Modern Masters:
Works from the Collection of Mellon Financial Corporation

June 28 - September 2, 2003
Erie Art Museum Main Floor Gallery

Exhibited is a remarkable selection of modern artworks from the artists who have shaped contemporary art from the 1960s through the present.

Artists represented include Robert Rauschenberg who first earned major recognition by erasing a drawing by Willem de Kooning (Erased de Kooning, 1953), signaling a move beyond the Abstract Expressionism which had dominated the art world. Rauschenberg explored new ways of creating art; he combined everyday objects in colleges creating a dialogue between the objects selected while demonstrating principles of formal design. His later work has concentrated on 2-D collage by use of transfer photographs, silk-screen printing, painting and various types of cloth and clothes.

Having collaborated with Rauschenberg early in both their careers, Jasper Johns, emerged as a major figure in art during the late 1950s. Johns also turned the art world away from Abstract Expressionism with his paintings of numbers, flags (an example of which is exhibited), and targets. His rich, colorful and graphic treatment signaled the arrival of Pop Art.

Influenced early on by Johns’ combinations of real objects with a painted copy of that object, two of Jim Dine’s works are included in the exhibition. Dine staged many performance art Happenings with Claes Oldenburg (also included in this exhibition), Red Grooms and Allan Kaprow after he moved to New York City in 1959. He explored many techniques and media in his 2-D art, notable are his prints of, and assemblages containing bathrobes, which he used as a symbol for a self-portrait.

The work of Pop Art pioneer and modern master, Roy Lichtenstein is also included. Lichtenstein’s work pulled themes from the economic boom of the 1960s, mass media, and contradiction (personal vs. impersonal, high vs. low). Having started out as an Abstract Expressionist, Lichentenstein began, by 1961, using images from advertising and comic strips, for which he is best known.

Other modern masters included in the exhibition are Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Alice Aycock, James Rosenquist, Robert Indiana, Philip Pearlstein, and many others.