Book Description

This is the catalogue for an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, which explores the considerable contributions of Virginia Dwan and her legendary gallery to post-WWII American art.It is being carefully curated by Press author James Meyer. Founded by Virginia Dwan in 1959, the Dwan Gallery was a leading avant-garde space with locations in Los Angeles and New York, presenting the art of Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Smithson, among others. Where the Los Angeles gallery featured abstract expressionism, neo-dada, and Pop, the New York branch reflected the emerging movements of minimalism, conceptualism, and land art. The activities of the Dwan Gallery transpired not just in and between Los Angeles, New York, and Paris, but also in the wilderness of the American West, where Dwan fostered a new genre of art known as earthworks (land art). A keen follower of the Parisian art scene, Dwan also gave many nouveaux realistes such as Yves Klein their debut shows in the United States."