The Five Elements Project is a project of the Society for the Preservation of American Modernists, affectionately known to its members as SPAM, which was established in 1993 to honor the American modernists.  Visit SPAM’s website.

Many American modernists from the early twentieth century period took their inspiration from the natural world, standing “knee-deep in the sand or water,” as Arthur Dove put it, and painting “what was going on inside.”  Other artists were mindful of increasing industrialization, sometimes celebrating the Modern Machine, other times ridiculing it, and oftentimes wary of its impact on the soul of civilization.  Above all, the modernists were engaged in their times, seeking to understand the fast-changing world through paint, sculpture, words, dance, film, and other media.

Changes in the world have escalated since the modernists laid down their brushes and pens, and according to many sober minds we are confronting our most challenging one right now precisely because of industrialization.  In this new project we honor the American modernists by engaging in contemporary issues, as they did; by focusing on the relationship between nature and civilization, as they did; by supporting artists directly, as many advocated for; and by elevating the Idea to a central place in the project’s mission, as they elevated the Concept to a place of prominence in modernist art.

The artist-centered organization of SPAM will ensure that the Five Elements Project is artist-driven and does justice to the legacy of the American modernists.

The Society for the Preservation of American Modernists, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that was incorporated in New York State in 1993.