MONTCLAIR, NJ.- The Montclair Art Museum opened A to Sze: Collecting at MAM (2000-2025), an exhibition showcasing some of the museum's significant acquisitions over the past quarter-century. Running through July 6, 2025, this exhibition reflects MAM's mission to represent the rich diversity of American culture, both past and present.


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Featuring a diverse array of historic, modern, and contemporary works spanning from 1880 to 2024, A to Sze encompasses a wide range of themes, styles, art movements, and mediums. The exhibition's title playfully references two featured contemporary artists: Derrick Adams and Sarah Sze. Adams' mixed media collage, There's More Than One Beauty School (2018), and Sze's large-scale installation, Random Walk Drawing (Air) (2011), are among the museum's most recent and ambitious acquisitions. These works are presented for the first time alongside 23 other pieces, many of which have rarely or never been displayed before.

"The works on view in A to Sze include rarely or never-before-seen nineteenth and twentieth-century abstract and representational landscapes by Edward M. Bannister, Lois Dodd, the Afro-Indigenous artist Richard Mayhew, Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), and Andrew Wyeth. Manierre Dawson's Thirteen (1913) exemplifies the contributions of this little-known pioneer of abstract, non-objective modern art. Varied simplified approaches to human or supernatural figures can be seen in the work of Will Barnet, Rafael Ferrer, Helen Hardin (Santa Clara Pueblo), Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo), and Bob Thompson," said Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator at MAM.

Themes of spirituality, history, global cultures, artistic agency, and social justice resonate throughout the exhibition. Acquired through purchases and generous donations since 2000, these works highlight MAM's commitment to strategic additions by both established and emerging American and Indigenous artists, with an emphasis on members of under-represented communities.

Featured artists include Derrick Adams, Edward M. Bannister, Will Barnet, Dale Chihuly, Stuart Davis, Manierre Dawson, Lois Dodd, Rafael Ferrer, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Charles Goeller, Helen Hardin (Santa Clara Pueblo), Alfred Jensen, Bill Jensen, Jasper Johns, Caroline Kent, Blanche Lazzell, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Mayhew, George L.K. Morris, Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo), David Smith, Bob Thompson, Sarah Sze, Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), and Andrew Wyeth.

A to Sze: Collecting at MAM (2000-2025) is curated by Gail Stavitsky, Ph.D., Chief Curator at the Montclair Art Museum.


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