Early Abstract and Modernist Painting
Albert Eugene Gallatin (1881–1952)
Room Space, 1937–38
A champion of abstract art, Albert Eugene Gallatin belonged to a group of New York City artists dubbed the Park Avenue Cubists, united in their affluence and their advocacy for cubist-inflected abstract painting. A simple arrangement of fields of yellow, blue, brown, and black with superimposed geometric shapes, Room Space is typical of Gallatin’s spare compositions. The artist took up painting seriously in 1936, after many years as an active collector of European modern art. With its combination of vibrant hues and dark neutral tones, the canvas is indebted particularly to Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), whose geometric and abstract paintings feature bright primary colors, and to the achromatic palette favored by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Juan Gris (1887–1927). Gallatin dedicated his art, as he did his collecting, to promoting abstraction during a period when figurative art and nationalist sentiment attracted greater critical attention.
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website.
Early Abstract and Modernist Painting
Joseph Stella (1877–1946)
Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917
Max Weber (1881–1961)
Construction, 1915
Patrick Henry Bruce (1881–1936)
Peinture, 1917–18
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943)
Painting No. 50, 1914–15
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Nature Symbolized #3: Steeple and Trees, 1911–12
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Sails, 1911–12
Charles Demuth (1883–1935)
Welcome to Our City, 1921
Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1880–1953)
Boy with Cow, 1921
Stuart Davis (1892–1964)
Super Table, 1925
Helen Torr (1886–1967)
Purple and Green Leaves, 1927
Arthur Dove (1880–1946)
Boat Going through Inlet, c. 1929
John Graham (1881–1961)
The Green Chair, 1928
John Storrs (1885–1956)
Politics, 1931
Ernest Lawson (1873–1939)
Brooklyn Bridge, 1917–20
John Marin (1870–1953)
Sailboat, Brooklyn Bridge, New York Skyline, 1934
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986)
Red Amaryllis, 1937
Albert Eugene Gallatin (1881–1952)
Room Space, 1937–38
Milton Avery (1885–1965)
Adolescence, 1947
George Tooker (1920–2011)
Highway, 1953
Ed Paschke (1939–2004)
Topcat Boy, 1970
Beauford Delaney (1901–1979)
Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948
Philip Evergood (1901–1973)
Passing Show, 1951
Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946)
Kalounna in Frogtown, 1986