The Chronicle

Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Recess
Last update: 10/25/07 at 8:22 AM EST

Media Credit: CHRIS McGUIRE Nasher's Taste of the Modern pays tribute to 20th century greats.

Kitty litter on the floor, pie in a glass case and modern masters on the wall: What else could it be but the Nasher's latest exhibit?

The Nasher recently opened Taste of the Modern, an exhibit that focuses on modern art in America from the 1950s and 1960s.

The exhibit's main draws are six works on loan from Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art. The four artists on display-Franz Kline, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and Mark Rothko-are considered modern masters. Oldenburg's art is in the style of pop art, while the other three deal in abstract expressionism.

The curator also supplemented the exhibit with other kindred on-loan works and pieces from the Nasher's collection, some of which have never been on display.

"[The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has] so many extraordinary things that they can't show all the time," said Anne Schroder, curator of academic programs for the Nasher. "To complement the exhibition I added works from our permanent collection that are related in time to the MOCA pieces and resonated with them, some of which have not yet been on view in the new building."

The theme, Taste of the Modern, reflects a special moment in American art history. The 1950s and 1960s were a period when American artists were distancing themselves from more conventional American Realism. Schroder said the artist of the time sought a new vision after World War II.

"These works are truly of the moment," Schroder said. "This is when they are really exploring [art].... It's that moment when America is really embracing the modern and America is taking the center stage in the modern art world."

While the artists were influenced by European surrealism and abstraction, the art was distinctively theirs and American.

Of the abstract expressionists in the exhibit-Rothko, Kline and Rauschenberg-each artist has a different style. Kline and Rothko employ color to impact feelings, yet they each do so in different manners. The Kline work "Hazelton", is a simple work of black and white. Rothko, on the other hand, juxtaposes warms hues in "No. 46 (Black, Ochre, Red Over Red)" (1957) to elicit entirely different feelings.

In a different vein of abstract expressionism, Rauschenberg goes beyond simply using paint in his work and incorporates a variety of media. "Painting with Grey Wing" (1958), one of his two featured works, incorporates oils, printed reproductions, paint by numbers, fabrics, a bird wing and multiple other materials.

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