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PACE/MACGILL ‘IMAGE OF MODERNISM: WORK FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION’

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NEW YORK CITY — Pace/ MacGill Gallery will present “The Image of Modernism: Work from a Private Collection” April 3–May 10. The exhibition will feature more than 20 photographs, paintings and works on paper, dating from 1892­ to 1965, by American artists such as Oscar Bluemner, Charles Burchfield, Imogen Cunningham, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Walker Evans, John Marin, Man Ray, Charles Sheeler, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Edward Weston.

A catalog with an essay by art historian Barbara Haskell will accompany the exhibition.

Originating in Europe during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, Modernism encompassed a group of cultural movements that sought to reevaluate and transform traditional values and ideals. Precipitated by technological advancements and a new industrial age, proponents of the movement embraced a changing world and aspired to capture it in their work. American artists first saw and studied the work of Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Rodin — early advocates of this new vision — at Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery and the 1913 Armory Exhibition in New York City.

Rather than consider the histories of modern American painting and photography as disparate or fractured, the works in this private collection demonstrate a unified commitment to glorifying and new epoch via progressive visual principles.

Traditional subjects and genres — still life, landscape and narrative — were reinvigorated to serve a new vision. Seen alongside one another, this collection creates a lively dialogue that illuminates parallel formal and conceptual premises.

Largely because of Stieglitz’s efforts, the division between painting and photography dissolved. This collection underscores the synergy between artists working in various mediums and is an eloquent and seamless visual realization of modernist thought.

The Pace/MacGill Gallery is at 32 East 57 Street. For information, 212-759-7999 or www.pacemacgill.com.