Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection brings paintings by the great masters of the post-war world to San Francisco. The de Young will feature nearly 50 works by Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Frank Stella, among others. The de Young is the exclusive venue for this exhibition, the first of the Meyerhoff Collection outside the greater Washington, DC, and Baltimore metro areas.
This exhibition of modern and contemporary art will be organized into three generational groupings, allowing for a remarkable overview of American art from the end of World War II through the end of the century. Highlights of the exhibition include Stella’s Flin Flon IV (1969), Johns’ Perilous Night (1982), and Lichtenstein’s Painting with Statue of Liberty (1983)( all below).
The centerpiece of the exhibition is
Barnett Newman’s The Stations of the Cross (1958–66).
This series of 15 paintings, widely considered to be the artist’s most important work, will be displayed for the first time ever as the artist intended—shown together within a discrete, chapel-like gallery devoted solely to the series.
Beginning in 1985, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff began donating major works of post-war art to the National Gallery, and in 1987 signed an agreement with the National Gallery of Art for the eventual donation of their entire collection to the Gallery. Today, the Meyerhoff Collection stands as the largest donation ever to the National Gallery after Andrew Mellon’s original gift in 1937.
Roy Lichtenstein, Painting with Statue of Liberty, 1983. Oil and Magna on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, collection of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff. 1966.81.6 © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
Frank Stella, Flin Flon IV, 1969. Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, collection of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff. © 2013 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Autumn Gold, 1957, Hans Hofmann, oil on canvas, 132.7 x 153.4 cm (52 1/4 x 60 3/8 in.), National Gallery of Art, Collection of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff
Jasper Johns, Perilous Night, 1982, encaustic on canvas with objects, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection 1995.79.
