Past-Forward: Modern and Contemporary Art from HoMA’s Collection

Featuring more than seven decades of painting, sculpture, and photographic work, Past-Forward reestablishes one of HoMA’s largest galleries as a space for modern and contemporary art from the museum’s permanent collection. The installation traces the evolution of abstract painting in the decades after World War II, the rise of new figurative movements in the 1960s and 70s and the confluence of art and politics in subsequent decades. The installation features hallmarks of HoMA’s collection, such as Robert Rauschenberg’s combine Trophy V (for Jasper Johns), alongside recent acquisitions and rarely seen works, offering a shorthand account of ways that artists have expanded the cultural conversation while addressing personal, aesthetic, and social concerns.

Almost half of the works in Past-Forward are drawn from the nearly 4,000 objects gifted by The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, in 2011. Past-Forward integrates two outstanding collections of modern and contemporary art while staging a dialog between artists from various backgrounds, geographies, and historical periods. The exhibition also highlights the contributions of artists from Hawai‘i.

Artists in the exhibition include Carlos Almaraz, Gaye Chan, Robert Colescott, Lee Bontecou, Olga de Amaral, Brett Graham, Philip Guston, Alex Katz, Barbara Kruger, George Miyasaki, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Alfonso Ossorio, Alexis Smith, and Kara Walker.  
 
Support provided by 
The Judy Pyle and Wayne Pitluck Fund for Contemporary Art
Sharon Twigg-Smith
Dr. Michael and Kristen Chan

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Lee Bontecou (American, 1931–2022). Untitled, 1964. Welded steel, canvas, saw blades, soot, and wire. Purchase, 1968 (3545.1) ©️ Lee Bontecou 2024 All Rights Reserved.