The BYU Museum of Art is opening a new exhibit today called "Turning Point: The Demise of Modernism and the Rebirth of Meaning in American Art."

The exhibit will explore a change that happened in American art history in the 1960s as a result of an artistic revolution against artistic development and for artistic expression. Two groups of American artists in the late 1960s rebelled against modernism by creating works that broke the rules of modernism.

"This exhibition is an important historical exhibition focusing on a narrow but highly significant period in American and world art history," said Campbell Gray, director of the Museum of Art. "The period extends from 1960 until 1970 - that moment when the tenets of modernist art collapsed under pressure from newer forms of artistic expression."

The exhibit includes works from modernists, minimalists and conceptualists and is designed to help those who visit see how the revolt against modernism inspired many artists to express a variety of forms of art.

"These rebels of the late 1960s restored volume, space, context and, most important, a recognition of an intellectually and emotionally engaged viewer to the art experience," Gray said.

Until this revolt, there was a single ruling art authority and an elite group of artists that created works on large canvas with abstract lines and forms.

"There was this kind of snobbish attitude about these artists," said Jeff Lambson, curator of contemporary art at the museum. "The viewer of the art played no part in the art, and the art was not supposed to mean anything than paint on a canvas."

The revolt brought about minimalists and conceptualists.

"In these movements, the artist is more concerned with how the viewer interacts with the art," Lambson said.

Because of these movements, contemporary art today is diverse and is created to mean something to those who view it.

The exhibit will be available in the Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery on the main floor of the museum. For the first time, the Museum of Art will be offering a cell phone audio tour to complement the exhibit. Visitors can bring their cell phones to the museum and call a local number that will direct them to an audio guide of the exhibit. An extension will be given that corresponds with each work in the gallery that will give visitors information on the work. Visitors can also download the audio tour as an MP3 file for free at http://moa.byu.edu and listen to the tour on their personal MP3 player as they walk through the exhibit. There will also be pre-loaded MP3 players available for check-out at the Museum of Art information desk.

An opening reception will be held tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. There will be light refreshments and live jazz music.

Copyright Brigham Young University 17 Jul 2008