Cheekwood Opens Abstract Visions: 20th Century American Art

NASHVILLE, TN.- On display through May 3, Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art presents Abstract Visions: 20th Century American Art. Selected from Cheekwood’s permanent art collection, these paintings and works on paper form a survey of abstract art from the second half of the 20th Century.

Ida Kohlmeyer (American 1912-1997), Symbols 81-5, 1981, Charcoal, pencil and acrylic on canvas, Gift of the Exchange Club Charities

Once a revolutionary development in art, abstraction now has a distinguished tradition stretching back almost one hundred years. Around 1910, a number of artists stopped painting the world of recognizable objects and embraced abstraction or non-representational art. While abstract art has become an established mode of artistic expression, artists have continued to experiment and create new abstract visions.

After World War II, New York became the center of abstract painting, and many artists represented in this gallery spent formative years in the city’s vibrant art scene. Joseph Albers was a German immigrant from the Bauhaus School who became a promoter of geometric abstraction in America, especially through a series of paintings of squares. Lee Krasner and Perle Fine were two women artists who contributed lyrical abstractions to the movement of Abstract Expressionism, a term closely identified with Jackson Pollock’s technique of dripping paint on canvas. For Robert Ryman, who was born in Nashville, abstract paintings relate to their immediate surroundings such as light reflections and white gallery walls. As a group, these images form a small but distinctive introduction to the rich history of abstract vision in American art.

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