- Dates
- —
- Curated by
- Sarah Newman i Sarah Cash
American Modernity: Works from the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Are all modernities the same? American Modernity. Works from the Corcoran Gallery of Art is an invitation to explore the particular and complex emergence of modern art in the United States during the 20th century. The exhibition has been divided into seven sections: ‘Under the Influence of Paris’, ‘Landscape Artists’, ‘The Impact of the Avant-Garde’, ‘Photography’, ‘Realism’, ‘Post-war Abstraction’, and ‘Between Abstraction and Figuration’.
These sections deal with a few of the major issues that helped to shape and drive the development of modern American art. What brought American art to a privileged international position in the latter half of the century was not a straightforward, linear process, but rather a polyphonic investigation full of intense debate and fascinating artistic results.
American Modernity includes some of the most important works from the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), a pioneering institution founded in 1869 that supported and promoted American artistic talent at a time when the art world favoured European styles. Among the artists represented are key figures in American art history, ranging from John Singer Sargent, Marsden Hartley, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Arthur Dove, Joseph Cornell and Walker Evans to Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly, Ellsworth Kelly and Martin Puryear.
