Contemporary/Modern: Selections from the Permanent Collection

Contemporary/Modern brings together a selection of significant painting and sculpture from the Museum’s permanent collection. Works in the exhibition date from 1958 to 2014, and together highlight the persistent influence of modernism. The most recent works inventively reference and reinterpret the past—including both popular and obscure forms of painting, architecture, and design. The earliest works, each part of significant movements in abstract painting, articulate reductive forms suggesting a distinctively utopian view of the future. By sampling and mixing substantial works of the present with the past, this installation aims to provide a glimpse into an ongoing and dynamic dialogue between the two. Featuring eleven works by eight artists of national and international renown: Helen Frankenthaler, Guy Goodwin, Frederick Hammersley, Josiah McElheny, John McLaughlin, Jorge Pardo, Larry Poons, and Lucas Samaras.

Image: Jorge Pardo, Untitled (Sea Urchin), 2012. Aluminum, molded Plexiglas, canvas, electrical cords, light bulb. SBMA, Museum Purchase with funds provided by The Museum Contemporaries and the 20th Century Art Quasi Endowment Fund.