The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art has organized the first major exhibition of its American works on paper from the years 1910 to 1960. American Moderns on Paper: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art will include more than 100 exceptional works from the museum’s permanent collection—including a recently-acquired Georgia O’Keeffe pastel—providing a groundbreaking new look at the diverse directions pursued by modern artists in America. The exhibition will also highlight the Wadsworth’s role at the forefront of American modern art through its acquisition of works by artists like Edward Hopper, Charles Demuth, Salvador Dali and Ellsworth Kelly.
The National Endowment for the Arts awarded the Wadsworth Atheneum a grant through its American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius Program, to support a national tour for the exhibition. The Henry Luce Foundation also provided essential support for conservation of the works. American Moderns on Paper will conclude at the Wadsworth in October of 2010 after being on view at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, in Fort Worth, Texas, from February 27, 2010 through May 30, 2010, and the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, from June 22 through September 12, 2010.
John Marin (1870–1953), “From the Bridge, N.Y.C,” 1933. Opaque and transparent watercolor with charcoal and collage on thick wove paper. ©Estate of John Marin/ Artist Rights Society (ARS). Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1948.479
“The collection of American modernist works on paper is a point of pride for the Wadsworth, as we were one of the first museums to collect and exhibit these works, which have since been recognized as seminal reflections of the development of modern art in this country,” said Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Chief Curator and Krieble Curator of American Painting and Sculpture at the Wadsworth who serves as curator of the exhibition.
“We are very excited to be able to share these treasures with a national audience, including our most recent acquisition, a Georgia O’Keeffe pastel entitled, Slightly Open Clam Shell,” Kornhauser continued. “O’Keeffe is one of the preeminent modern masters and she worked on paper throughout her career, but her work was not represented in the Wadsworth’s collection of works on paper—making this acquisition a transformative addition to our existing collection.”
In addition, the exhibition will present watercolor as an essentially American medium that was well suited to the restless, spontaneous, and confident American spirit. The inclusion of works by both the Neo-Romantics and the surrealists who came to the United States in the 1930s, in addition to that of native-born American artists, give the Wadsworth Atheneum’s works on paper collection its unique character. The diversity of styles in the early twentieth-century, specifically the tension between modernism and anti-modernism is also explored.
American Moderns on Paper: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art will be accompanied by a scholarly catalog, published by Yale University Press, presenting new research on the relevance of watercolors, drawings, and pastels on paper to the history of modern art in America.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is located at 600 Main St. in Hartford, Connecticut. The Museum is open Wednesdays to Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Please visit www.wadsworthatheneum.org for more information.
