NEW YORK, NY.- Experimentation and heightened creativity characterized the European avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, as artists pursued multifaceted stylistic innovations. Modern European Currents examines this dynamic period through nearly twenty paintings and watercolors from the Guggenheim’s holdings by influential figures from the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian Empires—including Natalia Goncharova, Vasily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Liubov Popova, and Egon Schiele. The exhibition invites audiences to engage with celebrated collection highlights, such as Franz Marc’s Yellow Cow (1911), as well as hidden gems, among them Heinrich Campendonk’s Farmer with Horse and Wagon (1918), which has not been shown since entering the collection in 1948. This Collection in Focus presentation illuminates a seismic moment of transnational interchange and transformation, when artists tested new possibilities for visual representation.

As curator Vivien Greene notes, “The Collection in Focus series foregrounds beloved collection artworks and prescient new acquisitions. Modern European Currents, in particular, showcases a rotating cycle of delicate works on paper that the museum rarely exhibits due to their fragility.” Cocurator Megan Fontanella adds, “Some of these luminary exemplars of early twentieth-century European modernism have not been on view in a decade or more.”

The increasing materialism of the industrial era led the featured artists on a quest for more direct modes of expression. They sought to create compelling and emotive images using powerful painterly methods, ranging from brilliant anti-naturalistic palettes to reductive forms and splintered compositions. In parallel, growing knowledge of less conventional religions and philosophies prompted alternate conceptual approaches to subject matter. Many artists mined the visual language of European folk art, as well as work originating from cultures beyond Europe’s borders—in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. European artists often culled references from these cultures with little or no understanding of their original meaning and purpose, perceiving a greater “authenticity” and emotional charge in their more abstracted forms.

The iconic modern works on display—from examples of German and Viennese Expressionism to Russian Rayonism—evidence the crucial period immediately before several painters began moving away from figurative imagery toward full abstraction, forever altering the relationship between concept and form. In preparation for Modern European Currents, ten paintings and works on paper from the Guggenheim’s collection will undergo conservation treatment, supported by Ornellaia through their Vendemmia d’Artista project.

Modern European Currents is part of Collection in Focus, an exhibition series that draws from the museum’s holdings. This exhibition is organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator of Modern Art and Provenance, and Vivien Greene, Senior Curator of 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art, Guggenheim New York.