TAMPA, FL.- For the next four months, the Tampa Museum of Art is home to sculptures by such 20th century luminaries as Joan Miro, Willem de Kooning, and Louise Nevelson. Masterworks of 20th Century Sculpture from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection is on view through September 9, 2012 in the Museum’s Sullivan Gallery and North Lobby. It’s the latest exhibition in the Museum’s three-year partnership with the Marguiles Collection.

Masterworks chronicles important developments in sculpture in the second half of the 20th century. In addition to Miro, de Kooning, and Nevelson, other artists featured include Isamu Noguchi, Manuel Neri, George Segal, and Deborah Butterfield.

An abiding fascination with the figure unites all the works in the exhibition. While many modern artists abandoned the figure as inspiration, these seven artists made use of the figure (human and otherwise), even as the final work sometimes barely resembles the figure in reality.

“The Margulies Collection is known for its extensive sculpture collection which contains some of the best examples of post-World War II movements in Europe and the United States,” Katherine Hinds, curator of the Margulies Collection, said. “We have collected all of the artists in this exhibition in depth over the years and are very pleased to present this exhibition of historic works of sculpture as part of our collaboration with the Tampa Museum of Art.”

Todd D. Smith, the Museum’s executive director, said this third installment in the partnership allows the Museum to present more canonical artists from Mr. Margulies’ collection. “To be able to display the likes of Miro, Noguchi, Nevelson, de Kooning, and Segal is a real treat and will further assist the Museum in telling both the traditional and unfolding narratives of modern and contemporary art.” He said, “We cannot thank Mr. Margulies enough for sharing his collection with the Tampa Bay region during these key first years in our new home.”

The two prior exhibitions drawn from the Margulies Collection were The Hidden City and Realism. Presented in 2010 during the opening of the Museum’s new home, The Hidden City examined the role of the built environment in recent contemporary art. Ranging from Donna Dennis’s Subway with Silver Girders (1982) to Peter Bialobrzeski’s Case Study photographs (2008) and including works by Doug Aitken, Pedro Cabrita Reis, and Do Ho Suh, this show presented different voices about what makes a city a city and paid tribute to the connections among the professionally designed, the imaginary designed, and the make-shift.

On view in 2011, Realism asked the question of what constitutes realism in sculpture and painting in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and included such artists as Will Ryman, Tony Oursler, William Beckman, David Ellis, and Roberto Lang, and Leandro Erlich.