Exhibit tells story of modern American art.(TICKET)(Review)

Byline: Joan Altabe ART CRITIC

"Sarasotans Collect," a display of 50-plus works spanning nearly a dozen movements in 20th century American art, accomplishes something not always seen in a single show: demonstration of the ideological split between abstract and figurative painting.

The split is best exemplified by the work of early century painter Robert Henri and that of '60s painter Frank Stella.

You can see American art's brushwork start to loosen from the constraints of academic art in Henri's work, moving ultimately to the fiery techniques of abstract expressionist William Baziotes in the '50s, and on to the harder edged abstracts of Stella and …