From Hopper to Rothko: America's Road to Modern Art

Rarely seen outside the United States, The Phillips Collection’s American masterworks trace the development and diversity of modern art in America from the end of the nineteenth century through the post-war decades after World War II. Organized into thematic sections, the story unfolds chronologically from the great romantic realist painters, like Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer, to the psychological insights of Edward Hopper, the abstract landscapes of Arthur Dove and Georgia O’Keeffe, and, finally, to the heroic triumphs of the abstract expressionists, like Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko. Assembled over half a century by Duncan Phillips, the collection is not only a reflection of one’s man’s personal taste, but also a continuous snapshot of the changing character of American art in the twentieth century. Including essays by European and American scholars, this publication of 68 works by 50 artists tells the story of nearly a century of dynamic vision and innovation in American modern art.