WHEN MODERN WAS CONTEMPORARY:
SELECTIONS FROM THE
ROY R. NEUBERGER COLLECTION
ONGOING
The works of art included in this exhibition are selections from Roy R. Neuberger’s (American, 1903-2010) generous gift to Purchase College, State University of New York, which helped to establish the Neuberger Museum of Art.
The exhibition sheds light on the aesthetic and social commitments of leading American artists in the middle of the twentieth century.
Roy Neuberger returned from a five-year stay in Paris in 1929, determined to go to work and collect art. He found an entry-level job on Wall Street, where he also met his future wife, Marie. He began his collection in the 1930s, and by the end of the decade Roy Neuberger was collecting seriously and had acquired major works by living artists.
He states, I collect because I love works of art and because, when I began, I believed that the contemporary world should buy the work of contemporary artists. I still do. When I started, I felt that in a small way I could render a service, because I would be able to help artists who were young and struggling.
At the heart of the exhibition is art of the 1940s and 1950s. This period in history was one of great expansion in the United States. New York was especially exciting, with the World's Fair in 1939 at Flushing Meadow, Queens and with WWII bringing many European immigrants to the United States.
The influx of artists infused an already vital New York with a stimulating expansion of ideas. New York City became the established center of the art world, a place in which lively debates created a climate where crosscurrents not only proliferated at a rapid pace, but where artists gained support from a relatively small but influential group of critics, galleries, museums and private collectors.
No longer a contemporary collection, but rather one of historical importance, the paintings and sculptures here reflect the rich diversity in American art before the 1960s.
An August 2011 reinstallation includes recent gifts from the estate of Roy R. Neuberger complete with a new title reflecting the collecting practice of our founding patron, who purchased art when the paint was still wet and the reputations not yet earned as he vowed to support the contemporary artists of his time.
Works by the following artists are on view:
• Milton Avery*
• Harry Bertoia
• Forest Bess
• Patrick Henry Bruce
• Alexander Calder
• Ralston Crawford
• Stuart Davis
• Willem de Kooning
• Richard Diebenkorn
• Arthur Dove*
• Louis Michel Eilshemius
• Jimmy Ernst
• Herbert Ferber
• John B. Flannagan
• Helen Frankenthaler
• Adolph Gottlieb
• Marsden Hartley*
• Hans Hofmann
• Edward Hopper
• Lee Krasner
• Gaston Lachaise*
• Jacob Lawrence
• Jack Levine
• Stanton Macdonald-Wright*
• Morris Louis
• Marisol*
• Henry Moore*
• Kenzo Okada
• Georgia O'Keeffe
• Nathan Oliveira
• David Park
• Horace Pippin*
• Jackson Pollock
• Faith Ringgold
• Mark Rothko
• Ben Shahn
• David Smith
• Niles Spencer
• Joseph Stella
• Mark Tobey
• Max Weber
*Recent gifts from the Estate of Roy R. Neuberger
List of artists on view updated August 10, 2011.
