American Treasures: Masterworks from the Butler Institute of American Art

What characterizes a “treasure” and what defines “greatness” in art? The criteria of a “treasure”—whether classical or contemporary—is decided by history. In these revisionist times, artworks, no matter how important they may have been at the time of their creation, are subject to reassessment of how we view the past. American Treasures presents artworks by American artists recognized as art stars. The constellation formed by the thirty-six artworks in this exhibition is connected by lines of inquiry. The exhibition is not a representation of the past to the present, but of the present to the past. Lines of inquiry between works offer an opportunity to look through the mirror of history and see our own face, our concerns, our skepticism, and our convictions. American Treasures invites the viewer to review how we got to where we are today. By refreshing our sense of historical aesthetic memory, we may better clarify the state of modern and contemporary art. American Treasures presents exquisite examples of old and modern American masterworks, as a checklist of ideas and social values, hopes, dreams and perceived realities. Indeed, these enduring masterworks help to illuminate our view of today’s world. Through an interfusion of gravitas and lightness, these treasures of two centuries are as close as we are going to get to viewing posterity’s judgment of the art of our own times. Included are masterworks by Milton Avery, George Bellows, Albert Bierstadt, Charles Burchfield, Thomas Cole, John Steuart Curry, Thomas Eakins, Adolph Gottlieb, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Jack Levine, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Andy Warhol, and Andrew Wyeth, among others.

All works are on loan from the permanent collection of The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.