Art of Another Kind International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949-1960

Pioneering artists in the post-World War II era alternatively embraced artistic freedom and gesture-based styles, nontraditional materials and countercultural references. French art critic Michel Tapié even declared the existence of un art autre (art of another kind) a radical break with all traditional notions of order and composition, in a movement toward something wholly other. This catalogue accompanies the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum exhibition Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 19491960, which especially highlights works that entered into the collection during the tenure of then-director James Johnson Sweeney. Featuring nearly 100 works by Louise Bourgeois, Alberto Burri, Asger Jorn, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Pierre Soulages, Antoni Tàpies and Zao Wou-Ki, among others, this collection-based exhibition explores the affinities and differences between artists working continents apart in a period of great transition and rapid creative development. This fully illustrated exhibition catalogue includes essays by Tracey Bashkoff, Megan M. Fontanella, and Joan Marter; an illustrated chronology; and short biographies of the artists.