Venue:
Foro Boario, Modena.

Curator:
Luca Massimo Barbero.

Artists:
Joseph Albers, William Baziotes, Stuart Davis, William Congdon, Max Ernst, Sam Francis, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Jean Hélion, Hans Hofmann, Vasiliy Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, František Kupka, Conrad Marca-Relli, Matta, Joan Mitchell, Piet Mondrian, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Jackson Pollock, Richard Pousette-Dart, Mark Rothko, David Smith, Clyfford Still, Kurt Schwitters, Mark Tobey.

Exhibition description:
This exhibition present the “action painting” movement, through its leading representatives, Pollock, Kline, Rothko, de Kooning, Gorky, Baziotes, Motherwell, Francis and Hofmann. The show began by presenting historic abstraction with the work of Kandinsky, Klee and others. It included works on paper and preparatory drawings, in order to illustrate the creative phases that led each artist to the creation of his or her final work. Action Painting. Arte Americana 1940–1970: dal disegno all’opera comprised more than a hundred works, from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, from artists estate through the American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich and other private collections.

Partnerships:
Exhibition organized by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in collaboration with the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena and the American Contemporary Art Gallery, Monaco.

Catalogue:
Barbero, Luca Massimo. Action Painting. Arte americana 1940–1970: dal disegno all’opera. Venezia: Peggy Guggenheim Collection, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2007.

Catalogue in Italian, with prefaces by Gianfranco Baldini (Presidente Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena), Maria Concetta Pezzuoli (Segretario Generale Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena), Thomas Krens (Direttore, Fondazione Solomon R. Guggenheim). Essays by Mark Rosenthal, Luca Massimo Barbero, Marco Vallora and Leigh Robb. Catalogue also contains an exhibition checklist and artists’ biographies.

Library location: GUGG PGC 2004 .05, GUGG PGC 2004 .05 bis, GUGG PGC 2004 .05tes.