Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
September 26th, 2020 – May 9th, 2021
In the fall of 2020 Woodmere Art Museum will present an exhibition featuring the artists associated with Group ’55 and mid-century abstract painting in Philadelphia. A concurrent installation will feature the later, large scale, immersive paintings of Sam Feinstein, a founder and President of the group.
In 1955, Philadelphia painters, architects, musicians, and dancers organized a series of exhibitions and public forums across the city, presenting their work as a catalyst for vigorous public dialogue about the role of art and science in the postwar era. Group ’55, as they came to be known, included architect Louis Kahn, composer George Rochberg, and artists Quita Brodhead, Michael Ciliberti, Sam Feinstein, Sam Fried, Sanford Greenberg, Raymond Hendler, Jane Piper, and Doris Staffel.
Group ’55 and Midcentury Modernism in Philadelphia will include professionally recorded sessions and historical materials never before made public. Patricia Stark Feinstein, who has overseen the important archive of the group’s work, is organizing the exhibition in collaboration with the Museum. Barbara Wolanin, a distinguished art historian whose specialization is American modernism, will contribute the main essay for the accompanying catalogue.