"Art at Midcentury: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston"
2001-04-13 until 2001-09-03
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, TX, USA

The middle years of the 20th century saw the worlds art centers shift from Europe to the United States. Art at Midcentury: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston examines the complex dynamic that occurred between Europeans and Americans, tracing the emergence of the Abstract Expressionist avant-garde in America, lart informel (art without form) in Europe, and later developments.

The exhibition opens with art by European and Latin American artists such as Max Ernst and Matta, whose work was to play a defining role in shaping the New York School of the 1940s. The museumNULLs extraordinary collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings follows, including examples by American artists Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Parallel developments among European contemporaries are shown through the work of Pierre Alechinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Pierre Soulages, Hans Hartung, and others.

At the same time, a complementary movement of hard-edge abstraction emerged on both sides of the Atlantic, with Europeans working in the United States, and Americans working in Paris. This trend is represented by the paintings of Josef Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, and Jack Youngerman. The exhibition concludes with the work of the Nouveaux Réalistes (New Realists), who emerged in Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and examples of assemblage created by artists in New York.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Texas

Other Important Exhibitions in Houston