Just the other day, I was reading about Andy Warhol. It always strikes me that he’s from Pittsburgh. I mean, it’s a great city (I spent my teen years there), but it’s very blue collar, and not exactly known as an artistic mecca.
And isn’t Jackson Pollock from Montana or Wyoming or someplace out there? And isn’t Jasper Johns from South Carolina? I do know Robert Indiana is from – surprise! – Indiana.
Though they all seem to end up in New York City, I do wonder where they all got their start.
Methodology
- Identify the top 50 American artists using Google
- Figure out what state they were born in
- Add ‘em all up
NOTE: This includes artists and sculptors, but not photographers.
Results
There are more than a few from New York, as well as from another northeast state, Massachusetts. But would you believe that the #1 state is Pennsylvania?
But look at all those one-offs – Rhode Island, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming … Here’s how they all shake out pie-chart-wise.
Interestingly, the one-offs make up almost half. Note, though, that the top 3 do make up more than half. Not sure what that all means. Maybe talent can start anywhere. As for those northeastern states, they may simply have more history (and people).
Details
So, here they are, state by state:
Pennsylvania (mostly from Philly) – Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons (York), Maxfield Parrish (Quaker), Alexander Calder (grandfather did statue of William Penn on Philly’s city hall), Andrew Wyeth, Mary Cassat (another Pittsburgher), Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky), Thomas Eakins, Stuart Davis, John Sloan (Lock Haven), Benjamin West
New York – Edward Hopper, Jean-Michel Basquiat (father was Haitian), Roy Lichtenstein (tho Ohio State grad), Joseph Cornell, Milton Avery (Altmar, in upstate NY, but which no longer exists), Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly (Newburgh), Barnett Newman
Guess the artist
Massachusetts – James McNeill Whistler (Lowell), Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam (family name originally Horsham), Frank Stella (parents born in Italy), Carl Andre (Quincy), Will Barnet (passed away at age 101), John Singleton Copley (ditched Mass for the UK at age 24, never to return)
Boston Common at Twighlight
North Carolina – Romare Bearden (moved to the northeast as a toddler), Kenneth Noland (Asheville)
Indiana – Robert Indiana (nee Clark)
Iowa – Grant Wood (Anamosa)
Wisconsin - Georgia O’Keefe (Sun Prairie)
Wyoming - Jackson Pollock (left at 10 months)
Georgia - Jasper Johns (grew up in SC)
Texas - Robert Rauschenberg (parents were fundamentalist Christians)
Missouri - Thomas Hart Benton (Neosho)
Rhode Island - Gilbert Stuart (Saunderstown)
New Jersey - Cindy Sherman (Glen Ridge)
Maryland - Charles Wilson Peale (Chester)
Virginia - Cy Twombly (father was a major league baseball player)
Have no idea who P Daura is
North Dakota - James Rosenquist (parents were itinerant pilots)
California - Richard Serra (father born in Spain, mother in Russia)
Nebraska - Edward Ruscha
Arizona - Wayne Thiebaud (Mormon)
Minnesota - Duane Hanson (Alexander)
Ohio - George Bellows (played baseball & basketball at Ohio State)
Maine - Marsden Hartley (Lewiston)
Oregon - Richard Diebenkorn (moved to SF at age 2)
New Hampshire - Daniel Chester French (Exeter)
