Modern Art 1910–1940

On View: East Building, Upper Level

Filter Results

50 artworks on view.

Results

This painting displays geometric shapes with soft edges. In the center is a form resembling a white house, with a large red triangular shape at the top and smaller beige rectangles that could be windows. To the right are vertical green lines that could be trees and a red rectangle that might be another structure. At the bottom of the painting are dark brown and blue squares, and at the top is an area with light blue and pink coloring. The paint has been applied lightly and unevenly, leaving areas where the brown background is visible. “

New House in the Suburbs

Paul Klee

1924

Gouache on canvas  Accession ID  1983.1.22

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
Two rectangular pieces of paper marked with black lines and geometric shapes are stacked against a light wood background in this vertical collage. The top rectangle is dark brown with parallel lines, nested V-shapes, and rounded sections of an abstracted guitar. Brown string nailed to the wood suggests the strings. The other paper is a lighter tan color, and it is offset up and to our left. Lines capture the curved edge of the guitar and the frets on the neck at the top. A peach-colored ribbon decorated with faint, olive-green leaves runs at a slight upward diagonal to the right behind the papers. The panel beneath is light, cream-colored wood with some visible grain.

Guitar

Pablo Picasso

1926

Collage of wallpaper, carpet tacks, nail, paper, string, and charcoal on wood  Accession ID  1982.8.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415

Le vase

Sophie Taeuber-Arp

1935

Painted wooden relief  Accession ID  2023.132.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
A woman and girl stand together in an embrace in the center of a colorful interior in this stylized vertical painting. The bodies of the women are made up of geometric spherical, conical, or columnar forms. Their skin and torsos are chalk white shaded with gray. To our left, a field of marigold yellow suggests a skirt on the girl. The woman, to our right, has a pine-green skirt. For each one, their hair is indicated by what looks like a shiny strip of black, curved like broad finger waves to cascade down one side of their heads and faces. Light glints horizontally on the bent areas, like vinyl. Both have round eyes under curved brows, straight noses squared off at the bottom, and squiggles for their mouths. Their bodies are angled toward each other. The background is made up of black and burgundy-red horizontal and vertical lines and flat geometric forms to suggest shelving with objects, including a blue vase and spiky green plant around a window or painting, framed in black, to our left. A shallowly curving, cranberry-red form up the left edge suggests a curtain. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “F.LEGER 22.”

Two Women

Fernand Léger

1922

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1991.37.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
A circle and several parallelograms float, changing color where they overlap, against a mustard and lemon-yellow background in this abstract, vertical painting. The circle is near the upper left corner, and stretches almost halfway across the canvas. The circle is mostly elephant gray and is black where the angular forms overlap it. All of the parallelograms are vertical except for one that cuts across them and the circle. The parallelograms are mostly ivory white, pale pink, stone gray, or light turquoise where they intersect, except for one that turns from ruby red to brick red within the circle and the leftmost shape, which has a pattern of small black dots against slate gray.

Z VII

László Moholy-Nagy

1926

Oil and graphite on canvas  Accession ID  2007.112.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415

Les constellations voisines du pôle

Joseph Cornell

1961

Construction  Accession ID  1991.218.2

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
The spiraling whorls of a nearly round, pearl-white shell fills this square painting. The inner edges of the shell’s whorls are shaded with pale spring green, especially to our right, and the innermost spiral is pale pink. The outer lip, that is, the open end of the shell, faces down to our right. The shell sits against a stone-gray background and casts a shadow to our left.

Shell No. I

Georgia O'Keeffe

1928

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1987.58.7

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
The image consists of a rectangular frame with vertical and horizontal lines creating a grid. It shows a monochrome standing figure at the center, surrounded by rows of faces resembling passport photos, geometric patterns, including circles, and a prominent number '5.' The abstract work suggests a layered perception of structural design and human identity.

Untitled (Medici Prince)

Joseph Cornell

c. 1952

Box construction  Accession ID  2023.124.20

Not on view
This free-standing sculpture is a French window with a teal-colored frame and black, leather-lined glass panes standing on a flat, shallow base. Each door is made up of four, vertically stacked, equally sized panes. The doors are hinged on a narrow frame and open with small, clear knobs placed next to the second pane down from the top. The doors are slightly ajar. Black writing in capital block letters on the top surface of the base is legible in this photograph. It reads, “FRESH WIDOW COPYRIGHT ROSE SELAVY 1920.”

Fresh Widow

Marcel Duchamp

original 1920, fabricated 1964

Painted wood, glass, black leather, paper, and transparent tape  Accession ID  2008.33.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
A block holding a toothbrush set with gold teeth raised in low relief on a lead sheet. The rectangular block holding the brush is almost halfway down the panel. The brush has a straight, toothbrush-like handle highlighted with shiny silver tin leaf. Four gold teeth are set in a row at what would be the brush end, to our left. Letters are stamped in the front face of the block to read, “THE CRITIC SMILES.” The artist signed and dated the work below the block with dotted lines, “J Johns ’69.” Also incised in the lower left corner of the lead sheet is “GEMINI III” with a Gemini horoscope symbol.

The Critic Smiles

Jasper Johns, Kenneth Tyler, Gemini G.E.L.

1969

Multiple of lead relief with gold and tin leaf  Accession ID  1985.4.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
The sculpture is a three-dimensional piece enclosed in a box-like frame with textured sides covered in printed text. Inside, there is a small, abstract setting resembling a miniature room or alcove with a cracked, white-painted backdrop. At the bottom of the scene, a mound of yellow sand partially fills the space, with some collected in an overturned, broken glass near the base. Above, a hole in the upper white section releases a thin flow of yellow sand that trickles down to join the pile below. The materials used include wood, paint, glass, and sand, creating a visually layered and textured appearance. The sculpture presents a contained, abstract environment with elements evoking time and decay, while its small scale gives it an intimate feel.

Sand Fountain

Joseph Cornell

1948

Construction  Accession ID  1991.218.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
This painting features a composition of vertical and diagonal shapes and lines in a structured arrangement. The abstract design resembles a series of standing walls or panels, with some pieces painted in shades of teal and brown, and the rest in gray, cream, and seafoam green. The tall vertical rectangles cast dark shadows onto the gray ground below. A pale-yellow object resembling a flag or cloth hangs to the left, connected to the ground by slender poles.

Study for "Third Paragraph"

Kay Sage

1953

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2015.19.97

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415

Loading Results