Seeing Art Through the Eye - Graphic Gala 1955 - The Artists' Gallery

Portfolio

The Artists' Gallery in New York was a non-profit organization and exhibition space dedicated to artists who had no commercial representation, operating from 1936 to 1962. Founded by American art historian Hugh Stix and directed by art collector and patron Federica Beer-Monti, it was supported through tax-exempt contributions and gave the entirety of sales to the artists. Among those who showed at The Artists' Gallery were Willem de Kooning, Josef Albers, Louise Nevelson, Richard Diebenkorn, Wolf Kahn, Seong Moy, Byron Browne, Fletcher Martin, Werner Drewes, and many others.

In 1955 the gallery held its second "anonymous" art exhibit, titled Graphic Gala, in which they invited over 200 artists to create drawings based on a uniting theme - in this case, "Man and Woman." These were then lithographically reproduced in groups of twelve onto 11" by 17" sheets and compiled into a portfolio, which was used as a kind of exhibition catalogue. However, the works were intentionally unsigned and the only way to learn who had drawn what was to refer to a printed "key," which was sometimes inserted into the portfolio and sometimes not. The reason for this was stated in the catalogue as follows:

"Many of us have violent and fixed prejudices for or against this or that artist and those prejudices are often based on other than aesthetic grounds. We look at the work of an artist with such a set preconceived point of view, that we are prevented from really seeing and feeling the work itself. This exhibition gives viewers the chance to look at contemporary drawings with a clear eye and a fresh viewpoint."

This rare portfolio is a fascinating glimpse into 1950s artistic expression in America, when the country was recovering from wars and economic depression and was in the midst of major social change. As usual, the visual art world was at the forefront of this change, reflecting the energy it came up against.