The Arthur Ross Gallery opened a new exhibition titled "After Modernism," featuring select pieces from the Neumann Family Collection.
Curated by History of Art professor Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw — who was assisted by Cinema and Media Studies professor Peter Decherney as well as students in the “The Art of Art Collecting" SNF Paideia Program seminar — "After Modernism" explores art from both the modernist canon and contemporary artists. Free and open to the Penn community, the exhibition serves as a unique collaboration between faculty, students, and the Neumann family, whose private collection rarely enters the public eye. The exhibition will be on display until April 13.
“Penn alum Mark Dalton was the one to first introduce me to the Neumanns,” Decherney said. “We were immediately excited by the collection. It’s an unbelievable selection spanning many decades and types of art.”
The Neumann family maintains their artwork primarily for personal enjoyment rather than investment purposes.
“This is a family that does not let the world see their art – they keep it all in their home,” College sophomore and seminar student Dylan Grossmann said. “The last time a lot of these pieces were exhibited, if they were exhibited at all, was in the National Gallery or the Art Institute in the 1960s or 70s.”
The exhibition's pedagogical development involved significant student participation through “The Art of Art Collecting," a course co-taught by Decherney and Shaw. Students gained hands-on experience in art curation while working with both historical and contemporary pieces.
“We each got to pick from a list of 200 artworks that the professors were given,” Grossmann said. “We wrote the visual analyses and wall labels, and we even had the opportunity to speak directly with [contemporary artists] about their work.”
The exhibition’s innovative approach extended beyond traditional display methods, incorporating cutting-edge virtual reality technology that allows visitors to experience the artwork in its original domestic context.
“We decided to make a virtual reality (VR) model, a digital twin of the Neumanns’ home,” Decherney said. “When galleries and museums show art, they often have to decide between isolating the object or putting it in context – with virtual reality, we can do both at the same time."
As the new faculty director of the Arthur Ross Gallery, the exhibition encapsulated Shaw's vision for the gallery's future — the first after its renovation.
“I was appointed to be faculty director of the gallery because there was a consensus that more faculty involvement would be ideal in linking the gallery with the different schools and units across campus,” Shaw said. “So much of what I want to do in the future is involving these different constellations of partnerships between the gallery, SAS, Weitzman, and other schools across the university. [After Modernism] is exciting because it brings together all of these ideas.”
Within its physical setting, though, "After Modernism" is staged in a salon-style. The intent behind where to place pieces and how to arrange them to create a story is one of Shaw’s particular artistic interests.
“When you go to a lot of museums, the art is hung — there’s a lot of space to breathe so that you can focus on the individual pieces. When you look [into the VR model] and see the Neumanns’ house, it’s not like that at all,” Shaw said. “It's a total overload. We wanted to give a sense of how the Neumanns’ live with their collection, how art is everywhere on their walls.”
"After Modernism" also strives to make typically inaccessible art available to the public, aligning with Penn’s mission to provide education opportunities beyond the traditional classroom setting.
“Art is, as a concept, inaccessible. You have to be in big cities, you have to travel, you have to be invited, get tickets — all these things are exclusive,” Grossmann said. “However, [After Modernism] is an opportunity for students to see incredible art that is organized, curated, and also understood and spoken to in the language of their peers.”
The role that private collectors play in supporting emerging artists and preserving contemporary art is also exemplified in the exhibit’s conception.
“Many of the artists [the Neumanns] collect started out as young, experimental artists whose work was unlikely to become part of a museum collection,” Decherney said. “It’s actually the collectors, who can see the value of the work before it becomes celebrated, that keep the artists working and keep the art alive.”
The curation process, experienced through “The Art of Art Collecting,” also provided valuable learning opportunities for students interested in art market careers, specifically offering insights into ethical collecting practices and the business aspects of the art world.
“I think this class was great in the way that it allowed me to see ethical collecting,” Grossmann said. “The Neumann family really cares about the art they’re putting in their home — they buy the pieces that are special to them and have a connection with.”
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