PRENDERGAST TO POLLOCK

American Modernism from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute

Jackson Pollock, No. 34, 1949, Enamel on paper mounted on masonite, 22 x 30 inches
Edward W. Root Bequest, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY
Photographer’s credit: Williamstown Art Conservation Laboratory
© 2011 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Maurice Prendergast, Landscape with Figures,i> c. 1912, Oil on canvas,30 x 42 inches
Edward W. Root Bequest, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY
Photographer’s Credit: John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler Photography


Between 1902 and 1953, Edward Wales Root amassed a spectacular collection of contemporary American art, which became the cornerstone of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute collection. This exhibition features highlights from that collection, including key works from some of the most important artists of the first half of the 20th century. Among the 35 paintings in this collection are works by Maurice Prendergast, Mark Rothko, Arthur Dove, Ashile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and more.

The exhibition surveys Root's interest in the American avant-garde and displays the radical transformation of art during that period. Prendergast to Pollock complements the Naples Museum of Art's permanent American Modernism Collection.