The prestigious Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is loaning more than 100 works by 75 important American artists to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.

Beginning Feb. 3, visitors will be able to view paintings by Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Arthur Dove, Thomas Eakins, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko and others.

The paintings in the show were created between 1845 and 1965, and represent a survey of American painters and their work. The show begins with great heroes of 19th-century American art, including Homer and Eakins, whose works set the course for modern art in the United States. The show concludes with works by the abstract expressionists whose efforts to create a new visual language in the 1940s caused the art world to turn its attention from Paris to New York and made American art a significant global force.

Many of the artists in the exhibition were influenced by and captured in their work some of the biggest changes transforming society during their lifetimes -- the rise of industry and new modes of transportation, the growth and electrification of cities and the invention of everyday objects. Specific paintings will be connected to inventions and innovations that changed the world. These include: the Erie Canal, the electric light bulb, tube paint, acrylic paint, skyscrapers, the egg beater, the electric fan and mobiles.

The Phillips Collection, American's first museum of modern art, was founded in 1921, nearly a decade before New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1929. From its inception, The Phillips Collection championed the very best in American art and artists. A well-regarded art critic, in addition to being a collector and museum director, Duncan Phillips believed the public benefits by giving itself over to the direct experience of the work of art. In this way, they enter the artist's world, learning to see as artists see.

The exhibit continues through May 6.

Also opening on Feb. 3 is an installation by British art duo John Wood and Paul Harrison, who combine physics and humor. On Feb. 24, "Fairy Tales, Monsters and the Genetic Imagination" goes on display. This exhibition of photographs, paintings, videos, sculpture and installations was created by contemporary artists who invent human, animal or hybrid creatures to symbolize life's mysteries, desires and fears.

The Frist, 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, is open 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday; and 1-5:30 p.m. Sunday (all times Central). Admission is $10 adults, $7 seniors, military and students; and free for visitors 18 and younger. Call 615-244-3340 for information.