Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television

Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, the first exhibition to explore how avant-garde art influenced the look and content of network television in its formative years, will be on view at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale from October 24, 2015 through January 10, 2016. From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, the pioneers of American television adopted modernism as a source of inspiration. Revolution of the Eye looks at how the dynamic new medium of television in its risk-taking and aesthetic experimentation paralleled and embraced cutting-edge art and design.

The exhibition is organized by the Jewish Museum, New York and the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Highlighting the visual revolution ushered in by American television and modernist art and design of the 1950s and 1960s, the exhibition features over 260 fine art objects and graphic design, including works by Saul Bass, Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol, as well as ephemera, television memorabilia and clips from historic television programs and film, including Batman, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, and The Twilight Zone will be on view. The exhibition’s iteration at NSU Art Museum will feature additional work by Georgia O’Keeffe, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, and Bob Kane, among others.