Reverberations: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Bank of America Collection

Organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in a fruitful collaboration with Bank of America’s Art Exhibition Program, the exhibition presented over 80 highlights from one of the finest corporate collections in the world. This exhibition provided an unusual opportunity to see a large portion of a corporate collection in one place. 

The exhibition featured major works by artists such as Milton Avery, Jennifer Bartlett, Roger Brown, John Chamberlain, Janet Fish, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Donald Judd, John Marin, Elizabeth Murray, Louise Nevelson, Jules Olitski, Faith Ringgold, Ed Ruscha, Miriam Schapiro, Lorna Simpson, and Frank Stella.

Organized around a theme that underscores Bank of America’s community outreach philosophy as well as strengths of its postwar collection, the exhibition took “reverberations” as a departure point. Among historically significant works in the collection are objects that focus on intense color and geometry as an organizing principle. This structural approach was rampant during the 1960s, uniting artists of disparate styles and approaches. Often associated with Minimalism or the colloquial “color field” painting, the practice of refining and reducing, peeling away and purifying the formal elements of artwork also affected realist painting and Pop art.

Bank of America’s trust and generosity allowed this exhibition to grow from a straightforward collaboration to an extraordinary opportunity to bring together major works by some of the strongest and most resonant artists of the last forty years in a dynamic dialogue.