The Montclair Art Museum Presents "Patterns, Systems, Structures: Abstraction in American Art"

Dec. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) proudly presents "Patterns, Systems, Structures: Abstraction in American Art." The exhibition will open in two phases. Part One opens December 3, 2011, in the McMullen Gallery with works from the late 19th century through the 20th, including Native American art; Part Two opens February 12, 2012, in Lehman Court and the Shelby Gallery with additional works representing 20th-century abstraction. The exhibition runs through May 19, 2013, and is organized by MAM’s chief curator, Gail Stavitsky.

The exhibition is drawn entirely from the permanent collection of the Montclair Art Museum and explores the rich variety of approaches to abstraction in American art. Since the late 19th century, painters and sculptors have not always aimed to depict persons and objects representationally. Artists moved toward abstract visual expression as they experimented with unconventional materials and techniques and developed visual languages of form, color, and line that exist independently from their subjects’ natural appearance. Some artists deliberately altered appearances by stretching or bending forms, breaking up shapes, and giving objects unlikely textures or colors. Others looked to aspects of our person-made world, such as architecture, to invest their compositions with a sense of solidity, monumentality, and structure. Artists have made these transformations in an effort to communicate universal or unseen spiritual aspects of existence and of modern life that they cannot convey through representational treatments.

Stavitsky said: “This exhibition has provided a great opportunity to re-examine the permanent collection and show works that have seldom or never been exhibited before. It offers new perspectives by juxtaposing historical and contemporary art. Rarely, for example, do you see the 19th-century masters Inness and Whistler in the company of American modernists like Morgan Russell and Joseph Stella, nor mid-century artists like Joseph Albers and his student Richard Anuskiewicz with the current artist James Siena.”  

Group Tours
Group tours may be booked by calling 973-259-5136 or by emailing tours@montclairartmuseum.org.

Online Press Site
The Museum will maintain a site dedicated to the exhibition for journalists seeking further information, including a checklist and images. Please visit http://www.montclairartmuseum.org and click on For the Media.

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The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) presents exhibitions and programs that reflect its collection of historic and contemporary American and Native American art. MAM's Yard School of Art offers classes for people of all ages.