Philbrook Exhibit Spotlights American Modernism
ANTICIPATED OPENING: From left, Emily Schuchardt Navratil, associate curator for the Vilcek Foundation; Rick Kinsel, executive director of the Vilcek Foundation; and Catherine Whitney, curator at Philbrook Museum of Art, stand at the entrance of “From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism” from the Vilcek Foundation Collection, which opened at Philbrook on Feb. 8.
EMILY RAMSEY for GTR Newspapers
On Feb. 8, Philbrook Museum of Art debuted “From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism” from the Vilcek Foundation Collection. The exhibit will be on display through May 3. Organized by Philbrook Chief Curator and Curator of American Art Catherine Whitney, this original exhibition explores the fertile period in America’s national story that resulted in the country’s first truly homegrown, modern art movement. Drawn from the Vilcek Foundation Collection in New York City, this presentation represents the first time many of these notable works will be accessible to the public. Collectively, these works, by some of the 20th century’s most innovative and colorful modernists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, and Arthur Dove, demonstrate how the artists came together under the banner of American identity to create a shared visual language of abstraction.
With more than 60 masterworks of American modernism ranging from the early 1910s to the Post-War era, the exhibition presents a range of modern stylistic approaches in various media (paintings, sculptures, and works on paper). These American vanguards overthrew traditional painting practices during this watershed period to create a uniquely American visual affinity. “From New York to New Mexico” emphasizes four main themes: nature’s great unfolding; the cubist impulse; man made: town and country; and our western roots.
“Through this show, I hope to shine a bright spotlight on a time during which these artists, regardless of their individual backgrounds or countries of origin, unified under a distinctly American identity, while expanding notions of personal expression,” says Whitney.
Born in the former Czechoslovakia, Dr. Jan and Marica Vilcek immigrated to New York in the mid-1960s where they continued their careers in the fields of biomedicine and art history. Jan came to work at New York University School of Medicine while Marica worked her way up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Initially collecting based on personal tastes and the design of their home, the Vilceks later expanded their collection into the realm of American modernism. Since 2001, the Vilceks have assembled an extraordinary collection of American modernist art, which is a promised gift to the Vilcek Foundation. “Over the years, Marica and I have acquired a sizable collection from the first half of the twentieth century,” says Jan. “This exhibition serves as a milestone in that, thanks to Philbrook, these artworks from this important period will for the first time be accessible to the general public.”
After the exhibit leaves Philbrook, it will travel to Phoenix Museum of Art and Georgia O’Keefe Museum of Art in Santa Fe. Finally, the works will move into their long-term home at the Vilcek Foundation, which is scheduled to open in 2016 in New York City.
Updated 03-02-2015
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