Pathways to Modernism examined 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, was 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 explored 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 highlighted 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 explored how artistic practice helped shaped and reflected an evolving nation.
Co-organized by the Shanghai Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
September 23, 2018–January 6, 2019
Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China
Fredrick Edwin Church, Our Banner in the Sky, 1861. Oil paint over lithograph on paper, laid down on cardboard, image: 7 1/2 x 11 3/8 in. (19.0 x 28.9 cm), frame: 13 1/16 x 16 7/8 in. (33.2 x 42.9 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1992.27.
Mary Cassatt, Summertime, 1894. Oil on canvas, image: 39 5/8 x 32 in. (100.6 x 81.3 cm), frame: 49 1/8 x 41 1/2 in. (124.8 x 105.4 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1988.25.
Everett Shinn, Theater Scene, 1903. Oil on canvas, image: 12 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (32.4 x 39.4 cm), frame: 22 x 24 7/8 in. (55.9 x 63.2 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.136.
Arthur Dove, Boat Going through Inlet, c. 1929. Oil on tin, image: 20 1/8 × 28 1/4 in. (51.1 × 71.8 cm), frame overall (with environmental vitrine): 26 9/16 × 34 7/8 × 3 in. (67.5 × 88.6 × 7.6 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2015.6. Courtesy: The Estate of Arthur G. Dove/ Terry Dintenfass, Inc.
Reginald Marsh, Pip and Flip, 1932. Tempera on canvas mounted on canvas, image: 48 1/4 x 48 1/4 in. (122.6 x 122.6 cm), frame: 57 1/2 x 57 1/2 in. (146.1 x 146.1 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.96
Jacob Lawrence, Bar-b-que, 1942. Gouache on wove paper, sheet: 30 7/8 x 22 1/2 in. (78.4 x 57.2 cm), frame: 35 × 26 5/16 × 1 1/8 in. (88.9 × 66.8 × 2.9 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2013.1.
Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945. Shanghai: Shanghai Museum, 2018.
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.
