At the Dawn of a New Age

The Norton Museum of Art hosts a series of modern art exhibitions with a special, diverse collection on loan from the Whitney

Through August 27

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Opening this spring and continuing through the summer of 2023 are three superb presentations of modernist art brought to you by the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. The focus of this article, At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism, featuring 58 pieces in a variety of mediums from the Whitney Museum of American Art collection, will be presented alongside the Norton collection presented in From Man Ray to O’Keeffe, American Modernism at the Norton.

Yun Gee (1906-1963), Street Scene, 1926. Oil on board, 111/8 x 161/16 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Lawrence H. Bloedel Bequest 77.1.18. Courtesy the Estate of Yun Gee.

“Modernism has always been a significant focus for the Norton,” says Ghislain d’Humieres, Kenneth C. Griffin director and CEO. “Drawing from the Norton’s extensive holdings of American art alongside work from the Whitney, we can present a fuller, richer history of the movement.”

Ellen Roberts, Harold and Anne Berkeley Smith senior curator of American art at the Norton, explains, “I designed the Norton collection to be as similar as possible in terms of time frame with the Whitney collection, [between 1900 and the 1930s]. The exciting thing about At the Dawn of a New Age, is you find these themes of modernist artists transcending their media. You can really see how the American sculptors, photographers, painters, etc., are looking to nature to find subject matter, while some artists are working in multimedia. It’s thrilling to see these connections.”

Agnes Pelton (1881-1961), Ahmi in Egypt, 1931. Oil on canvas, 363/16 x 243/16 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Modern Painting and Sculpture Committee 96.175 © Estate of Agnes Pelton.

Another theme also emerges from the exhibition, where artists are “reacting to ‘the modern experience’ in a myriad of different ways—not just in different mediums but different subject matter as well,” says Roberts. “There are some artists who were fascinated with new things in the modern world like skyscrapers and industrial factories, but the exhibition also showcases work that returns to classical artistic genres like the female nude or still life.”

Also worth noting is the Norton and the Whitney’s mission to expand the narrative on modern art and illuminate a more truthful art history that includes the work of women and people of color. The museum is expanding to also include lesser-known modern artists like Patrick Henry Bruce, Chiura Obata, Agnes Pelton and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, alongside more household names. “The history is so much more diverse than we ever thought,” says Roberts.

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Painting, Number 5, 1914-1915. Oil on linen, 39¼ x 32 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of an anonymous donor 58.65.

One such “lesser-known” in the exhibition is the Chinese American artist Yun Gee (1906-1963), with works like Street Scene, 1926. “Artists have been left out of history for all sorts of reasons,” says Roberts, “but one of those reasons is geography. Many agree that the history of American modernism was written by people of the Northeast, with a specific focus on New York. Yun Gee lived and worked in San Francisco, and uses color and abstracted form in Street Scene to really suggest the energy of San Francisco’s China Town—the main subject in a series of his work.”

Georgia O’Keefee (1887-1986), Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, 1918. Oil on canvas. 35 x 2915/16 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Emily Fisher Landau in honor of Tom Armstrong 91.90 © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

More recognizable names in the exhibition, known ubiquitously, are Georgia O’Keeffe, Man Ray, Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley, to name just a few. Two exciting examples of Hartley’s work in the exhibition are Forms Abstracted and Painting, Number 5, both created in or around 1914. “These are some of Hartley’s best-known works, both from an early period in his career,” Roberts shares, “and show a very different perspective on modern life—war. Painting, Number 5 is considered a symbol of mourning for Hartley, who fell in love with a German officer that died in World War I.” The Norton has no shortage of impressive modernist works in their exhibition schedule this year and At the Dawn of a New Age, open through August 27, alongside From Man Ray to O’Keeffe, closing July16, should definitely not be missed.