The dual meaning of “resolution,” as both coming-into-view and overcoming conflict, defines a wide range of artistic responses to the global shifts in society and culture—world wars, disasters, financial collapse, environmental degradation, and violations of human rights. This exhibition surveys how artists of the twentieth century mobilized artistic expression to clarify challenges, signal support to those struggling with difficult circumstances, and validate the importance of choice and freedom. Early twentieth-century photography conveys how individuals make a home amidst domestic and international migration, while a variety of aesthetic responses in the aftermath of World War II testify to the horrifying prospect of nuclear annihilation with strategies ranging from radical abstraction to turbulent figuration. Other works explore how art can bridge creativity and citizenship in an increasingly complicated matrix of identity formation and political conflict. Artworks may seek resolution through what they represent, but they may also refuse to resolve themselves in our field of vision, reminding us that resolution does not always come readily and that it is as much a process as an outcome.

Included is a section of Sosaku-hanga—creative prints (創作版画). These prints emerged as an artistic form of expression in twentieth-century Japan. This installation was co-curated for "Art & Resolution, 1900 to Today" by students from Art History 3180: "Japanese Print Culture," fall 2016.