ModernStarts: People explores aspects of figural representation in early modernism through several exhibition themes. Topics addressed in Composing with the Figure range from theatrical postures to the spatial relationship between the figure and its environment, and the reshaping or decomposition of the figure, with works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch, Fernand Léger, and Marcel Duchamp. A thematic exhibition, Actors, Dancers, Bathers, traces the development of these genres from Paul Cézanne and André Derain to contemporary photography. The Language of the Body investigates gesture, portrait heads, and facial expressions in all mediums, including prints by Odilon Redon and Paul Klee. Posed to Unposed: Encounters with the Camera explores the development of figure compositions throughout the entire history of photography. Expression and the Series juxtaposes Auguste Rodin’s sculpted heads of Honoré de Balzac and Henri Matisse’s heads of his neighbor Jeanette Vaderin. Finally, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is an installation of large figurative sculptures.
ModernStarts: People
Oct 7, 1999–Feb 1, 2000
MoMA
Publications
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ModernStarts: People Places Things Exhibition catalogue, Hardcover, 360 pages
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Modernstarts : people, places, things Out of print, 368 pages
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Press release 7 pages
Artists
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Koloman Moser
Austrian, 1868–19189 exhibitions, 29 works online -
Aristide Maillol
French, 1861–194454 exhibitions, 23 works online -
Walter De Maria
American, 1935–201317 exhibitions, 14 works online -
Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973332 exhibitions, 1,251 works online -
David Smith
American, 1906–196566 exhibitions, 24 works online - There are 25 artists in this exhibition online.
Installation images
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