From the 1930s through the 1970s American artists developed dynamic approaches to abstract art. This installation features work from PAFA’s permanent collection to illustrate how the American art world witnessed great transformations that resulted in more expressive options than ever before for artists in the mid-20th century. Artists drew from a wide range of sources in order to reject realism and attempt a new vocabulary of form and content.

Sea Change: Highlights from PAFA’s Collection of 20th-century Art includes 29 paintings by artists including Edna Andrade, Morris Blackburn, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb, Miyoko Ito, Robert Keyser, Lee Krasner, Barbara Rossi, Mark Rothko, and Nancy Spero, among others.