Drawn from the museum’s collection, this exhibition highlights various art styles and social issues that emerged in America during the turbulent decade of the 1960s. Paintings by figurative artists such as
Philip Pearlstein and
Alex Katz will hang alongside abstract compositions by
Raymond Parker,
Larry Rivers, and
Al Held. Conceptualist
works by Shusaku Arakawa and
Lee Lozano will serve as counterpoints to
Robert Rauschenberg’s socio-political painting, Straw-Boss. The museum will also display works on paper and sculpture by many of the leading artists of that time. Boisterous
prints by Robert Stanley, printed in bright colors on Day-Glo paper, glorify some of the important musical icons of the decade: the Beatles, James Brown, Dionne Warwick, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and the Shirelles. Other works on paper include photographs of New York’s countercultural denizens by
Diane Arbus and
Larry Clark, Pop
prints by Andy Warhol and
Roy Lichtenstein, and anti-war sentiments by
James Rosenquist and
Nancy Spero. Several sculptures created during this volatile and evolving era will demonstrate the focus on new media, such as the adoption of neon as an art material.