‘It’s so joyful and full of promise’: a modernism exhibition aims for hope

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At a new exhibition at the Whitney in New York, a look back at early 20th-century modernist art offers optimism and also a rare diversity

Photograph: Robert Gerhardt and Denis Y Suspitsyn/Courtesy the Estate of Yun GeePhotograph: Robert Gerhardt and Denis Y Suspitsyn/Courtesy the Estate of Yun Geelthough the dawn of the 20th century was a time of war, pandemic and social upheaval, it also brought with it an undeniable sense of hope and opportunity that was central to the modernist art that was flourishing at the time.

Haskell wanted her show to make a provocative counterpoint to the currently running Whitney Biennial. Thus, she combed through the museum’s archives to not just celebrate modernist standard-bearers like Georgia O’Keefe and Aaron Douglas but also showcase artists – often women and/or people of color – who have been largely erased from the modernist movement.

Zorach’s contribution to the show, a landscape painted on to silk simply titled Landscape with Figures, brings to mind Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, for the sense of gathering and enjoyment that both convey.

From bathers and cityscapes, one arrives at Henrietta Shore’s monumental flower, titled Trail of Life. Recalling the work of Georgia O’Keefe, with whom she exhibited , it shows a simplified, abstracted flower bending with sensuous shapes. The work is among Haskell’s favorites in the show. “It’s almost this budding beginning of a flower. Shore applied multiple layers of paint, so the color just glows.

 

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