From the Archives: press release for the exhibition Homage to American Art at Allan Frumkin Gallery, May 1966.
In October of 1964, ground was broken on what would be the Whitney Museum’s third home, on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 75th Street. For the previous ten years the Museum had occupied a space nearby the Museum of Modern Art, on West 54th Street, however was badly in need of more room. After years of searching, the Madison Ave site was chosen in 1963, with Marcel Breuer’s design announced later that year. Plans for the brutalist building, with virtually no windows and its imposing concrete facade, were met with some reservations, given that it was only a few years since Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim had opened to the public, just a few blocks away. In fact, the two buildings immediately garnered comparisons, with some referring to Breuer’s design as a “squared-off Guggenheim.” Certainly both architects were of similar mind as to the aesthetic purpose of a museum, with Breuer stating that “a museum in Manhattan should NOT look like a business or office building… its form and its material should have identity.
The construction took just under two years, with the new building finally opening to the public in September, 1966. In advance of this hotly anticipated event, Allan Frumkin Gallery dedicated its May exhibition of that year to the theme of “American Art.” Participating artists showed works in homage to a range of American artists - James McGarrell on Eakins, Paul Georges on Kaldis, Matta on Duchamp, H. C. Westermann on Elie Nadelman, Peter Saul on Thomas Hart Benton, and more. While the promised catalog seems never to have materialized, one lasting result of the exhibition was in the title of Westermann’s sculpture. As the press release indicates, the sculpture was originally referred to as “Homage to Elie Nadelman” and contemporaneous records support this. Westermann greatly respected Nadelman and it is no surprise that he dedicated the piece to the late artist, though ironically, the Polish-American was not yet collected by the Whitney. Following the exhibition, however, the sculpture has become more widely known as simply “Homage to American Art,” perhaps in a nod to Nadelman’s influence on the generation of an American style.
Press release for the exhibition Homage to American Art at Allan Frumkin Gallery, May 1966.
Image courtesy the George Adams Gallery Archives.
In October of 1964, ground was broken on what would be the Whitney Museum’s third home, on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 75th Street. For the previous ten years the Museum had occupied a space nearby the Museum of Modern Art, on West 54th Street, however was badly in need of more room. After years of searching, the Madison Ave site was chosen in 1963, with Marcel Breuer’s design announced later that year. Plans for the brutalist building, with virtually no windows and its imposing concrete facade, were met with some reservations, given that it was only a few years since Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim had opened to the public, just a few blocks away. In fact, the two buildings immediately garnered comparisons, with some referring to Breuer’s design as a “squared-off Guggenheim.” Certainly both architects were of similar mind as to the aesthetic purpose of a museum, with Breuer stating that “a museum in Manhattan should NOT look like a business or office building… its form and its material should have identity."
The construction took just under two years, with the new building finally opening to the public in September, 1966. In advance of this hotly anticipated event, Allan Frumkin Gallery dedicated its May exhibition of that year to the theme of “American Art.” Participating artists showed works in homage to a range of American artists - James McGarrell on Eakins, Paul Georges on Aristodimos Kaldis, Matta on Duchamp, H. C. Westermann on Elie Nadelman, Peter Saul on Thomas Hart Benton, and more. While the promised catalog seems never to have materialized, one lasting result of the exhibition was in the title of Westermann’s sculpture. As the press release indicates, the sculpture was originally referred to as Homage to Elie Nadelman and contemporaneous records support this. Westermann greatly respected Nadelman and it is no surprise that he dedicated the piece to the late artist, though ironically, the Polish-American was not yet collected by the Whitney. Following the exhibition, however, the sculpture has become more widely known as simply Homage to American Art, perhaps in a nod to Nadelman’s influence on the generation of an American style.