American Art 1900–1950

On View: East Building, Ground Level

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38 artworks on view.

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Almost two dozen men, women, and children stand in a street market in this horizontal painting. The people all appear to have pale skin, though a few of the women’s faces are tinged with green. The men are bearded and wear coats and the women long skirts or dresses in shades of rust brown, sage green, slate blue, and brick red. Baskets holding green goods along the foreground closest to us are loosely painted so details are indistinct. A screen of two- and three-story buildings on the far side of a town square are painted with golden yellow and honey orange. The outlines of skyscrapers beyond are hazy against a cloud-streaked, blue sky. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “JEROME MYERS 1931.”

Life on the East Side

Jerome Myers

1931

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.55

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
Two cows stand side-by-side to our right with a path leading to a row of buildings in the distance to our left in this dreamlike, stylized landscape painting. The forms are simplified, angular, and blocky, and seem to be overlapping, though most of the shapes painted with blended strokes. To our right, a black cow stands beyond a brown cow, both facing our left in profile. The heads are triangular and come to exaggerated points under curving horns, and the ribs of the cow closer to us are painted with curving black lines down the body. Their legs also taper to exaggeratedly pointed, tiny hooves. A milk jug sits to our right, behind them. The row of five buildings to our left are created with blocks of white, golden yellow, brick red, and black. A sprig of leaves and a lacy white flower grow to our left on the row of oatmeal-brown rocks jutting up along the bottom edge of the composition. An abstracted shirt-like form floats to our left against the background of teal green that covers the bottom two-thirds of the painting. The area above the buildings is painted with a field of silvery charcoal gray. The artist signed and dated the painting with tiny letters under the brown cow: "Y. Kuniyoshi 23."

Cows in Pasture

Yasuo Kuniyoshi

1923

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2014.136.94

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
At least two dozen straw-brown twigs are affixed to a metal surface in a wood frame in this rectangular, vertically oriented object. Most of the twigs are fastened so they seem to come down from the top rail of the wooden frame. The background is mostly slate blue, but a triangular area along the top is marine blue and outlined in darker blue. The tip points down. A V-shaped, dark blue spot is near the bottom right corner of the composition.

Rain

Arthur Dove

1924

Twigs and rubber cement on metal and glass  Accession ID  1997.1.1

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
This painting contains several colorful rectangles. At the top is a thin horizontal strip of blue, while on the bottom edge is a slightly thicker cream-colored horizontal strip. Between these two, most of the painting is taken up by a large rectangle in soft peach. At the center of this rectangle is a small rectangle in a green gradient, darker at the top and lighter towards the bottom.

Wall with Green Door

Georgia O'Keeffe

1953

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.155

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
The painting depicts a landscape with two structures in a farm setting, surrounded by rolling hills and mountains in the distance under a dramatic sky with dark clouds and sunlight breaking through. The mountains add a deep blue tone to the scene, creating depth. The brushwork is smooth and precise, giving a solid presence to the forms, especially the buildings. The color palette consists of earth tones with deep shadows, golden yellows, and greens for the fields and a stone wall at the bottom of the painting. The textures of the wall and plants contrast with the smoother forms of the buildings.

Adirondacks

Rockwell Kent

1928/1930

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2014.136.55

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
The painting depicts a landscape viewed from an elevated position, offering a wide perspective of a rural village extending into the distance. The sky above is dominated by dramatic, scattered clouds with subtle shades of grey and pale yellow among the light blue. Dark blue silhouettes of buildings and a few chimneys are visible on the horizon, which is in the top third of the painting. Closest to us, small houses with steep roofs are nestled among leafless trees, and plumes of smoke rise gently from several chimneys. Beyond, the landscape gently slopes away, revealing more clustered buildings, square fields, and winding paths leading toward the distant skyline. The houses and landscape are in shades of green and gray, with some pops of rusty orange on some chimneys and patches of grass.

Winter Valley

Lamar Dodd

1944

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1971.3.1

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
Bold strokes and textured squiggles of light teal, muted peacock blue, chestnut-brown, and gray create the impression of a churning sea beneath an oyster-white sky in this abstracted painting. Near the center of the composition, lime-green triangles against a larger patch of slate gray march toward the high horizon line. More green triangles line the lower edge of the canvas. The upper left is filled by a tall, sloping mound of gray and smoky purple layered with strokes of black. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right, “Marin 38.”

Grey Sea

John Marin

1938

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1987.19.1

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
This painting depicts a winter scene outside of a red building on the left, with a sign at the top labeling it 'Todd's Groceries'. Inside the store, three people gather around a large black fireplace full of red and orange flames. Behind them are shelves lined with boxes and cans, and the brown front doors are open. Outside the store, near the bottom left corner, two children embrace, one in a blue outfit and the other in a green outfit, both wearing jackets, pants, and hats. On the right, in front of a tall blue clock, a man in brown clothes tends to two horses that are tied to a black sled in the bottom right corner. In front of the horses is a large brown dog, and a smaller dog sits on the sled. Another person is climbing into the sled, carrying a large brown object. All the people in the painting have light skin. In the background on the right are wooden structures, snowy terrain, and a blue body of water. The horizon shows icy formations. The brushstrokes are expressive and visible.

Christmas Mail

Marguerite Zorach

completed 1930, inscribed 1936

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1974.13.1

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
A steel-gray river separates blocky forms and trees across the bottom of this stylized landscape from sheer cliffs and mountains beyond in this horizontal painting. The blocky forms, perhaps abstracted boulders, close to us are painted with shades of maroon red, mauve pink, and terracotta orange. Trees with thin brown trunks and narrow tufts of green to suggest canopies grow up the right edge of the canvas, and a tree bows over to the left, presumably broken. Across the river, the flat-topped cliffs to the left and mountains beyond are painted with visible strokes in shades of brown with some highlights in dark rose pink. A silvery-gray sky with white clouds fills the top fifth of the composition.

Landscape No. 5

Marsden Hartley

1922/1923

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1949.2.2

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
About two dozen men, women, children, and babies, most with dark brown skin, stand, walk, or play hockey in a narrow street between rowhouses in this vertical painting. Games are drawn on the street in white chalk along most of its length. The person closest to us is a young man wearing a canary-yellow, double-breasted coat, who stands to our left of center at the bottom of the painting. His eyes are closed, and he holds a white cane in one hand. Behind him, a woman and the baby in her arms both have round lollipops. Next to them to our left, a boy wearing an orange sweater, brown pants, and a red crown stands facing away from us. Others play hockey on roller skates in the street. They wear shirts and pants in cranberry red, royal and sky blue, brown, green, golden yellow, and fluorescent orange. Their clothing and some facial features are outlined with black. To our left, a willowy woman with white-colored skin and a cloud of pale blond hair turns around to look at the street as she steps up onto the stairs in front of one house. Her tight, knee-length, sleeveless dress and pumps match the ash-white of her skin. Four children, one in a wheelchair, and one man sit and stand beyond her stoop and around the next one. Others look out the windows or walk along the sidewalks. A pair of white-uniformed paramedics carry a person on a stretcher to an ambulance farther along the street, to our right. The buildings meet at a point at about ten o’clock near the center of the composition. Many buildings on the right side of the street have fire escapes zigzagging down their facades. Spiky black antennas crowd the rooflines like lace against a sky streaked with topaz blue and parchment white. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “Philip Evergood 50.”  

Sunny Side of the Street

Philip Evergood

1950

Egg-oil varnish emulsion with marble dust and glass on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.76

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
In this painting, bold black lines intersect to form angular shapes against a vivid blue background. White and black lines radiate from the center, resembling beams or rays. There is a large section of gray below the blue section, and between those sections are triangles of bright yellow. Two large, gray shapes on the left stand out against the blocks of color.

Lights in an Aircraft Plant

Ralston Crawford

1945

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1971.87.1

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106
The sculpture portrays two children dancing together, holding hands with expressions of movement and playfulness. The figures are captured mid-motion, leaning gracefully with their clothing appearing to flutter. The bronze sculpture has a green and brown patina, giving it an aged appearance. The detailed features of the figures, including their hair and clothing, are finely crafted. The sculpture is mounted on a wooden base.

Girls Dancing

Abastenia St. Leger Eberle

1907

Bronze  Accession ID  2015.19.3795

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E106

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