MoCA Westport’s winter exhibition, Sixties MOD, ran from January 18 to March 3, 2024. The show featured selections from the Westport Public Art Collections:
The 1960s was a pivotal decade of great social, political, and cultural upheaval that continues to resonate deeply today. Artists, many of whom became increasingly socially engaged, pushed the boundaries of form, subject matter, medium and genre. The exhibition Sixties MOD honors an important period in Westport’s artistic history and investigates our community’s ties to broader national and international currents during this era.
The Westport Public Art Collections (WestPAC) also has roots in this decade, an era marked by Westport’s role as a vibrant community of artists. Sixties MOD celebrates the near sixty-year milestone when artist and educator Burt Chernow (1933-1997) began building the ‘Westport Art Collection,’ as it was first called. Over the summer of 1965, Chernow began to gather “outstanding examples of original art,” most donated by the artists themselves, to be used “as an everyday part of school life.” This philosophy directly built on the Westport W.P.A. committee’s efforts during the Great Depression, and the legacy flourishes today.
Sixties MOD presents paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs created between 1955-1975, a period often referred to as the “long 1960s.” WestPAC’s holdings are particularly strong in this transformative era. The original collection included artworks by leading contemporary artists of the 1960s, many of whom lived in New York City or Westport. Thanks to generous donations by collectors and artists alike over the decades, WestPAC’s holdings have expanded from 100 objects to nearly 2000 artworks by global and regional artists, on display in our school and municipal buildings.
Additionally, a Learning Gallery features posters and prints from the 1960s and beyond, which use text and image together to convey a message for activism, advertising, persuasion, and for visual effect. The gallery includes works that demonstrate various techniques, including woodblock, lithography, etching, and silkscreen, all of which were important during the 1960s print renaissance, a period of increased interest and innovation in printmaking as an art form.
The exhibition of nearly 60 works includes artists Sigmund Abeles, Garo Antreasian, Leonard Baskin, Hans Burkhardt, Alexander Calder, Ann Chernow, Burt Chernow, Howard Conant, Joseph Costa, José Luis Cuevas, Adger Cowans, Lisa Daugherty, Naiad Einsel, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Seymour Fogel, Richard Frank, Robert Fried, Johnny Friedlander, Bernard Fuchs, Isabel Gordon, Marion Greenwood, Roe Halper, Philippe Halsman, Ken Heyman, Gordon House, Richard Hunt, Robert Indiana, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Alan Kaprow, Robert Kaupelis, Takeshi Kawashima, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Lindner, Seymour Lipton, Susan Malloy, Mori Yoshitoshi, Robert Motherwell, Gabor Peterdi, Leona Pierce, Deborah Remington, Lorraine Schneider, Ben Shahn, Kumi Sugai, Tracy Sugarman, Fujo Ueda, Victor Vasarely, and Larry Zox.
About Westport Public Art Collections
Westport Public Art Collections (“WestPAC”) is a cultural asset of our town, with nearly 2000 works of fine art in a broad range of media: paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals by notable American artists — giants of the international art world, and important artists who established their homes and studios in the Westport-Weston community. Members of the Town-appointed WestPAC Committee serve as stewards of the Collections, working to research, catalog, preserve, curate, and support the educational uses of WestPAC artworks on display in municipal and school buildings throughout Westport.
WestPAC’s main annual operating support comes from Friends of Westport Public Art Collections, a 501(c)(3) organization, which raises and maintains funds exclusively to support the care, conservation, and educational use of the Collections for the benefit of present and future generations of Westport students, residents, and the broader community. Learn more on westportarts.org.