Exhibition Showcases American Modernism in Fort Worth

Fort Worth — The exhibition ‘American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection’ is currently on view at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. This is the first public exhibition showcasing the collection owned by Charles Butt, the chairman of H-E-B. The exhibition includes over 80 works of art, featuring paintings and works on paper from the turn of the 20th century through the early 1980s. The exhibition was organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and will run until January 25, 2026.

What’s on display and why it matters

The show gathers an extensive range of American modernist work assembled by a single longtime collector. Featured artists in the collection include Romare Bearden, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alma Thomas, and Andrew Wyeth. The collection has been quietly amassed by Butt over a period of approximately 60 years. Butt is still actively acquiring art and intended for this exhibition to share his passion with the public.

Organization and themes

The exhibition is thematically divided into four sections: ‘Intimate Perspectives,’ ‘The Language of the Sea,’ ‘Land Progression,’ and ‘Geometric Utopias/Dystopias.’ Each section highlights a different strand of American modernism and reflects both individual experiences and broader movements within 20th-century art.

Intimate Perspectives

‘Intimate Perspectives’ focuses on the influence of personal relationships among artists, featuring pairings such as Thomas Hart Benton and his student Jackson Pollock. This section explores how mentorship, friendship, and artistic exchange shaped stylistic developments and subject choices.

The Language of the Sea

‘The Language of the Sea’ showcases works reflecting Butt’s childhood near the Gulf of Mexico, including etchings and watercolors celebrating American coastlines. This grouping underscores a recurring maritime sensibility in American art and connects the collector’s personal history to the works on view.

Land Progression

The ‘Land Progression’ section emphasizes American modernists’ responses to their environments through landscape art, highlighting artist Marsden Hartley’s evolution. The section traces shifts in scale, color, and abstraction as artists negotiated place and identity across the century.

Geometric Utopias/Dystopias

‘Geometric Utopias/Dystopias’ includes geometric abstractions and urban post-industrial scenes, focusing on female artists employing abstraction to break from traditional gendered interpretations. This section puts a spotlight on how formal experimentation intersected with changing social roles and urban transformation.

Collector background and support for the arts

Charles Butt, a native Texan and grandson of H-E-B’s founder, took over the company in 1971 and is dedicated to supporting art and education in Texas. Butt began his art collection at the age of 20, starting with a framed Reader’s Digest cover featuring Winslow Homer’s ‘Breezing Up.’ Over roughly six decades he built a collection that represents a wide range of American modernist art and reveals both well-known and lesser-known artistic voices.

Exhibition circulation and gifts

The exhibition will travel exclusively to three other Texas museums after its run at the Amon Carter: Blanton Museum of Art in Austin (spring 2026), Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (fall 2026), and McNay Museum in San Antonio (spring 2027). As part of the exhibition, Butt has made a promised gift of Rufino Tamayo’s ‘The Family’ (1925) to the museum.

Public programs and outreach

The Amon Carter Museum will host an event called ‘Second Thursdays at the Carter: Collect & Create’ on November 13, aimed at encouraging art collection. The museum plans additional public programs and learning activities tied to the exhibition to engage a range of audiences, from first-time visitors to experienced collectors.

Curatorial notes

Curators emphasize the collection’s capacity to show transitions across decades and to surface both canonical names and lesser-known artists. The exhibition’s pairing strategy and thematic divisions aim to reveal connections—personal, geographic, and formal—across American modernism while reflecting the collector’s long-term interests and ongoing acquisitions.