Museums throughout the U.S. are honoring America250 with exhibitions and programming that examine the past, present, and future of the United States of America. (MOAD) Museum of Art and Design at MDC makes its own contribution to America250 celebrations with an exhibition titled Abstraction as Legacy.
This project brings together a group of paintings to reflect on the myriad ways in which American artists have contributed to the field of abstraction. Works by Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell speak to abstract expressionism while works by Lloyd Kiva New and George Morrison reinforce ways in which indigenous artists contributed to the history of painterly abstraction in the U.S.
This show demonstrates that there is no one way to be an American artist just as there is no way be an American. Some artists in the exhibition lived abroad while others were born abroad. Some chose hard edges informed by architecture while others used abstraction to contemplate the natural environment.
This exhibition includes paintings by Carmen Herrera, Willem de Kooning, Sam Gilliam, Virginia Jaramillo, Joan Mitchell, Young-Il An, George Morrison, Lloyd Kiva New, Vaughn Spann, Zilia Sánchez, Hans Hofmann and Noemí Ruiz.as well as a salon style wall of works on paper from the collection by Karen Rifas, Sol LeWitt, Robert Thiele, Raymond Saunders, Robert Huff, Louise Nevelson, Lynne Golob Gelfman, and Robert Mangold.
Photo Credit: Photos by Oriol Tarridas
