Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939 Opens
November 20, 2009 through February 28, 2010
More than ninety boldly graphic prints, representing the works of fourteen innovative artists, are showcased in the exhibition Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939, on view at The Wolfsonian from November 20, 2009 through February 28, 2010. The exhibition, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, was previously on view at each of those institutions and works from both collections, along with pieces from The Wolfsonian’s holdings, are included in the exhibition. However, the majority of the prints are drawn from the Johanna and Leslie Garfield Collection.
The exhibition explores the artistic movements of early twentieth-century England between the outbreak of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War, a time of marked social and economic change in Europe stimulated by the technological advances of the modern age. The arts reflected this change by celebrating newly born abstraction and embracing the accelerating, mechanized speed of modern life. The works on view focus on the synergistic relationship between man and machine and highlight the impact of Italian Futurism and French Cubism on British modernist printmaking.
Principal artists represented in the exhibition are C.R.W. Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth, early followers of Futurism and Vorticism, as well as Claude Flight, Sybil Andrews, Cyril E. Power, and Lill Tschudi, later color linocut artists of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. The exhibition highlights a variety of printmaking techniques, including woodcuts, drypoints, lithographs, and color linocuts.
The exhibition’s curator is Clifford S. Ackley, the MFA’s Ruth and Carl Shapiro Curator of Prints and Drawings and chair of the MFA’s Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. “The exhibition is unusual in combining sober Futurist-derived images from World War I battlefields and radical pioneering abstract works with the later and more playful Art Deco–like linocuts of the Grosvenor School artists,” says Ackley. “The world of these artists was a brave, new, energized one in which the machine dominates and anonymous figures are swept up in regimented or syncopated movement, a world of jazzy animation in which velocity is irresistible as well as exhilarating.”
The fully illustrated exhibition catalog includes an introduction by Ackley; an essay on the Garfields as collectors by Stephen Coppel, a curator at the British Museum; introductions to thematic sections and biographies of the artists by Thomas Rassieur, a curator at the MFA, and Samantha Rippner, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and technical essays on linocut by conservators Stephanie Lussier at the MFA and Rachel Mustalish at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The catalog is available in soft cover for $37.50 in The Dynamo Museum Shop or by contacting paola@thewolf.fiu.edu or 305.535.2680.
Rhythms of Modern Life is sponsored by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Miami; Braman Motors; Woolems, Inc.; Bombay Sapphire; and Arrowood Vineyards & Winery.
FEATURED IMAGE
Print, Whence and Whither?, c. 1932
Cyril Edward Power (British, 1872–1951)
London
Color linocut
14 1/16 x 11 ¼ inches
The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, 83.4.10
Photo: Willard Associates
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ADMISSION
$7 adults; $5 seniors, students,
and children 6-12; free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under 6.
****The members’ preview and opening reception for Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939 takes place Thursday, November 19, 6-8pm.
•Museum members (Dual/family level and above) get a head start on holiday shopping with a twenty percent discount on items at The Dynamo Museum Shop during Members’ Appreciation Weekend, Thursday, November 19 through Sunday, November 22 (some restrictions apply). If you’re not a member, now’s a perfect time to join! Join online at http://membership.wolfsonian.org or contact ian@thewolf.fiu.edu or 305.535.2631.
Courtesy of THE WOLFSONIAN FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY