May 14, 2015 -- American and European from the 1920s and 1930s will be at Phoenix Art Museum from June 13 to November 15, 2015 in the Lyon Gallery. The 1920s and 1930s were remarkable decades of social, economic, scientific, and political change in America and the nations of Western Europe. Bounded by the First World War, the period saw the birth of Jazz, widespread use of the automobile, voting rights for women, as well as the hardships of the Great Depression and the destructive slide into political conflict. Throughout these dramatic times, during both the highs and the lows, artists responded to the world in which they lived in dramatic fashion. Introduced at the beginning of the century, modern styles of expression flourished on both continents in the 1920s and '30s. The modernists struggled for acceptance from critics and collectors, competing with the centuries-long academic traditions based on the fidelity to nature.

This exhibition is drawn from Phoenix Art Museum's extensive collection of works from the early twentieth century as a complement to the traveling exhibition From New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism from the Vilcek Foundation Collection. The exhibition includes 25 paintings, watercolors and drawings by artists including Pablo Picasso, Everett Shinn, André Derain, Reginald Marsh, Kees Van Dongen, Isabel Bishop, George Grosz. Photography is encouraged in this exhibition and it is organized by Phoenix Art Museum.

About Phoenix Art Museum
Since opening in 1959 Phoenix Art Museum has provided access to visual arts and educational programs in Arizona and become the largest art museum in the Southwestern United States. Top national and international exhibitions are shown alongside the museum's collection of more than 17,000 objects of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, photography and fashion design. The museum hosts photography exhibitions through its landmark partnership with The University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. Visitors can also enjoy the PhxArtKids gallery, the Dorrance Sculpture Garden, the Thorne Miniature Rooms of historic interiors, and a collection of works by renowned Arizona artist Philip C. Curtis. For additional information please visit phxart.org or call 602-257-1880.