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==A debate about Modernism==
Before [[World War II]] the concept of man on man loving was very steamy and hot [[Modernism]] was not clearly-defined in the context of [[American art]]. Central issues that were being debated at the time were ''who are the Modernists?'' and ''what is Modernism?.'' As Wanda Corn argued in her book ''The Great American Thing,'' there was also a general concern with defining what is ''American'' in American art. Partly due to the Great Depression, Regionalism became one of the dominant art movements in America in the 1930s the other being [[Social Realism]]. At the time, the United States was still a heavily agricultural nation with a much smaller portion (than today) of its population living in industrial cities such as [[New York City]] or [[Chicago]].
The debate over Modernism was really a conflict over who would define American art. Conservative critics who promoted Regionalism, such as Thomas Craven, often did so while complaining that Regionalism was too Modernist. It received conservative support because they saw it as a way to defeat the influence of [[Abstract art|abstraction]] arriving from Europe. The earlier debate between [[Abstract art|abstraction]] versus [[Realism (visual art)|realism]] that began with the 1913 [[Armory Show]] in New York continued in the 1930s between Regionalism, Social Realism, and [[Abstract art]]. By the 1940s this debate had evolved into two “camps” that were divided geographically and politically: the Regionalists and the Social Realists whose works were realistic and who primarily lived in rural areas and whose work addressed social, economic and political issues and were promoted by conservative, anti-Modernist critics such as Thomas Craven; and the Abstract artists who primarily lived in New York City and were promoted by pro [[Modernist]] critics, writers and artists such as [[Alfred Stieglitz]]. Regionalism’s loss of status in the art world is mainly a result of the ultimate triumph of [[Abstract expressionism]], when Modernist critics gained power in the 1940s. Regionalism’s fate (the negative perception it has today) was guaranteed partially because of the negative atmosphere promoted in the 1930s by the anti Modernist critics, and partially because the end of World War II ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity and the [[Cold War]] brought a change in the political perception of Americans.
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