Early American Modernism
Gallery 15
Lynn Herrick Sharp Gallery
“We are not here to do what has already been done.”
—Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, 1923
In the early 20th century, American artists were experimenting with new styles and different subjects, breaking from established artistic traditions and institutions. While the Ashcan School painters explored markedly modern subjects, the artists who gathered around Alfred Stieglitz experimented with the latest modern styles imported from Europe, especially Cubism and abstract art. Beginning with natural elements, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Abraham Walkowitz simplified and stylized the objects, figures, and landscapes they depicted until their pictures became abstract compositions of color, line, and shape.
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