Level 3 Galleries
In the spectacular central gallery are large-scale paintings and sculpture on the theme of abstraction, showcasing Latin American masterworks alongside the MFA’s collections from the United States. Galleries on the north side feature The Lane Collection of early modernist paintings and works on paper by Sheeler, Davis, O’Keeffe, and Dove, and photographs by Stieglitz, Steichen, Weston, and Adams. These contrast with two galleries on the south side of realist works by Hopper, Wyeth, Bellows, Bravo, and others. Additional galleries explore the Jazz Age of the 1920s and ‘30s and art and design of the 1940s and ‘50s.
Abstraction: 1940-1970 332
American Modernism: The Lane Collection 334
Modernist Photography: 1910-1950 (rotating) 335
The 1940s and 1950s 336
20th-Century Art: People 328
20th-Century Art: Places 327
The 1920s and 1930s 326
The central gallery on Level 3 presents a range of artists working in North and South America from about 1940 through the mid 1970s in a variety of styles ranging from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting and so-called op-art. Key works by Arshile Gorky and Franz Kline join canvases by Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, and Joan Mitchell, as well as works by color field painters based in North America and South America. Showcased are paintings by a range of artists working in hard-edged abstraction, such as Al Loving, César Paternosto, and Frank Stella, and more painterly styles by artists Philip Guston and Robert Motherwell. Sculpture and jewelry by Alexander Calder, a ceramic work by Peter Voulkos, and sculptures by David Smith and George Rickey complement the paintings in this soaring space flooded with natural light.
This gallery is devoted to the major 20th-century modernist artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, and Charles Sheeler. Many of the objects on view were a gift to the MFA from benefactors William and Saundra Lane. The display surveys the innovative careers of these artists, who sought to reconcile the new language of abstraction with a distinctly American vocabulary. Each main wall of the gallery features one of the artist’s masterpieces (Deer’s Skull with Pedernal, 1936; That Red One, 1944; Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors—7th Avenue Style, 1940; and Arrangement: Hieroglyphics, 1914) surrounded by other signature canvases. The installation also includes light-sensitive works in a variety of media, O’Keeffe’s series of paintings entitled Shell and Old Shingle (1926), which demonstrates her process of working from realism toward abstraction, and an early mobile by Alexander Calder. An interactive touch-screen table in the gallery encourages visitors to explore the way in which artists’ choices affect their resulting compositions; among the painters featured are O’Keeffe, Sheeler, Edward Hopper, and Ralph Colburn.
Each of the three opening exhibitions in this rotating gallery will feature approximately 35-50 American modernist photographs representing highlights from the Museum’s own collection as well as The Lane Collection. These installations focus on the concept of the camera as modernist tool in the hands of American photographers during the 1910s through the 1950s. Each includes four sections and will reflect significant innovations in 20th-century American photography and major strengths of the Museum's holdings. The first selection examines subjects such as American vernacular architectures, portraits and nudes, still life and close up, and abstraction in the everyday. The second rotation explores natural abstraction, images of popular culture and street photography, as well as machine-age photography and the American city. The third focuses on Edward Weston’s “Leaves of Grass” project of 1941 and will present photographs ranging from portraits, rural landscapes, and cityscapes, to still lifes and industrial subjects. This display explores a little-known period in Weston’s late career and draws from the rich holdings of this material in The Lane Collection. Prints by well-known artists, including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, and Dorothea Lange, as well as major figures in The Lane Collection—Charles Sheeler, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams—will be presented along with work by highly inventive but less well-known names, such as Karl Struss, Paul Outerbridge, Morton Schamberg, Dorothy Norman, and Doris Ulmann. Paintings and drawings by Charles Sheeler and Georgia O’Keeffe augment the selection of related photographs.
Art produced in the Americas during the 1940s and 1950s displays a range of abstract forms that pervaded all media, from unique works of art to manufactured designs. This gallery explores both geometric and biomorphic abstraction using a variety of display techniques from the period. Among the highlights are innovative furniture designs by Charles and Ray Eames, chairs by Eero Saarinen and Vladimir Kagan, ceramics by Russel Wright, and jewelry and sculpture from various artists, among them Art Smith and Sam Kramer. Smaller works in oil and on paper will be rotated and include psychoanalytic drawings by Jackson Pollock and a rare ceramic bowl painted by Pollock while he was undergoing Jungian analysis. Complementing these installations are paintings by Josef Albers, Ralph Coburn, artists from the American Abstract Artists group (such as Ilya Bolotowsky, Esphyr Slobodkina, and Charmion von Wiegand), and those exploring Surrealism—Wifredo Lam and Joseph Cornell. Also featured are works by several Central and South American artists, including Joaquin Torres-Garcia, and Alfredo Hilto, who simultaneously painted in the style of Piet Mondrian’s geometric abstractions. Paintings and sculpture on loan from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros will serve to augment the MFA’s holdings in this area.
Abstraction was only part of the American art experience during the 20th century, and two galleries on Level 3 highlight works by painters, sculptors, and decorative artists who remained committed to realism in a variety of forms. This gallery is anchored by Walker Hancock’s moving memorial to the lost soldiers of World War II (Scale-model for Pennsylvania Railroad War Memorial, 1949-52). Paintings by George Luks, George Bellows, Hyman Bloom, Alice Neel, Scott Prior, Andrew Wyeth, Larry Rivers, and Claudio Bravo demonstrate the continued viability of the figurative tradition during the course of the 20th century.
From the agricultural heartland to the vibrant diversity of the city, The Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell Gallery explores the importance of place and the persistent interest in landscape, real or imagined, throughout the 20th century. Paintings by John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, along with agrarian themed sculpture by Albert Wein and a Wharton Esherick carved wooden folding screen, exemplify the mid-century regionalist movement. An idealized pastoral landscape decorates an elaborately painted chest by Charles Prendergast, shown with changing displays of textiles and works on paper with similar Arcadian motifs. Landscapes by Horace Pippin, Charles Sheeler, and Rockwell Kent represent modern approaches to the American scene while paintings by John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Allan Rohan Crite, and Walter Simon document urban life.
American art and design of the 1920s and 1930s combined French-inspired luxury and elegance and German machine-age functionalism with American optimism, playfulness, and innovation, as seen in jazz music, skyscraper architecture, and speedy transportation. This gallery presents the high style world of custom-made interiors and one-of-a-kind designs with mass-produced, everyday objects available to the public. Featured works include Donald Deskey’s aluminum-leaf screen (about 1930), Paul Frankl’s iconic Skyscraper desk and bookcase (about 1928), Viktor Schreckengost’s ceramic Jazz Bowl (1931), and a selection of lap guitars. The gallery highlights the strengths of The John Axelrod Collection, including elegant silver cocktail and coffee sets and streamlined clocks and radios, and is complemented by an impressive group of paintings, such as Joseph Stella’s spectacular Old Brooklyn Bridge (about 1941), Charles Sheeler’s View of New York (1931), Edward Hopper’s Drug Store (1927), and Arthur Dove’s George Gershwin—I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise (1927). Also integrated into the gallery are textiles of the period, including fashionalbe evening attire and a textile by Ruth Reeves.