Pathways to Modernism examines how American art became modern during the eighty-year period between 1865 and 1945, when the United States evolved from an agrarian society into an industrial nation. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Shanghai Museum, is drawn from the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Terra Foundation for American Art. +
This period was punctuated by conflict, from the American Civil War of the 1860s to the two World Wars of the twentieth century, but it was also a period of national expansion and technological innovation that witnessed a flourishing in the arts. This thematically arranged, chronologically sequenced exhibition explores the development of modern American art, as artists engaged with the political, economic, and cultural developments that transformed American society.
Featuring eighty paintings and works on paper by some of the greatest American masters, Pathways to Modernism highlights the artistic techniques and reflective practices that formed in response to the modernization of everyday life and showcases the gradual diversification of the artists who produced it. Works by artists including Frederic Edwin Church, Lilly Martin Spencer, Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Archibald Motley, Jacob Lawrence, and Jackson Pollock explore how artistic practice helped shape and reflect an evolving nation.
Co-organized by the Shanghai Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Dates & Venues
September 23, 2018–January 6, 2019
Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China
Works of Art from the Terra Foundation Collection
The exhibition of paintings and works on paper features 43 works from the Terra Foundation Collection, including:
- Frederic Edwin Church, Our Banner in the Sky, 1861
- Lilly Martin Spencer, The Home of the Red, White, and Blue, c. 1867–1868
- Mary Cassatt, Summertime, 1894
- Everett Shinn, Theater Scene, 1903
- Max Weber, Construction, 1915
- Helen Torr, Purple and Green Leaves, 1927
- Arthur Dove, Boat Going through Inlet, c. 1929
- Reginald Marsh, Pip and Flip, 1932
- John Steuart Curry, John Brown, 1939
- Romare Bearden, After Church, 1942
- Jacob Lawrence, Bar-b-que, 1942
- Milton Avery, Adolescence, 1947
Publication
Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945. Shanghai: Shanghai Museum, 2018.
Related Content
A five-day workshop on American Modernism was held at Fudan University from September 24–28, 2018, led by Dr. David Cateforis, Professor and Chair of the History of Art Department at the University of Kansas.
