American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection

In September 2025, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) will present the first exhibition dedicated to the collection of businessman, philanthropist, and Texas native Charles Butt. Bringing together over seventy-five works, American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection, presents and recontextualizes the multifold histories of American art by sharing Butt’s vision of American creativity and opening his collection to the public for the first time. American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection premieres at the Carter on September 7, 2025 where it will be on view through January 25, 2026 as the first stop on a multi-city tour at institutions throughout Texas. The exhibition includes paintings and works on paper from the turn of the twentieth century through the end of the 1970s and features works by American modernist icons including Romare Bearden, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alma Thomas, and Andrew Wyeth, among others, many of which have never been publicly viewed. Reflecting Butt’s commitment to education and his keen entrepreneurial eye, his collection embodies a distinctly American commitment to technical, conceptual, and aesthetic innovation.

Image: Blanche Lazzell (1878–1956), Abstraction, ca. 1925, oil on board, Collection of Charles Butt, © Estate of Blanche Lazzell