Before the Fall: Art of the American Twenties

American life was fundamentally altered in the 1920s, as the full impact of urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization remade the American environment and the way people lived in it. Rather than representing such phenomena as clamorous urban streets or the comedy of flapper culture, however, American artists employed a modern brand of realism to present a seemingly serene and perfect world. Before the Fall will demonstrate their embrace of a progressive, idealized realism, visible in a resurgence of figuration and in highly distilled images of American places and objects.

The exhibition will celebrate this strikingly fresh and original modernist imagery and question its relation to the riotous decade from which it emerged.

Organization: This exhibition is organized by Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Support: This exhibition is made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tour: Venues to be announced.