The Spring 2023 edition of Now Modern presents a selection of works by Charles Demuth, Richard Estes, Marsden Hartley, Fitz Henry Lane, Norman Lewis, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Frederick Peto, and Mark Tobey, among others. These leading artists worked across genres and styles to advance a variety of important movements that contributed to the evolving canon of American art, including Luminism, Realism, Abstract Expressionism, and Photorealism.
  • Felrath Hines, Bouquet, 1957

    Felrath Hines

    Bouquet, 1957

    Bouquet’s bright use of color and layered brushwork anticipates the ambitious series of large-scale abstractions Felrath Hines produced in the 1960s. Hines possessed a masterful understanding of the complexities of oil painting, gleaned through his successful career as a conservator. A founding member of the Spiral Group, a Black artists’ collective that sought to center marginalized artists, Hines remained committed to his personal language of abstraction, which served as a radical departure from the forms of visual art expected from Black artists at the time—typically realistic paintings of African heritage and history.

  • Charles Burchfield, Long Shadows, 1915

    Charles Burchfield

    Long Shadows, 1915
    Charles E. Burchfield’s Long Shadows reflects the artist’s affinity for experimenting with light and color. A contemporaneous entry from Burchfield’s journals evidences his fascination with the temporal effects on the landscape: "A cold windy day – soft flaky windy day clouds move across the rich blue sky all day. … The sunsets at this season are romantic – to see long blue green shadows stretching out to yellow remotely sunlit distances is to live in another world." Burchfield’s highly saturated colors give the work a graphic quality. These flat expanses of color anticipate the work of later contemporary artists, such as David Hockney and his digital drawings.
  • Highlights from 'Masterworks of American Art from the Estate of Dr. Walter Goldfarb'

    Presented at Schoelkopf Gallery January 17 - February 24, 2023
    • John Frederick Peto, Office Board for Christian Faser, 1881
      John Frederick Peto, Office Board for Christian Faser, 1881
    • Fitz Henry Lane Christmas Cove, c. 1863
      Fitz Henry Lane
      Christmas Cove, c. 1863
    • John Frederick Peto Lincoln and the Star of David, 1904
      John Frederick Peto
      Lincoln and the Star of David, 1904
  • Charles Demuth (1883 - 1935)

  • Highlights from 'John Marin Watercolors: 1916 - 1919'

    Presented at Schoelkopf Gallery March 10 - April 21, 2023
    • John Marin Region (Cocotte) on Bushkill Creek, Pennsylvania, 1916
      John Marin
      Region (Cocotte) on Bushkill Creek, Pennsylvania, 1916
    • John Marin Echo Lake District, Pennsylvania, 1916
      John Marin
      Echo Lake District, Pennsylvania, 1916
    • John Marin Sands Dunes I, Small Point, Maine, c. 1917
      John Marin
      Sands Dunes I, Small Point, Maine, c. 1917
    • John Marin Tree, Beach and Sea, Small Point, Maine, 1917
      John Marin
      Tree, Beach and Sea, Small Point, Maine, 1917
    • John Marin Region Rowe, Massachusetts, 1918
      John Marin
      Region Rowe, Massachusetts, 1918
    • John Marin Rowe, Massachusetts, 1918
      John Marin
      Rowe, Massachusetts, 1918
    • John Marin From Deer Isle, Maine, 1919
      John Marin
      From Deer Isle, Maine, 1919
    • John Marin Rowe, Massachusetts, 1918
      John Marin
      Rowe, Massachusetts, 1918
  • Georgia O'Keeffe, A Sunflower from Maggie, 1937

    Georgia O'Keeffe

    A Sunflower from Maggie, 1937
    Painted in New Mexico in 1937, A Sunflower from Maggie testifies to Georgia O’Keeffe’s career-long investigation into the material and conceptual possibilities that arise between representation and abstraction through the lens of the still life genre. In this resplendent example, O’Keeffe varied her application of paint to reflect the texture of a sunflower. Thick, vibrant yellow brushstrokes radiate outward, each corresponding to a flower petal, while delicate dots of paint indicate seeds that progressively evaporate toward the center. These subtle technical devices enhance the portrayal of the sunflower and, upon closer look, emerge as abstract subjects within themselves in a modernist tour de force.
  • “Art is a language in itself, embodying purely visual symbols which cannot properly be translated into words, musical notes, or in the case of painting, three dimensional objects, and to attempt such is to be unable to admit the unique function of art or understand its language.” - Norman Lewis, c. 1950

  • Norman Lewis (1909 - 1979)

    • Norman Lewis Untitled Abstraction, 1960
      Norman Lewis
      Untitled Abstraction, 1960
    • Norman Lewis Untitled, 1960
      Norman Lewis
      Untitled, 1960
  • Marsden Hartley, New Mexico Landscape, 1918-19

    Marsden Hartley

    New Mexico Landscape, 1918-19

    New Mexico Landscape belongs to a group of pastels Marsden Harley created while visiting the Santa Fe and Taos region in 1918. Hartley was riveted by the Southwest landscape, as seen most clearly in his pastels of the region. Hartley mainly worked in pastel while in New Mexico as the medium offered the perfect combination of a rich palette of high-keyed colors and the easy portability that would allow him to venture into the desert. While working outdoors, Hartley used intense colors to invoke the sparkling light around him. In letters to his dealer Alfred Stieglitz, the artist noted that the colors in New Mexico differed from the reds and yellows he had anticipated and instead he utilized blues, greens, pinks, and purples. New Mexico Landscape abounds with these vibrant hues.

  • Manierre Dawson (1887-1969)

    • Manierre Dawson, Blue Boy, 1912
      Manierre Dawson, Blue Boy, 1912
    • Manierre Dawson Prognostic (Right Panel of Triptych), 1910
      Manierre Dawson
      Prognostic (Right Panel of Triptych), 1910
  • Morris Graves, Mandala, 1970

    Morris Graves

    Mandala, 1970
    Mandala provides a quintessential example of the Eastern philosophical influences at the root of Morris Graves’ artistic practice. Mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle, is loosely defined as a geometric symbol or figure traditionally used in Eastern religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, as a tool to aid meditation and spiritual practices. Mandalas can be figurative or abstracted, elaborate, or simple, and they often represent the universe, or a sacred space through which one conducts a spiritual journey. The mandala serves as a map for these spiritual rituals to be followed from the outer edges of the design continuing through the visual layers to its core.
  • Richard Estes (b. 1932)

    Richard Estes has the unparalleled ability to manipulate compositions captured by his camera and to play with perspective in order to arrive at a painting faithful to his vision of the city.  Estes arranges his high-information painting with satisfying clarity, arriving at a composition that is both specific to a moment in time and a timeless urban landscape.

    • Richard Estes Japan Street Crossing, c. 1990
      Richard Estes
      Japan Street Crossing, c. 1990
    • Richard Estes Coast of Maine, c. 2020
      Richard Estes
      Coast of Maine, c. 2020
    • Richard Estes Tokyo, c. 1990
      Richard Estes
      Tokyo, c. 1990
  • Dorothy Morang, Space Images

    Dorothy Morang

    Space Images
    Watercolor on paper
    10 x 14 inches
    25.4 x 35.6 cm
  • Mark Tobey (1890 - 1976)

    • Mark Tobey Tumult, 1957
      Mark Tobey
      Tumult, 1957
    • Mark Tobey Red Rhythms, 1959
      Mark Tobey
      Red Rhythms, 1959
  • Emil Bisttram, Toward the Heavens, 1959

    Emil Bisttram

    Toward the Heavens, 1959
    Toward the Heavens exemplifies Emil Bisttram’s deft synthesis of abstract and representational forms. A founding member of the Transcendental Painting Group, which championed a non-representational and spiritual approach to painting, Bisttram referenced Transcendental ideas throughout his career, including in his later works. In Toward the Heavens, recognizable landscape elements are seen in the shape reminiscent of a mountain peak at the left of the composition, which is overlaid with leaf-like forms. Bisttram paired fine black lines with superimposed shapes, finding parallels in developments in European modernism, including the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miró. Major institutions have recognized the significance of Bisttram’s celestial-themed work; other examples can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, among others.
  • Alfred Maurer, Abstraction, 1919, 1919

    Alfred Maurer

    Abstraction, 1919, 1919

    Among the first Americans to espouse novel European modernist approaches to painting, Alfred Maurer was directly informed by his exposure to avant-garde circles in Paris. These geometric abstractions from 1919 through the 1920s are significant in anticipating Maurer’s later Cubist experimentations.

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