COLUMBUS, OH.- Modern Dialect: American Paintings from the John and Susan Horseman Collection, a striking new exhibition, opened at the Columbus Museum of Art June 6. The exhibition, on view through August 31, showcases American Modernist paintings from the 1920s to the beginning of World War II, a period marked by significant change and compounded by the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The more than sixty artists featured in Modern Dialect hail from all parts of the United States, and painted wherever they found inspiration. These artists adhere to a common interest, more than to a single style, in portraying their realities in a decidedly modern fashion. The exhibition reveals the scope of the American modernist aesthetic in the early 20th century, and the vision and integrity each artist brought to the representation of the American experience – from rural landscapes to modern industrial cities (and the people who inhabit them) to purely abstracted compositions.

“As compelling as the rich artistic responses to our American experiences are in this exhibition, equally intriguing to me is the unique personality that a private collection of this caliber reveals,” said CMA Curator of American Art M. Melissa Wolfe.

Organized by the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Modern Dialect highlights works by some of the most respected American artists of the early twentieth century including Charles Burchfield, George Ault, Charles Sheeler, Marsden Hartley, and George Bellows, as well as re-introducing such fascinating artists as Clyde Singer, Lois Mabel Head, Arthur Osver, and many others.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 132-page, hardcover catalogue that features full-color reproductions of the featured works; each painting is accompanied by a catalogue entry written by Julie Pierotti, the exhibition’s curator, Dixon Director Kevin Sharp, and M. Melissa Wolfe.