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Sign Language

Twentieth-Century Painting from the Permanent Collection
June 23 - October 29, 2000

Introduction

Sign language is a system of communicating by hand gestures. It is a substitute for the spoken word that can be used by people of different cultures to share ideas and emotions. In the context of twentieth century painting, its meaning expands. It includes marks and symbols in which references to earlier art are embedded, and it is also a metaphor for two important and sometimes overlapping developments: the emergence of distinct gestural styles, and the embrace of non-objective imagery.

By mid-century, painting had become both an international language and a vehicle for self-expression. Brushstrokes, as individualized as handwriting, were free to reveal the subconscious or to deliver messages that were independent of subject matter. Artists invented and became the active verbs of this language: witness Joan Mitchell's physical movement of the arm to create aggressive painterly passages, Cy Twombly's repetitive motion of a crayon to produce automatic writing, and Jackson Pollock's abandonment of brushes in favor of poured and dripped paint. Mark Rothko's glowing, brushy icons were a new dialect in this language, quiet and contemplative in contrast to Cleve Gray's bravura statement on an otherwise serene color field.

The cornerstones of this sign language were laid early in the twentieth century by anti­traditional artisans: Cubists, Fauves, Surrealists, German Expressionists, experimental interpreters of modem reality. Their contributions formed a new lexicon of subjects and of ways of painting that continues to be referenced in the "texts" of later generations of artists. This selection of works from the Museum's permanent collection reinforces the universality, and confirms the resonance and endurance, of these highly personalized means of artistic communication.

Selected Objects

 Abstract painting of textured swathes of dark purple, orange and green paint harshly placed against and blending into a light pink and blue washy background.

Joan Mitchell

Mooring

Dennis Congdon

Pile

Mark Rothko

Untitled
An abstract painting composed of swathes of vibrant greens, yellows and reds, which are overlaid by streaks of reds, blues, and black lines forming several circular shapes.

Grace Hartigan

Homage to Matisse

Cy Twombly

Untitled

Cleve Gray

Karnak Dawn #2

Ruth Dealy

Blue Bra

Jackson Pollock

Magic Lantern
  • More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Sign Language : Twentieth-Century Painting from the Permanent Collection

June 23 - October 29, 2000
View Checklist pdf
View Checklist pdf
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