Suitcase Modernism: Transatlantic Exchange Reconsidered

“Suitcase Modernism: Transatlantic Exchange Reconsidered”

Moderators: Sara E. Thom (Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art), Laura L. Watts Sommer (Temple University, 1999)

Strong artistic ties between Europe and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in flourishing artistic centers on both coasts of the Atlantic. But what about within the Atlantic? Disruptions from war, economic uncertainty, and a desire for new visual inspiration led many artists to explore alternative destinations. Some—including Winslow Homer, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and Albert Gleizes— found their way to sites within, rather than around, the Atlantic. The participants of “Suitcase Modernism,” gathered at the 2026 CAA Conference in Chicago, will review Intra-Atlantic artistic experience during this period to reconsider the history and parameters of Transatlantic exchange.

Island locales – for instance Bermuda, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and the Azores – drew artists to their shores with the promise of a low cost of living, temperate climates and, increasingly, modern amenities and infrastructure. The tropicality of these settings, as well as their liminality of travel, has arguably influenced existing scholarship, which often casts these periods of artistic production as exceptions or brief divergences from a consistent and intentional artistic path on the continents and in urban centers. “Suitcase Modernism” seeks papers addressing Intra-Atlantic production and the role artists’ sojourns played in their artistic development. The focus will be on decentering Modernist experimentation from New York and Paris and expanding the scope of early-twentieth-century art.