This New York–born artist’s work is unmistakable; his spare style conveys themes like loneliness and boredom, often with a focus on rural American life. Hopper, who vacationed at Cape Cod every summer, created some of his most famous works while based in the beach town of Truro. Among them: the sunset scene depicted here. Landscapes and architecture were the main subjects of the 100-plus pieces he painted of the Cape. 

This oil painting is one of O’Keeffe’s earlier, abstract works, which later took a back seat to the Southwestern landscapes and other subjects for which she’s most famous. She moved away from abstract paintings due to what she saw as misrepresentation by critics, who interpreted her work as overtly sexual; her intent was to express feelings about nature and music, as referenced in the title of the work.

The American flag has been a frequent subject for Johns, who began work on his first flag painting the year after he was discharged from the Army. For this one, Johns used encaustic—a mixture of hot wax and pigment—to depict flags on three canvases stacked atop one another, each scaled back by 25 percent to create the illusion of depth. The Neo-Dadaist hoped the viewer would reexamine familiar items when seen in a new context.  

Japanese-American sculptor and landscape artist Isamu Noguchi is best known for his contemporary sculptures, usually made of stone. For this piece he fashioned five interlocking pieces of stone into an elephant shape without the use of glue or fasteners. He used this style of construction for a series of sculptures meant to express the shattered state of society after World War II.

Though he had turns as a figurative artist and a surrealist, Rothko is best known for his abstract multiform paintings. They usually comprise two or three symmetrical, blurry blocks in complementary or opposite hues. Here Rothko uses black and crimson in a dark-to-light style that intensifies the piece and gives it depth. This 10-foot-wide canvas should be viewed up close, as Rothko intended, so the viewer feels enveloped by color.

One of the many artists backed by artist-photographer Alfred Stieglitz (who mentored and married Georgia O’Keeffe), Hartley was one of the first American abstract painters. He worked in that form in Europe until late 1915, when he returned to the US and began to paint more familiar subjects. His use of vivid colors here emphasizes military symbols of the German Army, which interested him during the dawn of the First World War.