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【单选题】The crucial years of theDepression, as they are brought into historical focus, increasingly emerge as the decisive decade forAmerican art, if not forAmerican culture in general For it was during this decade that many of the conflicts which had blocked the progress ofAmerican art in the past came to a head and sometimes boiled over. Janus-faced, the thirties look backward, sometimes as far as the Renaissance; and at the same time forward, as far as the present and beyonD、It was the moment when artists, like Thomas HartBenton, who wished to turn back the clock to regain the virtues of simpler times came into direct conflict with others, like StuartDavis and Frank Lloyd Wright, who were ready to come to terms with the MachineAge and to deal with its consequences.
America in the thirties was changing rapidly. In many areas the past was giving way to the present, although not without a struggle.
A、predominantly rural and small town society was being replaced by the giant complexes of the big cities; power was becoming increasingly centralized in the federal government and in large corporations.As a result, traditionalAmerican types such as the independent farmer and the small businessman were being replaced by the executive and the bureaucrat. ManyAmericans, deeply attached to the old way of life, felt disinhereiteD、At the same time, as immigration decreased and the population became more homogeneous, the need arose in art and literature to commemorate the ethnic and regional differences that were fast disappearing. Thus, paradoxically, the conviction that art, at least, should serve some purpose or carry some message of moral uplift grew stronger as the Puritan ethos lost its contemporary reality. Often this elevating message was a sermon in favor of just those traditionalAmerican virtues which were now threatened with obsolescence in a changed social and political context.
In this new context, the appeal of the paintings by the Regionalists and theAmerican Scene painters often lay in their ability to recreate an atmosphere that glorified the traditionalAmerican values-self-reliance tempered with good-neighborliness, independence modified by a sense of community, hard work rewarded by a sense of order and purpose. Given the actual temper of the times, these themes were strangely anachronistic, just as the rhetoric supporting political isolationism was equally inappropriate in an international situation soon to involveAmerica in a second world war Such themes gained popularity because they filled a genuine need for a comfortable collective fantasy of a God-fearing, white-picket-fenceAmerica, which in retrospect took on the nostalgic appeal of a lost GoldenAge.
In this light, an autonomous art-for-art’s sake was viewed as a foreign invader liable to subvert the nativeAmerican desire for a purposeful art.Abstract art was assigned the role of the villainous alieen; realism was to personify the genuineAmerican means of expression. The argument drew favor in many camps: .among the artists, because most were realists; among the politically oriented intellectuals, because abstract art was apolitical; and among museum officials, because they were surfeited with mediocre imitations ofEuropean modernism and were convinced thatAmerican art must develop its own distinct identity. To help along this road to self-definition, the museums were prepared to set up an artificial double standard, one forAmerican art, and another forEuropean art. In 1934, Ralph Flint wrote inArt News, "We have today in our midst a greater array of what may be called second-, third, and fourth-string artists than any other country. Our big annuals are marvelous outpourings of intelligence and skill; they have all the diversity and animation of a fine-ring circus.\
"The artificial standard" (Paragraph 4) refers to the difference between standards of judgement for ______.
A、realism and abstract art
网考网参考答案：C
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