How would you interpret ‘heart-throbbing landscapes’ and ‘the American Scene’?
Here’s where you and I come in. They recruited my old boss for the job, Leroy Davidson from the Walker. He only got 50 thousand clams to work with but he’s done a killer job, Leroy chose everything himself. He’s fed up with the Europeans sniggering about heart-throbbing landscapes and the American Scene, so he decided to give them an eyeful. Seventy-nine paintings, mostly Modern Art: Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, it’s a killer. Even Goodrich at the Whitney says so. We’re hanging it here in New York for the summer and then it moves to the National for a few weeks. Leroy says Congress needs to see what American Art looks like, before we send it off.

How would you interpret ‘heart-throbbing landscapes’ and ‘the American Scene’ in the context?
Why did the Europeans snigger about them?
Thanks!

Question

How would you interpret ‘heart-throbbing landscapes’ and ‘the American Scene’?
Here’s where you and I come in. They recruited my old boss for the job, Leroy Davidson from the Walker. He only got 50 thousand clams to work with but he’s done a killer job, Leroy chose everything himself. He’s fed up with the Europeans sniggering about heart-throbbing landscapes and the American Scene, so he decided to give them an eyeful. Seventy-nine paintings, mostly Modern Art: Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, it’s a killer. Even Goodrich at the Whitney says so. We’re hanging it here in New York for the summer and then it moves to the National for a few weeks. Leroy says Congress needs to see what American Art looks like, before we send it off.

How would you interpret ‘heart-throbbing landscapes’ and ‘the American Scene’ in the context?
Why did the Europeans snigger about them?
Thanks!

Answer

The Europeans are characterized here as snobs who look down on more traditional American art because it consists mostly of landscape paintings designed to overwhelm the viewer with their beauty and "American Scene" paintings, which are probably patriotic in nature.  Leroy is tired of the Europeans' condescending attitude toward American paintings, so he's putting together this art show is displaying more modern American art to try to impress them.

Answer

''heart-throbbing'' refers to the excellent quality the landscapes, which thens excites the heart and fills it with amazement. while the ''American Scene'' is distinct to something American. It could refer to American paintings, or it could be a formal register where it means something else that requires external knowledge to understand, hence the letters are capitalized.

Answer

I'm pretty sure the Europeans were sniggering because they've got lots of heart-throbbing landscapes (as in landscape paintings) and the American art scene just can't compare.

Leroy was sick of Europeans talking about Dutch Impressionism or whatever, and so he decided to show them that the American scene is worth taking seriously.