The Rotunda
Patterns, Systems, Structures
Abstraction in American Art
Through May 2013
This exhibition, curated by MAM’s Chief Curator Gail Stavitsky, 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.
Highlights from the Sculpture Collection
The works in this collection represent many of the major developments in American sculpture. Examples range from the neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles of the nineteenth century, through the pioneering modernism of the early twentieth century, up to the eclecticism of the contemporary scene. The Montclair Art Museum has many fine examples of wall reliefs, assemblages and sculpture in the round, fabricated from such materials as marble, bronze, terracotta, wood, plastic and found objects. Artists represented in the diverse collection include Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, Thomas Ball, Elie Nadelman, Chaim Gross, Theodore Roszak, George Segal, Louise Nevelson, and Mel Edwards.
If you are planning a special visit to see a particular piece of artwork at MAM, please call ahead to confirm the object is on display in our galleries. Works are sometimes on loan for exhibitions at other museums, or may have been taken down temporarily for conservation and gallery rotations. Phone (973) 746-5555.
