Return from Bohemia

The strong regionalist movement in American painting of the 1930s and 1940s (an outcome of the Depression) can be seen as a grassroots reaction to the cosmopolitanism of the preceding two decades. Grant Wood's painting Return from Bohemia, which provides the name for this section of the exhibition, perfectly captures the popular endorsement of rural life and local customs. During this time, the formal experimentation of the century's early years gave way to a realist-based exploration of the American landscape and daily life. For instance, the artist Charles Sheeler, who had earlier experimented with cubism, brought a photographic clarity to his work in these later decades.