Through most of the nineteenth century, United States art had been strongly influenced by the established artistic styles of Europe. By 1900, however, a number of American artists had broken from the old European traditions and experimented with new styles. Winslow Homer, for example, created vigorously American scenes in his paintings of New England maritime life and other native subjects. James McNeill Whistler was one of the first Western artists to appreciate the beauty of Japanese color prints and to introduce Asian concepts into American art.
By the first years of the new century, some American artists were turning decisively away from the traditional, conventionally accepted style of painting. Instead, many younger painters were exploring the same grim aspects of modern life that were becoming the subject of American literature. Members of the so-called Ashcan School produced paintings that were startling in their naturalism and stark in their portrayal of the social realities of the era. John Sloan portrayed the dreariness of American urban slums; Edward Hopper explored the starkness and loneliness of the modern city. The Ashcan artists were also among the first Americans to appreciate the new Expressionist and Abstract Art movements, and showed their interest in new art forms in 1913 when they helped stage the famous "Armory Show" in New York City, which displayed controversial works of contemporary artists.
The work of these and other artists marked the beginning in the United States of an artistic movement known as Modernism, a movement that had counterparts in many other areas of cultural and intellectual life as well. Rejecting the heavy reliance on established forms that had characterized the genteel tradition of the nineteenth-century art world, Modernists rejected the past and embraced new subjects and new forms. Where the genteel tradition had emphasized the "dignified" and "elevated" aspects of civilization, Modernism gloried in the ordinary, even the coarse. Where the genteel tradition had placed great importance on respect for the past and the maintenance of "standards," Modernism looked to the future and exulted in the new. Eventually, Modernism developed strict orthodoxies of its own. However, in the early stages, it seemed to promise an escape from rigid, formal traditions and an unleashing of individual creativity.