August 5, 2020

Earlier this year, Professor of Art History Brad Collins was invited to guest curate an exhibition at the Fundacion Juan March in Madrid, titled The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum (New York, 1950). The exhibition ran from March 6 - June 20 and centered around the group of New York abstract painters who “decided to join forces and take on the policy of the highly-respected Metropolitan Museum, the media, and the general public.” 

You can learn more about the protest statement by the Irascibles on the exhibition's website, as well as take a virtual tour and listen to commentary on select works. Listen to Professor Collins discuss the “most famous photograph of the Abstract Expressionists.”

 

Photograph of the Irascibles, by Nina Leen, 1950, Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.