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National Tour of “Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” opens June 14
Contact: Judy Linsz Ross
 Greensburg, PA - The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has organized the nationally traveling exhibition "Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" which opens June 14 and runs through September 6, 2009, at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Featuring thirty-one of the most celebrated artists who came to maturity in the 1950s, the exhibition traces the history of this epochal period through forty-three key paintings and sculptures selected from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection. A free preview reception takes place at The Westmoreland on Saturday, June 13 from 6:30 – 8 PM. Reservations are appreciated by calling 724/837-1500 ext. 33.
"Modern Masters" examines the complex and varied nature of American abstract art in the mid-twentieth century through three broadly conceived themes that span two decades of creative genius — "Significant Gestures," "Optics and Order" and "New Images of Man." The exhibition will travel to three more venues through 2011; it is not scheduled to be on view at the museum's main building in Washington, D.C.
According to Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator at the SAAM, who organized the exhibition, "Modern Masters introduces the richness and complexity of American art in the years following World War II. We are thrilled that the deep holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum allow us to share important works by leading abstract painters and sculptors with audiences throughout the country."
The decades following World War II were stimulating times for American art. While some vanguard artists began to paint or sculpt in the 1930s as beneficiaries of WPA-era government support, other immigrant artists fled to the United States as Nazi power grew in Germany. A few artists were highly educated; others left school at an early age to pursue their art. Working in New York, California, the South and abroad, these artists blended knowledge gleaned from the old masters and modernists, Picasso and Matisse, with philosophy and ancient mythology to create abstract compositions that addressed current social concerns and personal history. Some mixed hardware-store paint with expensive artist colors and bits of paper from magazines, linking their work with contemporary life.
"Significant Gestures" explores the autographic mark, executed in sweeping strokes of brilliant color that became the expressive vehicle for Sam Francis, Hans Hoffman and Franz Kline as well as Michael Goldberg and Joan Mitchell. These artists and others, affected by the War, became known as abstract expressionists. Each artist, the natural world, recent discoveries in physics and the built environment provided motifs for powerful canvases of color and light.
"Optics and Order" examines the artists who investigated ideas such as the exploration of mathematical proportion and carefully balanced color. This section, which highlights the work of Josef Albers, also features Ad Reinhardt, who developed visual vocabularies that used rectilinear shapes to meld intellectual idea with emotional content, and the works of like-minded artists Ilya Bolotowsky, Louise Nevelson and Esteban Vicente. A sculpture by Anne Truitt, whose majestic columns transform childhood memories of Maryland's Eastern Shore into totemic structures, are included in this section as well.
"New Images of Man" includes works by /Romare Bearden, Jim Dine, David Driskell, Grace Hartigan, Nathan Oliveira, Larry Rivers and several others, each of whom searched their surroundings and personal lives for vignettes emblematic of larger, universal concerns. Issues such as tragedy, interpersonal communication and racial relations guided the creation of these artists' works.
Credit
The William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowment Fund, the C. F. Foundation in Atlanta, and members of the Smithsonian Council for American Art have generously contributed to Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This Westmoreland Fiftieth Anniversary exhibition is sponsored locally by Allegheny Energy, Eden Hall Foundation, Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation, and Richard M. Scaife.
Publication
Modern Masters: American Abstraction at Midcentury, the beautifully illustrated catalogue co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and D Giles Limited (London), was written by Virginia M. Mecklenburg with contributions by Tiffany D. Farrell. The book features an essay and biographical information on the thirty-one artists whose work is included in the exhibition. It is available for $65 ($45 softcover) at An American Marketplace – The Shop at The Westmoreland and online at www.wmuseumaa.org.
About The Westmoreland
The mission of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art is to enrich a growing public through innovative and collaborative approaches to the collection, preservation and presentation of American art.
Regular Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM, Thursday until 9 PM and Friday until 6:30 PM. Museum admission is a $5 suggested donation for adults, children under 12 and students with valid ID are free. Guided tours can be arranged by calling 724/837-1500 ext. 10. An American Marketplace – The Shop at The Westmoreland carries books on American art, posters and notecards, children's books and activities, unique giftware, jewelry and features a coffee bar. For directions to The Westmoreland or other information, the public should call 724/837-1500 or visit our web site at www.wmuseumaa.org. The Westmoreland is located at 221 North Main Street, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh.
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Selected high-resolution images for publicity only are available by calling 724/837-1500 ext. 28.
Image credit: Franz Kline, Untitled, 1961, acrylic, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Vincent Melzac Collection through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
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