20/20 – VISIONARY ARTISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY

New York, NY – From July 7 to August 12, 2016, Forum Gallery will present 20/20, an exhibition of work by 20, Twentieth-Century artists whose singular visions helped shape the visual art of their century and influenced the next. Although disparate in their aesthetics, these artists are united by the visionary commitment each of them made to his or her particular, innovative focus.

Ivan Albright (1897-1983), Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), John Graham (1886-1961) and John Kane (1860-1934) painted “portraits”, each using a personal style that is now seen as a link between the past and the future. In this exhibition, single-figure paintings of women by Albright and Graham are shown alongside a Mother and Child by Gorky and a rarely-seen, major self-portrait, John Kane and his Wife, c. 1928, by the self-taught Kane.

In the mid Twentieth Century, passionate artists used paintings to express outrage and comment on social and political oppression. John Biggers (1924-2001) and Ben Shahn (1898-1969), using subtle, moving imagery; and William Gropper (1897-1977) and Philip Evergood (1901-1973) with their powerful narratives, spoke volumes to all who saw their work.

Artists had striking visual responses to industrial and architectural advances so prevalent in the Twentieth Century. Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), Stuart Davis (1892-1964) and Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) are represented by works that show the linear, streamlined influence of the century on its art, while Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), John Marin (1870-1953), Alfred Maurer (1868-1932) and Man Ray (1890-1976) contribute paintings that exemplify the excitement and fractured exuberance of the times.