“Inheriting Cubism: The Impact of Cubism
on American Art, 1909–1936,”
at Hollis Taggert Galleries, New York.
November 28, 2001–January 12, 2002
The widespread ignorance of early American modernism is not at all surprising, what with the current fads for Americana and the saturated fats of Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. Still, by forgetting the contributions of Americans, we distort not only our understanding of American art but we also constrain our pleasures, for the American modernists gave us some of our most gratifying paintings. In recent years, Hollis Taggert has not allowed the gallery-going public to forget these artistic forebears, mounting a series of gorgeous, synthesizing historical shows unequaled by other galleries in New York.
Curated by Stacey Epstein, Taggert’s Associate Director of Modernism, “Inheriting Cubism” traced the burgeoning styles of modernism, which were touched to varying degrees by Cubism, from their first appearance in this country until the Museum of Modern Art’s 1936 exhibition “Cubism and Abstract Art”—by which time, as John Cauman points out in his catalogue essay, “Cubism had become an art of the museums.” Despite the presence of a number of outstanding works among the forty paintings, drawings, and watercolors on view, one can hardly escape the judgment that in America modernists comprised a minor school. Minorin the highest sense of the word, but these artists still inherited their styles, rather than originating them. Even the standouts, Max Weber, John Marin, and Alfred Maurer, all of whom created excellent paintings, could not