Click image for slideshow

The Most Difficult Journey: The Poindexter Collections of American Modernist Painting comprises 60 paintings from a remarkable collection of American Modernist art. Now divided between the Montana Historical Society and the Yellowstone Art Museum, the paintings were acquired by George and Elinor Poindexter between 1950 and 1994. The two collections include work by many of the country's most important painters of the postwar era—Diebenkorn, Pollock, and de Kooning, among others—as well as the work of lesser-known artists who nonetheless made significant contributions to American modern and abstract painting.

In 1962 collector George Poindexter (1900-1975) said that the most difficult journey he had ever taken was into the appreciation of abstract art. After initially regarding Abstract Expressionism and other modern artistic trends with bafflement, Poindexter learned not only to understand abstract art, but also to love it.

The Most Difficult Journey provides a glimpse into the New York galley scene and the aesthetics of the Poindexters themselves, and it also offers new perspectives on the concepts of abstraction and figuration, as well as the evolution of abstraction in the midst of the Pop Art and Minimalist movements.

The Henry Luce Foundation generously provided funds that made possible the research and conservation necessary for this exhibition as well as for its accompanying catalog. Although individual works and smaller selections from the Poindexter collections have been exhibited before, this is the first time that a large portion of this extraordinary legacy will be available for a national tour.