Exhibitions

William Sommer: Visionary Modernist

A Retrospective

Opening May 8, 2026, 5:30-8pm

On View Through August 15, 2026

William Sommer, one of America’s great modernists, will be the subject of WOLFS long overdue retrospective this spring. Sommer, a master lithographer by trade, was also the most well-known and highly respected artist in Cleveland at the turn of the last century. Inspired by the avant-garde Europeans, Sommer created his own shocking palette highlighting a remarkably prolific career, often using his rural milieu to create brilliant modern compositions. 

The core of the exhibition is derived from the 60-year collection of Martin Lerner, an art historian and former curator best known for his tenure as the Senior Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, a position he held from 1972 until his retirement in 2003. This collection began during Lerner’s tenure at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he was first introduced to Sommer’s work, and continued throughout his life.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication featuring original essays and scholarship by William H. Robinson, former Curator of Modern European Art and Head of the Department of European and American Painting and Sculpture at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The exhibition will be supported by public programming, including guided tours and lectures. Additional lenders include both public institutions and private collections.

Peruse the Exhibition Catalog . . . 

 

 
 
 
If you missed the panel discussion, The Case for William Sommer, or want to see the recap, follow the link to an engaging conversation among three prominent art historians: William Robinson, PhD (former curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art), Marianne Berardi, PhD (Heritage Auction Director), and Jeffrey Katzin, PhD (Senior Curator of the Akron Art Museum).  Together, these American Art experts explore the life and legacy of this foundational Cleveland School Artist, making a case for William Sommer’s place in the canon of modernism while exploring Sommer’s life as an individual who lived during the first half of the 20th century, a period of tremendous social change and progress. Moderated by Raquel F. Vega, PhD.

 

 

 

William Sommer (American, 1867–1949)

 

 "Believing that true reality exists not in the material world but in the mysterious realm of dreams and imagination, Sommer wrote in one of his notebooks: 'Art is no longer a sensation we take up with the eyes alone. Art is the creation of our spiritual, inward vision, nature just starts us off. Instead of working with the eyes we conceive with the unconscious and thus the [artist's] complete changing of nature.' "  -William Robinson, Transformations in Cleveland Art: 1796-1946

 

 

Train on High Bridge, c. 1916, oil on board, 24 x 32 inches

 

Spring Beauty, c 1940, watercolor on paper, 12.5 x 17 inches

 

 

Adam and Eve, c. 1915, oil on artist's board, 31 x 23.5 inches

 

Cubist Still Life, c. 1930-35, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 12.5 x 17 inches 
 

The Brandywine Waterfall, 1923, oil on board, 24 x 31.75 inches

 

Big Red Barn, c. 1918, oil on board, 24 x 31.5 inches

 

Green Apples, 1923, Oil on board, 21 x 25 inches