This exhibition presented the work of fourteen of the twentieth century’s most iconic artists. These individuals broke with tradition and expanded the idea of what art could be. By rethinking traditional genres such as portraiture, landscape, and still life; by inventing radically new modes of expression from Cubism to abstraction to the mobile; and by exploiting alternative media such as film, collage, and silkscreen, these artists forever changed the way we see and understand art.
All of the artists in this exhibition shared a yearning to reach for something new, be it in material, approach, or vision, and it is this reach that makes these artists both masterly and modern.