WEST PALM BEACH, FL.-The Stieglitz Circle at The Phillips Collection: In The American Grain is drawn from the Phillips Collection's permanent holdings, and includes more than forty paintings by American Modernists Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O'Keeffe, as well as photographs by Alfred Stieglitz. On view at the Norton Museum of Art through May 8, 2005, this stunning exhibition explores not only the works of these innovative modern artists, but also their relationships with gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and collector Duncan Phillips. The members of "Stieglitz's Circle" were frequently inspired by America's distinctive landscape, and depicted its endless variety in bold forms and vivid colors. Also on view during this exhibition will be complementary paintings from the Norton's permanent collection, two each by Dove and O'Keeffe, and one each by Hartley and Marin.

The Norton's Curator of American Art, Jonathan Stuhlman, comments, "This is not only a wonderful opportunity to see important and beautiful paintings by some of America's most innovative artists, but also a chance to learn about the fascinating and complex relationships that emerged between Duncan Phillips, an insightful collector, Alfred Stieglitz, a tireless advocate for modern American art, and Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O'Keeffe, four groundbreaking American artists."

Avant-garde gallerist and photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) originally made a name for himself by introducing the work of modern European artists such as Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Rodin to American audiences at his gallery 291. However, by the time he had opened his second gallery, An American Place, in December 1925, he was firmly devoted to exhibiting and promoting American art. At the heart of his circle were Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Washington, D.C.-based collector Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), like Stieglitz, showed an early interest in modern European art, forming a collection that by 1923 included Renoir's masterpiece The Boating Party, for which he paid a then-record sum of $125,000.

At this point, however, Phillips was beginning to take a serious interest in American art as well. In fact, one year before he purchased the Renoir, he wrote that it was a "cardinal principle to make the gallery as American as possible, favoring native work whenever it is of really superior quality, as our painting unquestionably is." In 1926, Phillips defined his outlook by stating that, "The power to 'see beautifully' is almost all there is worth bothering about in art."

It was inevitable that Phillips and Stieglitz would meet. The event occurred shortly after the opening of Stieglitz's Intimate Gallery in late 1925. Just a few months later, Phillips had purchased his first paintings from Stieglitz, including works by Dove, Marin, and O'Keeffe. Over the next two decades (until Stieglitz's death in 1946), Phillips continued to acquire and exhibit work by the artists that Stieglitz supported, sharing his passion and steadfast belief that the work of American artists was equally as valid as that of their European counterparts. Phillips collected the artists in this exhibition in depth, grouping their work into "units" that represented each artist's mature body of work. In keeping with Phillips' tradition, this exhibition is laid out in "units," each of which functions as a miniature retrospective for Dove, Hartley, Marin, O'Keeffe, and even Stieglitz himself.