SHELBURNE, VT.- American Moderns, 1910–1960: From O'Keeffe to Rockwell will be on view at Shelburne Museum from June 13 until September 13, 2015. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, American Moderns presents almost 50 artworks from its collection in a variety of styles that explore the depth and range of American modern painting and sculpture.

Museum director Tom Denenberg said, “While Shelburne Museum is best known for its early American paintings and vast folk art collection, at the end of her life, Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960) planned to expand the Museum’s collection to include modernist paintings and sculpture. This exhibition not only allows visitors a rare opportunity to experience modern masters in Vermont, but it also completes what might have been Mrs. Webb’s ultimate vision for the museum. She wanted to present a piece of what Georgia O’Keeffe called, ‘this great American thing’ to Vermont audiences.”

This is the last stop on the tour for the exhibition, and perhaps a once in a lifetime moment for art lovers in Vermont to see this important group of artworks. Forty-four paintings and three sculptures will be on view in Shelburne Museum’s Pizzagalli Center for Art & Education by such artists as Georgia O’Keeffe, Milton Avery, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Elie Nadelman and Norman Rockwell.

In the 50 years between 1910 and 1960 art and society in the United States was completely transformed. The U.S. took the leap from agriculture to industry before and after World War I. During the Great Depression the population became mobile and cities were on the rise. When the U.S. emerged from World War II as an international economic giant and the American people demanded equality and an opportunity: the American Dream. The artists who lived through these times in America were driven to find innovative ways to express the new conditions of modern life.

Shelburne Museum visitors will see in these paintings a range of themes such as the city, the body, landscape, still life and Americana. A common motif in this period was the rise urban life. From the gridded geometries of the modern metropolis, artists found new iconographic and aesthetic possibilities. But artists also captured the social impact that followed change: alienation, lack of privacy and the increasing independence of women. In addition, both the idea of the heroic laborer and athletes who embodied the new cult of physicality were also sources of inspiration.

Conventional genres such as landscapes and still life painting were revitalized by experimentation in new styles and compositions, and in the formal properties, or components of a work of art which include: line, shape and form, space, color and texture. Artists were drawn to the various extreme vistas offered in the continental U.S. including the southwestern desert and rugged sea sides. Still other artists explored American nostalgia for the past with popular images of “bygone days” in new modern styles.