New Image/Pattern and Decoration from the Morton G. Neumann Family Collection

6 October–4 December 1983

New Image/Pattern and Decoration highlighted a variety of avant-garde paintings collected by a Chicago family, demonstrating the important role played by private collections in the creation of artistic styles and trends. The exhibition explores two distinctive sensibilities that have developed, in part, as reactions to the stark minimalist or non-figurative aesthetic that dominated the 1960s. New Image painting involves a return to explicit imagery such as human forms and landscapes, often expressively rendered with prominent brushstrokes and vibrant colors. Pattern or Decorative painting is ornamental work based on lush tapestries, simple fabrics, and urban graffiti. Included in the exhibition are Nicholas Africano, Lucas Samaras, Keith Haring, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, and Miriam Schapiro. The exhibition has been shown at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and at the Madison Art Center. Following its Smart Gallery presentation it will travel to the Flint Institute of Arts, the Arkansas Art Center, and the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. 

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