American modernists – excited but not overawed by Europe

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In the first half of the 20th century a variety of US artists engaged with modernism in distinctly American ways

Masterpieces of American Modernism from the Vilcek Collection by William C. Agee and Lewis Kachur

This collection reflects the work of one or two generations of American artists who were excited by the new language of painting and sculpture opened by the Cubists working in Paris at the start of the 20th century, but not overawed by the encounter.  The general impression gained from this review of early American modernists is that they followed self-confident, individual routes in their exploration of new possibilities – perhaps reflecting that characteristic often celebrated as being essentially American in nature. 

A number of common themes might be identified in their work; some were attracted to the energies of the ever-changing urban scene, others sought to engage with the metaphysical revelations of the broad expanses of untamed nature, yet others looked to the inheritance of myth and magic to be found in Native American traditions.  But despite the many engaging qualities revealed in this work, it is far too easily undervalued and under exposed, both at home and particularly throughout the rest of the world.  This is partially the result of the extraordinary, triumphalist campaign that was launched in the cold war years to promote Abstract Expressionism and the subsequent train of modernist movements as fundamental demonstrations of the superiority of American values; a process which tended to overshadow all that had been previously achieved in the country.    

Taking a random selection of the works (mostly paintings but a few sculptures), each given a full-page reproduction, opposite a page of commentary written by Lewis Kachur, in this substantial and handsomely produced catalogue, should hint at the qualities and the range of the collection.

Marsden Hartley’s Berlin Series no.1, 1913, was no doubt painted in that city, but the content derives from Native American symbols, dramatically displayed in bright colours and symmetrical forms against a black background, as pictorially advanced as anything else being painted in Europe at that time.

Arthur Dove’s untitled oil on metal painting, from around 1929, defies any precise definition of subject but hints of fruit and seed, of fluid formlessness, and so on, say much about the mysterious potencies of natural forces. Dove spoke at this time about the significance of a painting as a ’tableau-objet’, a thing in itself rather than being ’about’ anything.   

Georgia O’Keeffe can, of course, hardly be described as forgotten or undervalued but her painting can still surprise and challenge perception. How do we read In the Patio IX (1950)? Initially it strikes one as a bold example of hard-edged abstraction, but then one can acknowledge the title and accept the defining lines and shading of architectural forms, and one also has to recognize the insistent presence of a black-winged bird in flight or even an aircraft. In fact, its power resides precisely in its ambivalent simultaneity. Intriguingly, O’Keeffe herself later retitled the work as Black Bird Series. 

Jan Matulka’s  Rodeo Rider (1917–20) is a startling curiosity; the direction of exoticism is reversed here when an artist, born in Bohemia, celebrates the quintessential American symbol: the performing cowboy astride his ‘bucking bronco‘. The energy of design and the vivacity of colour and pattern somehow manage to raise it above any accusation of ’kitsch’ towards a recognition of the lively imagery of popular culture.

This enthusiasm for the visual impact of advertising and signage is at the heart of much of the work of Stuart Davis, the artist most  widely represented in the collection, indicating his continued importance for American modernism from the 1920s through to the 1960s. His gouache, Ship’s  Rigging (1932), demonstrates his explorative play with bold and direct linear composition, at first giving the impression of a straightforward view of the decking paraphernalia of a dockside ship, before revealing a rather more complex ’collaging’ of unrelated features such as a rotary fan and a section of architectural detailing.

The circumstances around the formation of the Vilcek Collection are as distinctively American in character as the work itself.  Jan and Marica Vilcek were born and raised in Czechoslovakia during the period of Communist cultural repression, but they managed to emigrate to the USA in 1964. She is an art historian and he a medical research scientist, and they prospered sufficiently to start to build up this impressive collection that is now promised to the Vilcek Foundation, which is dedicated to raising awareness of the contributions made by immigrants to biomedical science, the arts and humanities in America.  

Masterpieces of American Modernism from the Vilcek Collection by William C. Agee and Lewis Kachur is published by Merrell, 2014. 288pp., 150 colour illus. ISBN 978-1-8589-4595-8