Santa Barbara Museum of Art

An American Century: 20th-Century Master Drawings from the Collection
October 9, 2010- January 2, 2011

SBMA’s extensive collection of works on paper, assembled over nearly 70 years, reveals the exceptional and varied ways in which American artists of the last century have contributed to the development of a uniquely American style, the freedom and confidence of expression, and choice of subject matter that reflects dramatic changes in the country’s history during that time. 

Many of the more than 75 works represented in this exhibition are directly tied to the realities of life in American cities such as those by the early Ashcan realists and the radical modernists of New York City who strove to express the dynamic growth and vitality of cities.  They illustrate a broad range of the subject matter of 20^th century American artists including an atypical landscape sketch by Edward Hopper, watercolor masterpieces by Charles Sheeler, elegant still life studies of Charles Demuth, and major works by John Steuart Curry, Charles Burchfield, and William James Glackens.  American modernists are also well represented by Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Milton Avery, and Joseph Stella.  The many California artists included range from Arthur Matthew in drawings from early in the century, to Larry Bell more than 50 years later.