The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art has reconfigured its display of European and American modernism in a fresh installation of the permanent collection that will be on view through the fall of 2023.
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Military, 1913, oil on canvas. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. 1973.2
“We’re always exploring new approaches to displaying our collections to engage visitors in new ways,” says the museum’s curator of American art, Erin Monroe. “What is exciting to me is having American modernist and surrealist artworks with European ones in the same space, in dialogue.”
Monroe collaborated with the institution’s director, Matthew Hargraves, and curator of European art, Oliver Tostmann, on the project. Together, they took a thematic approach, with a focus on how artists responded to the ever-changing modern world from the 1910s to 1960s, a time of upheaval and uncertainty, as well as great creativity.
The two dozen works are now split between two smaller galleries. One focuses on renditions of the urban landscape, including European cities; while the second gallery highlights the growing popularity of the figurative through portraiture and group scenes.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), The Ostrich-Feather Hat, 1918. Oil on canvas. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.
“The smaller spaces invite side-by-side juxtapositions of European and American art which can be quite revealing,” says Monroe. “Take Marsden Hartley and Edward Kirchner’s cityscapes, for example. Hartley, moves to Berlin—quite a long way away from his hometown in rural Maine—and paints Military…an abstract painting inspired by the city’s military music and processions prior to the outbreak of the war. At the very same moment, the German-born Kirchner completes Suburb of Berlin, a composition [that] suggests the tone of nervousness and unease prevalent on the eve of the war. Taken together, this presentation invites bigger-picture impressions, freed from a strict curatorial narrative about an artistic school or ‘-ism.’ We hope this broader look at history might spur connections or reactions relevant to present day.”
In the gallery celebrating figurative works, Henri Matisse’s portrait of his daughter Marguerite and cubist portraits by Picasso are in conversation with Florine Stettheimer’s Beauty Contest: To the Memory of P.T. Barnum.
Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944), Beauty Contest: To the Memory of P. T. Barnum, 1924. Oil on canvas with ornamented frame. Gift of Ettie Stettheimer. 1947.242
“We installed this painting noting the visual distinction between the European works and Stettheimer’s work while also noting threads of connectivity,” explains Monroe. “The point is that these artists and styles coexisted and, in many instances, their worlds overlapped or were barely more than one degree removed from each another.”
Two smaller pieces, Dorothea Tanning’s Beautiful Girl and an early Picasso, join the impressive collection which also includes works by European artists Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and their American counterparts, Max Weber and Stanton Macdonald-Wright, among others.
The installation also brings awareness to actual relationships between artists, including the romantic. For instance, Tanning’s piece was placed near Ernst’s Europe after the Rain and might contain some indication of uncertainty regarding her impending marriage to Ernst.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Suburb of Berlin, 1912. Oil on canvas. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.
The reimagined presentation of the works has been well-received. “We have received positive feedback from our visitors who’ve expressed that the fresh configuration allows them to see tried and true masterpiece artworks anew,” shares Monroe. “Hearing that visitors are really connecting with our collection is encouraging as my colleagues and I continue to explore new installations elsewhere in the museum.”
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