Abstraction after Modernism: Recent Acquisitions

Comprised of recent acquisitions, this exhibition showcases the breadth of artists’ approaches to abstraction since the mid-20th- century. 

Following a generation of figures like Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, who were affiliated with the modernist movement known as Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s and 1950s, the artists in this presentation set forth new paths for exploring and expanding the role of abstraction into the 21st century.​​

The museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil, believed that non-representational works of art have the potential to connect the viewer to heightened experiences and alternative ways of seeing reality. “In a world cluttered with images,” Dominique de Menil stated, “only abstract art, can bring us to the threshold of the divine.”

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website