The Sweeney Decade: Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural August 21, 2009

The Guggenheim's 1959 inaugural exhibition featured highlights from the museum's classical collection as well a significant group of works from the 1950s, then newly collected by Director James Johnson Sweeney. Drawn from the contemporary works acquired during Sweeney's tenure from 1952-60, this presentation includes examples of international post-WWII trends in abstraction including Abstract Expressionism, CoBrA, Taschisme, and L'Art Informel, by artists Karel Appel, Alberto Burri, Eduardo Chillida, Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet, Jimmy Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Pierre Soulages, Antoni Tapies, and others.