Artist to artist

The work of the artist is often thought of as solitary. We picture the painter confronting a blank canvas alone, studio door figuratively shut. Yet few artists thrive in a social vacuum. Even those who prefer to work in private will seek out other artists for myriad reasons: mentorship and inspiration, practical assistance, a sense of solidarity or shared purpose. Artists are often each other’s first and most important audience, providing vital support before critics, curators, and collectors arrive on a scene. Two artists caring about one another’s work is fundamental to the creation of any art “world”, large or small.

Assembled from the museum's extensive twentieth-century holdings, Artist to Artist features a rotating group of eight pairings. Artists currently featured in the galleries are George Tooker and Paul Cadmus, Kenjiro Nomura and Kamekichi Tokita, Frank O'Hara and Grace Hartigan, Tadashi Sato and Satoru Abe, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Bumpei Usui, Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, T.C. Cannon and Fritz Scholder, and Alma Thomas and Felrath Hines. Each pairing represents two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, a couple, or ardently close friends. Based in common goals or shared life experience, the personal interactions represented by these works helped shape and sustain American art.

Within this exhibition is New on view, an ongoing series of installations that place recently acquired artworks—both gifts and museum purchases—in dialogue with works already in SAAM's collection. Previous pairings included Yayoi Kusama and Joseph Cornell, Loïs Mailou Jones and Elizabeth Catlett, Joan Brown and Elmer Bischoff, Miguel Luciano and Juan Sánchez, Hisako Hibi and Matsusaburo George Hibi, and Ray Yoshida and Christina Ramberg.