A Remarkable Diversitye

A new show at Helicline Fine Art celebrates the spectrum of 20th century artistic expression

By Sarah Gianelli

September 10-October 30, 2026

Helicline Fine Art
Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown Manhattan
t: (212) 204-8833
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A new online show presented by Helicline Fine Art will showcase a diverse array of artworks from some of the many movements that, collectively, comprise what we have come to understand as modernism, which entered mainstream awareness with the legendary 1913 Armory Show in New York.

Through key works representative of Art Deco, Vorticism, WPA-era American Scene, abstraction, abstract expressionism and caricature, The Modern Moment: Art that Shaped the 20th Century provides a broad view of how artists were responding to a time of great upheaval and change. The timeline of the show is bookended by a 1926 abstract by Rudolf Bauer to a 1972 work by Mortimer Borne, who worked across a variety of media and was most active in the 1930s and ’40s.

Anonymous, Barbizon-Plaza Hotel Art Deco panel, ca. 1930. Aluminum, 50 x 36¼ in., verso: 35th floor, #20.

“Modernism was not a single movement but a series of artistic revolutions that forever changed the way we see the world,” explains gallery owner Keith Sherman. “The Modern Moment brings together a thoughtfully curated selection of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture that celebrates the extraordinary breadth of 20th-century artistic expression.”

Other artists in the exhibition of 40 works include Sybil Andrews, Victor Arnautoff, Arnold Blanch, Jo Cain, Daniel Celentano, Max Arthur Cohn, Adolph Dehn, Donald Deskey, Seymour Fogel, Henry Martin Gasser, Emil Ganso, Douglas Gorsline, William Gropper, Juanitta Guccione, Mac Harshberger, Bertram Hartman, Al Hirschfeld, John Grabach, Edith Kramer, Michael Loew, Reginald Marsh, Antonio Petruccelli, Hilla Rebay, Rolph Scarlett and Carl Sprinchorn.

Emil Ganso (1985-1941), NYC Water Tanks. Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in., signed lower left.

Victor Arnautoff (1896-1979), Dine Dance At. Oil on canvas laid to board painting, 28 x 22 in., signed lower right.

A highlight in the Art Deco category, and one of Sherman’s favorite pieces in the show, is a cast aluminum panel by an unknown maker that hung on the exterior of the 35th floor of New York City’s historic Barbizon-Plaza Hotel. “It is an astonishing work of art,” says Sherman, pointing out the instruments depicted in the panel. “The hotel was noted as the first music and artist residence center in the United States. The list of notables who frequented the Barbizon included Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who resided there in 1933, to the Beatles, who stayed there during their early U.S. visits.”

Emil Ganso’s NYC Water Tanks is another piece of note, a modernist interpretation of 1930s New York, depicting rooftops interspersed with water towers, smokestacks and a geometrically composed sky. The painting, along with works by Celentano, Cain, Hartman, Grabach and Loew, is an example of the WPA-era American Scene works in the show.

Adolph Dehn (1895-1968), Central Park. Casein on board, 22 x 30 in., signed and dated lower right: “N.Y. Dehn ‘50”.

Arnautoff was a Russian-American painter active in San Francisco and the Bay Area from 1925 to 1963, including two decades as a professor at Stanford University. Best known for his work as a muralist during the 1930s, his painting Dine Dance At captures what looks like a steep San Francisco street scene with the bay barely glimpseable in in the distance.

“The exhibition embraces the remarkable diversity of modernism,” says Sherman. “Collectors and curators will encounter vibrant cityscapes, powerful industrial scenes, tranquil rural landscapes, expressive abstractions, studies of working men and women, intimate portraits, and observations of everyday life. While each artist approached the modern world through a distinctive visual language, all sought to capture the energy, complexity and optimism of their time.” —