By Dr. Charles Cramer, Dr. Kim Grant

By observing nature more closely, absorbing new scientific theories and spiritual investigations, many modern artists sought higher truths.

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By Dr. Charles Cramer, Dr. Kim Grant

Derain used a liberated Fauve approach to color and form to depict female figures in an exotic setting.

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By Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

Picasso loved the magic of illusionism—but here, he shatters it.

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By Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

Malevich believed that artists, and art, could pave the way to a better future. But would they?

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By Dr. Karen Barber

What initially might seem like random images is actually Hannah Höch’s comment on Weimar Germany’s culture and politics.

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By Dr. Adriana Zavala

Beyond Europe, mapping the origins of Brazilian modernism.

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By Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

Why was the original version of this mural at New York’s Rockefeller Center destroyed within months of its creation?

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By Dr. Doris Maria-Reina Bravo

In her double self-portrait, Kahlo wears both European garb and the Indigenous clothing she grew to prefer.

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By Dr. Doris Maria-Reina Bravo

This Cuban artist united European Surrealism with Afro-Caribbean culture.

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By Dr. Gillian Sneed

Latin American geometric abstraction united international principles of modernist abstraction with local cultural traditions, and led to more participatory forms of art.

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By Dr. Maya Jiménez

Torres-García upended traditional hierarchical structures by defining the art of South America on its own terms.

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By Dr. Perrin Lathrop

Nigerian independence inspired artists to develop a new national and artistic identity based on “natural synthesis.”

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By Dr. Kris Belden-Adams

Though this photograph could be seen as a searing social commentary, its maker preferred to view it as fine art.

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By Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

Lawrence carefully documents the migration of African Americans from the agricultural South to the industrial North.

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By Dr. Steven Zucker, Dr. Jennifer Padgett, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

A magical landscape

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By Dr. Suzanne Newman Fricke

Faced with mass production, Maria Martinez continued hand-making pottery as art rather than utilitarian vessels.

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By Dr. David W. Penney, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Steven Zucker

Nampeyo found inspiration from the old to create a pottery style that was entirely new and highly sought after.

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