Group '55 and Midcentury Modernism in Philadelphia

Exhibition Website

Sep 19 2020 - Jan 24 2021

Woodmere Art Museum

Philadelphia, PA

Woodmere presents an exhibition featuring the artists associated with Group ’55 and mid-century abstract painting in Philadelphia.

The painters, architects, musicians, and dancers who formed Group ’55 in 1955 presented their work as a catalyst for vigorous public dialogue about art and society in the post-World War II era. Organizing a number of exhibitions and public forums across Philadelphia, Group '55 engaged in discussions about existentialist philosophy and the role of science and art in the civic fabric.

Participants in the exhibitions and the activities of Group '55 include Louis Kahn (architect), George Rochberg (composer), and artists Sam Feinstein, Sam Fried, Doris Staffel, Raymond Hendler, Sanford Greenberg, Quita Brodhead, Jane Piper, and Michael Ciliberti.

Called by the press “a brave new art organization,” Group ’55 represents an important moment in Philadelphia’s cultural history.

The exhibition and its catalogue will include professionally recorded sessions and archival materials never before made public. Barbara Wolanin, a distinguished art historian with a specialization in American modernism, will write the main essay for the exhibition’s printed catalogue. The exhibition is being organized in collaboration with Patricia Stark Feinstein, who has overseen an important archive of materials associated with Group '55.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an installation of Sam Feinstein’s large-scale, immersive paintings of the 1970s.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • Painting
  • American
  • 20th Century
  • Abstraction
  • Various artists

Exhibition Venues & Dates