Patterns, Systems, Structures: Abstraction in American Art -- Part II

Part I opens December 3. Part II opens February 12.

Through May 19, 2013

This exhibition, drawn entirely from the permanent collection of the Montclair Art Museum, explores the rich variety of approaches to abstraction in American art. Since the late 19th century, painters and sculptors have not always aimed to depict persons and objects representationally. Artists moved toward abstract visual expression as they experimented with unconventional materials and techniques and developed visual languages of form, color, and line that exist independently from their subjects’ natural appearance. Artists have made these transformations in an effort to communicate universal or unseen spiritual aspects of existence and of modern life that they cannot convey through representational treatments.

The Montclair Art Museum is open Wednesday to Sunday.