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  The world changed dramatically in the opening decades of the 20th century. Electricity, cars, airplanes, radio, skyscrapers and movies transformed everyday life, and the emergence of corporate monopolies reshaped the work experience at all levels. America was the wealthiest and most modern country in the world, and New York, the city of skyscrapers, a symbol of America's financial and technological superiority.
By 1920, some 5.5 million people were packed into New York, the population swollen by record immigration from Europe and the mass migration of African Americans from the South. The robust economy and liberal modern attitudes toward sexuality swept the city into a decade of extraordinary exuberance and excess, often referred to as the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age.
  In the beginning of the century, artists portrayed this urban energy in paintings, often called "Ashcan School painting", of New York's new street life and diverse citizenry. By 1920, they increasingly celebrated New York's skyscrapers, commerce and machines.
Their work also became more abstract, with unreadable space and the energy of line and color allowing them to capture the immediacy and disjunction of modern life.
Images (clockwise from left):
Robert Henri, Portrait of Willie Gee, 1904, Oil on canvas, Anonymous gift 1925 25.111
Edward Hopper, The Sheridan Theatre, 1937, Oil on canvas, Purchase 1940 Felix Fuld Bequest Fund 40.118
Jacob Lawrence, The Bo-Lo Game, 1937, Poster paint on pebbleboard, Purchase 1984 The Members’ Fund 84.32
John Sloan, Picture Shop Window, 1907, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Felix Fuld 1925 25.1163
 Not everyone welcomed the fast-paced, dehumanizing existence of the modern city of skyscrapers and machines. Many among the wealthy clung to the leisurely refinement of the 19th century, embracing a nostalgia for a simpler time. Many collectors acquired art that appeared timeless and made no reference to the modern world.
.jpg "The Good Shepard") Some favored classical- looking sculpture or paintings of well-dressed women in lush interiors. Also popular were Impressionist landscapes, cheerful, light-filled scenes painted with bright colors that had no hint of the modern world. Those with more progressive tastes favored furnishings that were hand-crafted and filled with references to nature.
Images (top to bottom):
Childe Hassam, Gloucester, 1899, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. J. Russell Parsons 1973 73.76
Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Good Shepherd, 1920, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. Wehrhane 1929 29.910
Maurice Prendergast, Landscape with Figures No. 2 (Willows, Salem), 1918, Oil on canvas, Presented in 1944 by the Friends of Arthur F. Egner, President of The Newark Museum Association 1932-43 44.17
The rapid pace of the modern era changed the way people perceived the world. Artists responded by using a modern vocabulary: instead of telling a story with recognizable images, they communicated through the non-representational qualities of the medium.
They simplified, or abstracted, forms, stripping them down to a bare essence. In painting,
artists replaced space that gave the illusion of depth with a shallow space in which forms
float on the surface, often jostling each other. Art now had an immediacy that was modern, even if the subject matter was not.
The first American gallery of modern art was 291, founded in 1905 at 291 Fifth Avenue by Alfred Stieglitz to show photography. After 1910, Stieglitz changed the gallery's focus to modern painting. Ironically, Stieglitz disliked modern technology, and the artists he showed shared his discomfort, generally preferring to paint nature rather than the city.
Images (top to bottom):
Marsden Hartley, Still Life - Calla Lilies, 1920s, Oil on canvas board, Bequest of Miss Cora Louise Hartshorn 1958 58.170
Florine Stettheimer, Flower Piece, ca. 1921, Oil on canvas, Anonymous gift 1944 44.176
Banner Image: Albert Bierstadt, Western Landscape, 1869, Oil on canvas, Purchased 1961 The Members' Fund, 61.516
All works shown here are from the Collecton of The Newark Museum.
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