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The Advent of Modernism: Post-Impressionism and North American Art, 1900-1918

DATES November 26, 1986 through January 19, 1987
ORGANIZING DEPARTMENT American Art
COLLECTIONS American Art
  • November 25, 1986 The Advent of Modernism: Post-Impressionism and North American Art, 1900-1918, an exhibition of 125 paintings and watercolors by 54 American and Canadian painters whose Cézannesque, neo-Impressionist and Fauve works constitute a specifically Post-Impressionist movement in North America that has been largely overlooked until now, will open at The Brooklyn Museum November 26 and run through January 19, 1987. The works, drawn from public and private collections in Europe and North America, reflect the influence of such European Post-Impressionists as Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Matisse, and represent the first response to modernism in America and Canada.

    The exhibition, organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, was funded by a grant from the IBM Corporation. Its showing at The Brooklyn Museum has also been made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

    The late nineteenth-century American movements of Impressionism, Tonalism and Symbolism as well as the origins of twentieth-century abstract painting arising out of Cubism have all been well documented by scholars. However, the initial period of modernism in North America has been largely overlooked. There are a number of reasons for this oversight, including the chronological disparity between the beginning of modernism in Europe and its genesis in North America; the fact that there was no strong leader of the North American Post-Impressionist movement; and the lack of a recognizably American subject matter usually associated with other movements.

    The exhibition documents the way in which American and Canadian artists, in response to the innovations of European Post-Impressionists, experimented with the use of pure primary colors in paintings executed in an improvisatory manner from the turn of the century until the end of World War I. Many of them went to Paris, where the techniques of brilliant color and simplified drawing were seen in public exhibitions like the Salon d’Automne or in the home of Gertrude and Leo Stein. Some studied with Matisse, while others learned from their expatriate artist friends. And Alfred Stieglitz’s Gallery 291 and the Armory Show of 1913 brought the new art to those artists who remained in the United States and Canada.

    The Advent of Modernism
    includes examples by Maurice Prendergast, the first American modernist; watercolors by Charles Burchfield, Charles Demuth and John Mann; landscapes by Thomas Hart Benton, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer and Charles Sheeler; portraits by Stuart Davis and B.J.O. Norfeldt; and still lifes by Patrick Henry Bruce, Arthur B. Carles and Man Ray. Canadian painters, whose work in this country is little known, include Emily Carr, James Wilson Morrice and Tom Thomson, among others.

    The traveling exhibition was conceived by Peter Morrin, formerly Curator of 20th-Century Art at the High Museum of Art and now Director of the J.B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville. After its initial showing in Atlanta, the presentation traveled to the Center for the Fine Arts in Miami and will end its tour at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

    The presentation at The Brooklyn Museum was installed by Sarah Faunce, Chairman of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum.

    The Advent of Modernism is accompanied by a fully illustrated color catalogue with essays by Mr. Morrin and by art historians Judith Zilczer and William C. Agee ($22.50, softcover).

    In conjunction with the exhibition, an all-day symposium will be held on Saturday, December 6, highlighting the latest scholarship on the formative developments of modernism in North American art. Speakers include: William Agee, art historian; Ann Dumas, Assistant Curator, European Painting and Sculpture, The Brooklyn Museum; John O’Brian, Teaching Fellow, Department of Fine Arts, Harvard University; Dennis Reid, Curator of Canadian Historical Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Barbara Wolanin, Curator for the Architect of the Capitol; and Judith Zilczer, art historian, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The symposium has been made possible by the IBM Corporation and the New York State Council on the Arts. For registration information, please call (718) 638-5000, ext. 232.

    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1986, 093-95.
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  • November 21, 1986 PRESS PREVIEW TRANSPORTATION FROM MANHATTAN TO THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM AND RETURN, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25

    A special bus to transport members of the press to the preview of The Advent of Modernism: Post-Impressionism and North American Art, 1900-1918 will depart from in front of the Plaza Hotel promptly at 9:30 a.m., and return at 12 noon from The Brooklyn Museum to the same Manhattan location. To reserve seating on the bus, please call (718) 638-5000, ext. 330 by November 21.

    Date: Tuesday, November 25, 1986
    Time: 10 a.m. to 12 noon
    Location: Rotunda and adjacent galleries, 5th floor
    Exhibition Dates: November 26, 1986 - January 19, 1987

    The exhibition consists of 125 paintings and watercolors by 54 American and Canadian painters whose Cézannesque, neo-Impressionist and Fauve works constitute a specifically Post-Impressionist movement in North America that has been largely overlooked until now. The works, drawn from public and private collections in Europe and North America, reflect the influence of such European Post-Impressionists as Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Matisse, and represent the first response to Modernism in America and Canada.

    The exhibition, organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, was funded by a grant from the IBM Corporation. Its showing at The Brooklyn Museum has also been made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

    The Advent of Modernism includes examples by Maurice Prendergast, the first American modernist; watercolors by Charles Burchfield, Charles Demuth and John Mann; landscapes by Thomas Hart Benton, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer and Charles Sheeler; portraits by Stuart Davis and B.J.O. Norfeldt; and still lifes by Patrick Henry Bruce, Arthur B. Carles and Man Ray. Canadian painters, whose work in this country is little known, include Emily Carr, James Wilson Morrice and Tom Thomson, among others.

    Refreshments will be served.

    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1986, 100-101.
    View Original