Galleries: 20th Century

The keyword for 20th century art is abstraction, even though abstraction has been present in western art ever since pigment was first placed on cave walls and three dimensional figures were created. Indeed, European artists from Egyptian tomb painters to medieval manuscript illuminators to J.M.W. Turner, incorporated abstract imagery in their art. In America too, abstraction has been around "from the beginning". One has only to look at the work of the early limners and gravestone makers as well as that of the Amish quiltmaker and itinerant carver.

One of the key questions for 20th century art is: Who created the first completely abstract painting? Vrubel? Kupka? Picabia? Wassily Kandinsky's non-objective paintings are frequently cited as the "first" but these were actually done a few months after Arthur Dove's series of paintings had been done in America independently of European influence. Indeed, the work of all these artists became a self-conscious means of visible expression. One thing we can agree on, though, is that out of all these efforts, abstraction became the defining artistic language of the 20th century.

The works in this gallery highlight some of the achievements of 20th century artists and, at the same time, they touch on the vital flow of artistic influence from Europe to America. It begins with the cubism which is found in Alfred H. Maurer's Portrait of a Man and goes on to the modified Fauvism in Milton C. Avery's Susan with Orchid and William Baziotes' untitled Surrealist inspired painting. Cubism, as developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque represented nothing less than the total reconstitution of images in space, but it was still grounded in the objective. So, too, was the work of the Fauvist artists like Henri Matisse and Andre Derain who chose non-naturalistic color for expressive purposes. The "object" was still at the heart of Surrealism as advocated by Andre Breton, which rejected the reality of the senses and the order of reason.

Despite these developments, the American concern for objects found a new relevance and vitality within the context of 20th century painting. For example, the basic concepts and techniques that lay at the root of still life - spatial arrangement, illusionism and surface treatment- made it well suited for the reconstruction of its forms, relationships and textures. See Ken Keeley's Tiffany Jewels and the still life passages in Milton C. Avery's Susan with Orchid and Ann Chernow's The Hangout.

This part of the Museum's collection thus illustrates the rejection of tradition and the acquisition of new standards and values concerning reality which was fueled by examples from what were thought to be less developed civilizations and the felt need to revert to childhood. Ironically, skeptics often dismiss modern art as something a "two-year old might do" while modernist artists, in the belief that children can perceive the essence of an object, appropriated their characteristics.

So it was that by 1940 Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York. Penetrating the hidden world beyond conscious organization and the limitations of the image, artists became concerned with the act of painting as the way to universal understanding. Streaks, splotches and slashes of paint became visions of primordial emotions. No longer concerned with illusion and with renewed demands for large canvases to transmit heroic content, Abstract Expression at last kicked over all the traces.

Work in this format is represented by Friedel Dzubas, Albert Kotin and Richards Ruben. With form eliminated, the presence of raw materials in their original state could also become works of art on the declaration of their maker's claim as "artist". This became true for sculpture as well as painting.

Please note, paintings, objects and artists represented on the website may not be on view at all times.