"American" Art

American artists of the pre and post WW II period wanted to develop a "American Art", in this sense, the seemed to be rejecting European art or at least wanted to do something "different".  Their rejection and search for something new seems to have forced them in the unwitting mindset of 6-year olds told by a liberal teacher to "do something and don't worry about getting dirty" with the finger paints spread before them; justifying their results by describing them in the art-theoretic terms they learned in college to give them profundity.  Thus did this group of almost exclusively white males, try to justify the creations.  No wonder they had such a hard time trying to explain their art to others.

They ended up saying nothing about America.

To the extent that they succeeded, had to do with the fact they they were a group that called themselves "artists", were somewhat able to articulate what they thought they were doing, were white males and therefore were given the benefit of a doubt by critics and galleries and collectors who were willing to pay a great deal of money for their creations.

Their strubbles eventually arrive at embracing the American banal, which reached an apax with Warhol and other pop artists.

But whatever the "subject" of their work, it was not about people, the human experience.