Modern Life: A Global Artworld, 1850-1950

We live with linked economies and global instantaneous communication. Change is constant. People are on the go. Modern life with its incessant movement began in the mid-19th century, as undersea telegraph cables, railroads, steamships, and colonial powers encircled the world. These same changes created a global art world with centers in cities such as Paris, Mexico City, and New York. Reflecting this internationalization, artists in this gallery come from North America, South America, and Europe. Their networks crossed continents and oceans, and these artworks grapple with and sometimes avoid the epochal changes they were living through. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has a focused but encyclopedic collection, and Modern Life uses its collection, salted with a few loans, to tell a sweeping, global story.

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