Financier Roy R. Neuberger (1903–2010), one of the twentieth century’s foremost collectors, built a groundbreaking collection of American modern art, the full impact of which is only now being assessed. Recognizing the significance of the art of his own time, Neuberger acquired work by a remarkable selection of modern masters, including Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Willem de Kooning, Marsden Hartley, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and numerous others. Neuberger said of himself, “I have not collected art as an investor would, I collect art because I love it.”

Neuberger developed his passion for art while in Paris in the 1920s and began collecting in earnest after returning home to New York City in 1929. He was committed to buying the work of living artists, in order to support the artists themselves, and formed relationships with many influential artists, dealers, and critics. By 1950, the center of the avant-garde art world had shifted from Paris to New York, and Neuberger’s was the most important collection of modern art in the country.

When Modern Was Contemporary: Selections from the Roy R. Neuberger Collection is the first traveling exhibition in more than forty years to focus on this exceptional group of works. With some fifty paintings and sculptures, the exhibition illuminates the artistic transformations that took place in the U.S. during the first half of the twentieth century while also exploring Neuberger’s significant role as a collector of and advocate for the contemporary art of his time, providing unique insight into one of the most fertile periods in American art.