Skip Navigation

Modernist Art from the Edith and Milton Lowenthal Collection

DATES March 21, 1981 through May 10, 1981
ORGANIZING DEPARTMENT Special Exhibition
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
  • March 21, 1981 The Lowenthal Collection, on view at The Brooklyn Museum March 21-May 10, 1981, is not only an outstanding exhibition of 67 major works by Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Max Weber, John Marin, and other seminal figures of American art; it is also a testament to the taste and discrimination of two collectors. From the 1930s through the 1950s, when many were collecting established European masters, the Lowenthals distinguished themselves by supporting the efforts of the contemporary generation of American artists.

    In 1952, the Lowenthals exhibited 101 of their paintings and works of sculpture at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Walker Art Center. Whitney curator Hermon More applauded their approach to collecting, citing the “excitement of discovery, the satisfaction of exercising their own judgments without relying upon the authority of accumulated critical opinion, and the adventure of participation in the creative process of their own times.” In its richness and variety, the current exhibition represents the refinement of the Lowenthals’ tastes. They have donated works to The Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney, the Newark Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Art. This exhibition presents those they have retained--their personal favorites.

    Other painters included in the exhibition are Milton Avery, Arthur G. Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Morris Graves, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Niles Spencer, Lyonel Feininger, Abraham Rattner, Robert Gwathmey, Paul Burlin, Clayton S. Price, and Henry Cady Wells. Sculpture by Jose de Creeft, John B. Flannagan, and Jacques Lipchitz are also included.

    A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Dr. John R. Lane, Director, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, and entries by Brooklyn Curators Sarah Faunce, Linda Ferber, and Assistant Curator Holly Connor will accompany the exhibition.

    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1981, 009.
    View Original