearance that each piece has. However, the amazing thing is, that two artists used oil paint and canvas to create these two very different works of art.

Works Cited

1. "Biography | Jack Levine Online." Jack Levine Online RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. .
2. Reynolda House, “Welcome Home.” Winston-Salem, NC, 2014, Plaque
3. Reynolda House, “City Landscape.” Winston-Salem, NC, 2014, Plaque

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