The Ashmolean
23
March–22 July 2018
The Ashmolean will present a major exhibition of works by
American artists that have never before travelled outside the USA (23
March–22 July 2018).
AMERICA’S COOL MODERNISM: O’KEEFFE TO HOPPER will
show over eighty paintings, photographs and prints, and the first
American avant-garde film, Manhatta, from international
collections. Eighteen key loans will come from the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York; and a further twenty-seven pieces are being loaned by
the Terra Foundation for American Art with whom the exhibition is
organised. Thirty-five paintings have never been to the UK and seventeen
of these have never left the USA at all.
COOL MODERNISM examines famous painters and photographers of the
1920s and ‘30s with early works by Georgia O’Keeffe; photographs by
Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Edward Weston; and cityscapes by
Edward Hopper. It also displays the pioneers of modern American art
whose work is less well-known in the UK, particularly Charles Demuth
(1883–1935) and Charles Sheeler (1883–1965). On show will be major
pieces by the so-called precisionist artists.
These include Demuth’s I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
(1928, from the Met), the painting Robert Hughes described as the ‘one
picture so famous that practically every American who looks at art knows
it.’ Made in 1928 and dedicated to the poet William Carlos Williams, the Figure 5,
was one of a series of symbolist ‘poster-portraits’ which Demuth made
of friends and fellow artists. Consisting of an enormous, stylized ‘5’
that occupies the entire picture plane and painted in bold colours on
wallboard, the painting evokes new styles of advertising that were
multiplying in American cities in the 1920s – a remarkable anticipation
of Pop art later in the century.
Another important loan is Sheeler’s Americana
(1931, from the Met) which has never been lent outside the USA. The
painting shows a traditional American domestic scene with Shaker
furniture and folk objects arranged in a near abstract composition – a
blend of modernist forms with a historical subject.
Other rare loans
include a painting by E.E. Cummings (1894–1962), better known for his
poetry;
and Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) (c. 1920, NGA
Washington DC) by Edward Steichen (1879–1973) who destroyed nearly all
his paintings before dedicating himself to photography. The Sunflower was exhibited in Paris shortly after it was painted in 1922 and has not been seen in Europe since then.
Dr Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean, says:
‘It
is an extraordinary privilege to borrow some of the greatest works ever
made by American artists for this landmark exhibition. The Ashmolean is
indebted to the Terra Foundation, the Met and other lenders for parting
with so many of their treasures. We are bringing together an
exceptional collection of paintings, photographs and prints - iconic
pieces that have never been to the UK before and deserve to be
better-known in this country. We will reveal a fascinating aspect of
American interwar art that is yet to be explored in a major exhibition.’
The exhibition looks at a current in interwar American art that is
relatively unknown. The familiar story of America in the ‘Roaring
Twenties’ is that of The Great Gatsby, the Harlem Renaissance
and the Machine Age; while the 1930s are known as the Steinbeckian world
marked by the Depression and the New Deal.
This exhibition focuses on
the artists who grappled with the experience of modern America with a
cool, controlled detachment, eliminating people from their pictures
altogether. For some this treatment reflected an ambivalence and anxiety
about the modern world. Factories without workers and streets without
people could seem strange and empty places.
CATALOGUE
America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to Hopper
Paperback
by
Katherine Bourgignon
(Author),
Leo Mazow
(Contributor),
Lauren Kroiz
(Contributor)
Two works by Jacob Lawrence
(1917–2000) from his ‘Migration’ series, which is otherwise full
of characters, are notable for the absence of people. They express the
harsh experience of African Americans travelling north in hope of a
better life. What they found was often more frightening than promising.
Edward Hopper’s Manhattan Bridge Loop (1928) has a gloomy atmosphere with a tiny, solitary pedestrian whose walking pace is at odds with the bridge’s traffic.
For others, this cool treatment of contemporary America was a
positive response - an expression of optimism and pride. Skyscrapers
and bridges become studies in geometry; and cities are cleansed and
ordered with no crowds and no chaos.
Louis Lozowick’s (1892–1973) prints
capture the energy of the city in curving sprawls and buildings soaring
into the sky; while Ralston Crawford (1906–78)
and Charles Sheeler
depict the architecture of industrial America – factories, grain
elevators, water plants – as the country’s new cathedrals, glorious in
their scale and feats of engineering, yet oddly emptied of people.
These artists were also engaged in a conscious effort to develop a
distinctly American modernism, not derived from Europe but rooted in
American cultural tradition and the landscape. They drew a direct line
of descent from the simple utilitarian forms of Shaker furniture and
rural barns to the standardized, machine-made world of the 1920s and
‘30s. In painting and photographing these subjects in a commensurate
style – crisp surfaces, flattened perspective, linear purity - artists
and critics were revealing an essential attribute of the American
character – modernity.
Dr Katherine Bourguignon, Terra Foundation for American Art and exhibition curator, says:
‘In
addition to the artists who are well-known in the UK, this exhibition
is an opportunity to introduce a European audience to important figures
like Patrick Henry Bruce, Helen Torr and Charles Sheeler; and
photographers of the interwar period including Imogen Cunningham and
Berenice Abbott. These artists were actively seeking to create art that
could be seen as authentically ‘American’. Decades before the Pop
artists addressed consumerism and the American character, artists in the
1920s and ‘30s were dealing with these themes in remarkably modern
images marked by emotional restraint and ‘cool’ control.’
Images
Marsden
Hartley (1877, –, 1943), Painting No. 50, 1914–15, Oil on canvas, 119.4 x 119.4
cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,
Edward
Steichen (1879, –, 1973), Le Tournesol (The Sunflower), c.1920, Tempera and oil
on canvas, 92.1 x 81.9 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, © The Estate
of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York,
E.E.Cummings
(1894, –, 1962), Sound, 1919, Oil on canvas, 89.2 x 88.9 cm, Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York , © The Estate of E.E. Cummings,
Patrick
Henry Bruce (1881, –, 1936), Peinture, 1917–18, Oil & graphite on canvas,
65.1 x 81.6 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago,
Morton
Schamberg (1881, –, 1918), Untitled (Mechanical Abstraction), 1916, Oil on
composition board, 49.8 x 39.8 cm, © Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York,
John
Covert (1882, –, 1960), Resurrection, 1916, Oil, gesso & pile fabric on
plywood, 60.6 x 65.9 cm, © Whitney Museum of Art, New York / estate of the
artist,
Georgia
O’Keeffe (1887, –, 1986), Black Abstraction, 1927, Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 102.2
cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York , © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New
York,
Arthur
Dove (1880, –, 1946), Mountain and Sky, c.1925, Oil on wood panel, 39.7 x 30.2
cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Arthur
Dove (1880, –, 1946), Goat, 1935, Oil on canvas with selective varnish, 58.4 x
78.7 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Arthur
Dove (1880, –, 1946), Fishboat, 1930, Oil on paperboard nailed to wood
strainer, 61.6 x 84.5 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Boat going through Inlet, c.
1929, Oil on tin, 51.4 x 71.8 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel
J. Terra Art Acquisition , Endowment Fund, Chicago,
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887, –, 1986), Abstraction, 1919, Oil
on canvas, 25.7 x 17.9 cm, The Newark Museum, New Jersey, © Artist Rights
Society (ARS), New York,
Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Penetration, 1924, Oil on
board, 54 x 44.8 cm, © The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection,
Helen Torr (1886, –, 1967), Purple and Green Leaves, 1927,
Oil on copper, mounted on board, 51.4 x 38.7 cm, Terra Foundation for American
Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Estate of Helen Torr, with the
permission of John and Diane Rehm,
Helen
Torr (1886, –, 1967), Crimson and Green Leaves, 1927, Oil on plywood, 35.9 x
31.8 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Estate of Helen Torr, with the
permission of John and Diane Rehm,
Paul
Strand (1890, –, 1976), Still Life, Pear and Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut,
1916, Printed on Lana Gravure paper, 25.4 x 28.6 cm, Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,
Imogen
Cunningham (1883, –, 1976), Magnolia Blossom, 1925, Gelatin silver print,
Private Collection, New York, © The Imogen Cunningham Trust, all rights
reserved,
Paul
Strand (1890, –, 1976), Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Twin Lakes, Connecticut,
1916, Printed on Lana Gravure paper, 30.2 x 20.4 cm, Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,
Berenice
Abbott (1898–1991), John Watts Statue: From Trinity Churchyard, Looking toward
One Wall , Street, Manhattan,, 1
February 1938, Gelatin silver print, 24.1 x 19.1 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester,
New York, © Berenice Abbott, ,
Imogen Cunningham (1883, –, 1976), Fageol Factory, Oakland, 1934, Gelatin
silver print, 17.7 x 22.7 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © The
Imogen Cunningham Trust, all rights reserved,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Bucks County Barn, c.1916, Gelatin silver print, 19.1
x 23.9 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), New York, towards the Woolworth Building, 1920,
Gelatin silver print, 24.5. x 19.5 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, ©
Estate of Charles Sheeler,
Alfred
Stieglitz (1864, –, 1946), From my window at The Shelton, West, 1931, Gelatin
silver print, 23.7 x 19 cm, © George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY,
Paul
Strand (1890, –, 1976), Abstraction, Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1936,
Photogravure, 22.8 x 16.6 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © Aperture
Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,
Paul
Strand (1890, –, 1976), The White Fence, Port Kent, New York, 1916 (printed
1917), Photogravure, 16.5 x 21.5 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, ©
Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,
Charles
Demuth (1883, –, 1935), I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928, Oil, graphite, ink
and gold leaf on paperboard, 90.2 x 76.2 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York,
Georgia
O’Keeffe (1887, –, 1986), East River from The Shelton Hotel, 1928, Oil on
canvas, 30.5 x 81.3 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © 2017 Artist
Rights Society (ARS), New York,
Imogen
Cunningham (1883, –, 1976), Two Calla Lilies, c.1925, Gelatin silver print, 30
x 22.6 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © The Imogen Cunningham Trust,
all rights reserved,
Joseph Stella (1877, –, 1946), Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917, Oil on
canvas, 92.1 x 76.8 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,
Joseph
Stella (1877, –, 1946), Metropolitan Port, 1935–37, Oil on canvas, 89.2 x 74.3
cm, © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC / artist’s estate,
Oscar
Bluemner (1867, –, 1938), Little Falls, New Jersey, 1917, Oil on masonite, ,
37.5 x 50.4 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), MacDougal Alley, 1924, Oil on canvas, 66.5 x 52 cm,
Davison Art Center Collection, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, © Estate of
Charles Sheeler,
Charles Sheeler (1883–1965), Water, 1945, Oil on canvas, 61 x 74.3 cm,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Estate of
Niles Spencer (1893, –, 1952), Erie Underpass, 1949, Oil on canvas,
71.1 x 91.4 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / artist’s estate,
George Ault (1891, –, 1948), Hoboken Factory,
1932, Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 55.9 cm, © Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Smithsonian Institution, , Washington DC / artist’s estate,
Niles
Spencer (1893, –, 1952), Waterfront Mill, 1940, Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4 cm,
© Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / artist’s estate,
Paul Kelpe (1902, –, 85), Machinery (Abstract #2), 1933–34, Oil on canvas, 97 x
67 cm, © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, Charles Sheeler (1883,
–, 1965) and
Charles Demuth (1883–1935), Nospmas. M. Egiap
Nospmas. M., 1921, Oil on canvas, 61 x 51.4 cm, © Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts
Institute, Utica, New York,
Louis
Lozowick (1892, –, 1973), Red Circle, 1924, Oil on canvasboard, 45.7 x 38.1 cm,
The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, © Estate of Louis Lozowick,
Jacob
Lawrence (1917, –, 2000), The Migration Series, panel no.25: They left their
homes. Soon some, communities were left almost empty., 1940–41, Casein tempera
on hardboard, 45.72 x 30.48 cm, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, © 2016
The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle , / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York,
Jacob
Lawrence (1917–2000), The Migration Series, panel no. 31: The migrants found
improved housingwhen they arrived north., 1940–41, Casein tempera on
hardboard, 30.48 x 45.72 cm, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, © 2016 The
Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle , / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York,
Arnold
Rönnebeck (1885, –, 1947), Brooklyn Bridge, 1925, Lithograph on off-white wove
paper, 32.1 x 17 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago,
Charles
Demuth (1883, –, 1935), Welcome to our City, 1921, Oil on canvas, 63.8 x 51.1
cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,
Charles
Demuth (1883, –, 1935), Rue du Singe Qui Pêche, 1921, Tempera on academy board,
52.2 x 41 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago,
Louis Lozowick (1892, –, 1973), New York, 1925, Lithograph on off-white wove
paper, 29.1 x 22.9 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago,©
Estate of Louis Lozowick,
Howard Cook (1901–80), Skyscraper, 1928, Wood
engraving on cream Japanese paper, 45.7 x 21.9 cm, © Terra Foundation for
American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Delmonico Building, 1927, Lithograph on wove ivory
paper, 24.8 x 17.1 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago,© Estate of Charles Sheeler,
Louis
Lozowick (1892, –, 1973), Minneapolis, 1925, Lithograph on off-white wove
paper, 29.5 x 22.5 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago, © Estate of Louis Lozowick,
John
Taylor Arms (1887, –, 1953), The Gates of the City, 1922, Colour etching and
aquatint on cream laid paper, 21.6 x 20.2 cm, © Terra Foundation for American
Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate
Paul Landacre (1893, –, 1963), The Press, 1934, Wood engraving on wove Japanese
paper, 21 x 21 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, Chicago,© The Paul Landacre Estate / VAGA, New York,
Samuel
Margolies (1897, –, 1974), Man’s Canyon, 1936, Etching and aquatint on cream
laid paper, 30.2 x 22.4 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J.
Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,
William
Charles McNulty (1889, –, 1963), New York in the Fifties, 1931, Drypoint on
off-white paper, 34.3 x 17.9 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J.
Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,
Howard
Cook (1901, –, 80), Time Square Sector, 1930, Etching on off-white paper, 30.5
x 25.1 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago , / artist’s estate,
Edward Weston (1886–1958), Steel: Armco, Middletown, Ohio, 1922, Palladium
print, Private Collection, New York, © 1981 Center for Creative Photography,
Arizona Board of Regents,
Paul
Strand (1890–1976), From the El, 1915, Platinum print, 33.6 x 25.9 cm, Private
Collection, New York, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,
Berenice
Abbott (1898, –, 1991), Canyon, Broadway and Exchange Place, Manhattan, 1936,
Gelatin silver print, Private Collection, New York, © Berenice Abbott,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Coke Ovens-River Rouge, 1927, Gelatin silver print,
Private Collection, New York, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Industrial Series #1, 1928, Lithograph, Private
Collection, New York, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,
Ralston Crawford (1906–1978), Buffalo Grain Elevators, 1937, Oil on canvas, 102
x 127.6 cm, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, © Ralston Crawford
Estate,
Charles
Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Bucks County Barn, 1940, Oil on canvas, 46.7 x 72.1
cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,©
Estate of Charles Sheeler,
Georgia
O’Keeffe (1887–1986), Ranchos Church, 1930, Oil on canvas, 61 x 91.4 cm,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York,
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Dawn in Pennsylvania, 1942, Oil on canvas, 61.9 x
112.4 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of ,
American Art,
Stuart
Davis (1892–1964), Odol, 1924, Oil on canvas, 60.9 x 45.6 cm, Museum of Modern
Art, New York, © The estate of Stuart Davis/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2017,
Edward
Hopper (1882–1967), Night in the Park , 1921, Etching on white wove paper, 17.3
x 21 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of ,
American Art,
Edward
Hopper (1882–1967), From Williamsburg Bridge, 1928, Oil on canvas, 74.6 x 111.1
cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper,
licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,
Edward
Hopper (1882–1967), Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928, Oil on canvas, 88.9 x 152.4 cm,
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover MA, © Heirs of
Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), The Cat Boat, 1922, Etching on off-white wove paper,
20 x 24.9 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of ,
American Art,
Martin
Lewis (1881–1962), Which Way?, 1932, Aquatint on pale blue paper, 26.2 x 40.3
cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago ,
/ artist’s estate,
Grant
Wood (1891–1942), January , 1938, Lithograph on BFK Rives off-white paper, 22.7
x 30.2 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago,© Successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, , New
York,
Edward
Hopper (1882–1967), Night Shadows , 1921, Etching on white wove paper, 17.5 x
21 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,©
Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,
Edward
Hopper (1882–1967), The Railroad, 1922, Etching on off-white laid paper, 20 x
25.1 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of ,
American Art,
Grant Wood (1891–1942), Fertility, 1939, Lithograph, 22.7 x 30.2 cm, Private
Collection, New York, © Successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by
VAGA, , New York,
Grant
Wood (1891–1942), July Fifteenth, 1938, Lithograph on paper, Private
Collection, New York, © Successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by
VAGA, , New York,
Paul
Strand (1890–1976), Akeley Motion Picture Camera, New York City, 1923, Gelatin
silver print, 24.5 x 19.5 cm, Victoria
and Albert Museum, London, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul
Strand Archive
Benton
Murdoch Spruance (1904–1967), American Pattern - Barn, 1940, Lithograph, 19.4 x
35.6 cm, © Private Collection, New York / artist’s estate,