Yale Center for British Art to Present “Going Modern: British Art, 1900–1960”

On view February 12 through August 9, 2026

New Haven, CT (December 22, 2025)—This spring, the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) presents Going Modern: British Art, 1900–1960, an exhibition tracing how artists in Britain negotiated the challenges and opportunities of modernism in a rapidly changing world. Drawn from the museum’s renowned collection, the exhibition features more than seventy paintings and sculptures by some of the most compelling figures of twentieth-century British art, including Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Frank Auerbach.

“Going Modern demonstrates the richness and complexity of Britain’s engagement with modernism,” said Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, YCBA. “The exhibition reveals how artists working within a deeply rooted national tradition responded to the changing world around them, developing innovative forms of expression that continue to shape our understanding of modern art today.”

The first half of the twentieth century in Britain was marked by dramatic transformation: new technologies, shifting social and political orders, and the upheavals of two World Wars. For artists, these developments posed a vital question: how could a nation so deeply rooted in tradition forge its own modern identity? “Going modern and being British,” as the painter Paul Nash observed, was never straightforward.

“Through the lens of the YCBA collection, Going Modern illuminates how British artists met this challenge with imagination and diversity of approach,” said exhibition curator Lucinda Lax, Interim Head of the Curatorial Division and Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the YCBA. “Together, they created a dynamic and multifaceted modernism—one that encompassed the abstract and the figurative, the geometric and the expressive, and ultimately brought them together in increasingly powerful ways that continue to resonate and inspire today.”

Highlights of the exhibition include early twentieth-century paintings by Walter Sickert and members of the Camden Town Group, which capture the modern city’s atmosphere and rhythms; works by Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant that exemplify the Bloomsbury Group’s experimental spirit; and Ben Nicholson’s elegant abstractions, which helped define a distinctly British modernist aesthetic. The groundbreaking sculptures of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth stand alongside powerful figurative paintings by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Frank Auerbach, whose intense psychological visions marked a new era in postwar art. Other featured artists—among them Paul Nash, Prunella Clough, Keith Vaughan, and William Turnbull—demonstrate the extraordinary range of styles that characterized Britain’s artistic identity in the first half of the twentieth century.

Going Modern: British Art, 1900–1960 is organized by the Yale Center for British Art and curated by Lucinda Lax, Interim Head of the Curatorial Division and Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, with Rachel Stratton, independent curator and former Postdoctoral Research Associate at the YCBA. The exhibition will be on view at the YCBA from February 12 through August 9, 2026. Admission is free.

Related Programs

Please visit the YCBA’s calendar for the most up-to-date information on the programs that will accompany Going Moderm: British Art 1900–1960.

First Look | Going Modern: British Art 1900–1960
Thursday, February 12, 2026, 4–5 pm ET
Lucinda Lax, Interim Head of the Curatorial Division and Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, YCBA, and Rachel Stratton, independent scholar and curator of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, in a conversation moderated by Joanna Fiduccia, Assistant Professor of the History of Art, Yale

Spring Exhibitions Openings
Thursday, February 26, 4 pm, Lecture Hall and Livestream

Curator Tours
Thursdays, February 19, March 19, April 23, May 14, June 11, July 16, August 6, 4 pm

Docent Tours
Sundays, 1 pm

About the Yale Center for British Art

Opened in 1977 through the generosity of Yale graduate and philanthropist Paul Mellon, the Yale Center for British Art holds the largest and most significant collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection spans more than five centuries and is the foundation for a museum uniquely focused on the histories, legacies, and shifting contexts of British art. Housed in a celebrated modernist building designed by Louis I. Kahn, the museum is situated on the Yale University campus in the city of New Haven. It is free and open to all.

General Information

The Yale Center for British Art is located at 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut. The museum is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm, and Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm. Between September and June, the museum offers late hours on Thursdays and is open 10 am – 7 pm.
The YCBA is closed Mondays and major holidays.