JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville has opened “The American Century,” an exhibition exploring the rise of a distinctly American art movement over the past 100 years, timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The show, drawn from MOCA’s permanent collection, will run through March 7, 2027.
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The exhibition traces American art from the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in the years after World War II to the work of contemporary artists today.
Organizers point to the postwar period, when the center of the art world shifted from Paris to New York, as a turning point that mirrored the country’s rise as a global political and economic power — a shift publisher Henry Luce described as the dawn of “The American Century.”
Featured artists include Radcliffe Bailey, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Keith Haring, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, James Rosenquist, Shinique Smith, Frank Stella and Kara Walker, among others.
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A dedicated section of the exhibition examines Abstract Expressionism, which took hold in the 1940s as the first American art movement to gain international recognition.
The exhibition also highlights a “Second Generation” of Abstract Expressionists — including Ed Clark, Sam Francis, Frankenthaler, Michael Goldberg, Al Held and Mitchell — whose varied approaches helped give rise to Color Field painting, Hard-edge abstraction, Lyrical Abstraction, performance art, Minimalism and Conceptual Art.
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The exhibition was curated by MOCA Senior Curator Ylva Rouse. Support came from Lauren and Ted Baker, Joan and Preston Haskell, the city of Jacksonville, the Donald and Maria Cox Fund, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the MOCA Jacksonville Board of Trustees, MOCA Director’s Circle members, the University of North Florida and MOCA members.
As part of related programming, MOCA will host “Coffee with a Curator: The American Century with Ylva Rouse” on Aug. 29 from 11 a.m. to noon. The event, which includes coffee and snacks from Setlan Coffee Co. and gallery access, is free for MOCA members and $15 for non-members.
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