Our exhibition of 40 works – paintings, constructions, reliefs in wood and plaster, collages, and works on paper – focuses on the 1936 exhibition Five Contemporary American Concretionists. It was organized by A. E. Gallatin as a protest against Alfred Barr’s exclusion of American painters in MoMA’s Cubism and Abstract Art. Gallatin’s exhibition included Charles Biederman, Alexander Calder, John Ferren, George L. K. Morris, and Charles Green Shaw at the Reinhardt Galleries in New York. The exhibition traveled to Paris (Galerie Pierre) and London (Mayor Gallery) where Gallatin replaced Calder as the fifth exhibitor. 

The term “Concretionists” emphasized the non-objective style of the artists’ compositions and aligned with current discourse on abstraction in Paris. The exhibition set in motion the recognition of American abstract artists and by the end of the year 40 artists including Morris and Shaw joined together to form the American Abstract Artists. The Concretionists exhibition also led to a new reciprocity between abstract artists in New York and Paris with major European artists like Miró, Léger, and Mondrian attending the Paris opening.  

Our exhibition moves from the artists working in biomorphic abstraction inspired by Surrealism in 1936 to hard edged geometry by 1940.