1949 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting

Dec 16, 1949–Feb 5, 1950

Cover for 1949 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting catalogue
Cover for 1949 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting catalogue

Cover for 1949 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting catalogue

View the full exhibition catalogue at the Internet Archive.

In the News

“The 1949 annual of contemporary American painting at the Whitney Museum [. . .] includes a larger proportion of abstraction, semi-abstraction and frankly experimental work than any of its predecessors. Not all of this work is good. Some of it seems to me pretty bad. But as a whole the show lives up to the Whitney’s avowed purpose of chronicling in its annuals what is going on in the contemporary field.” —The New York Times

“How much the Whitney has endeavored to keep in touch with the contemporary field, even in its most experimental and advanced phases, the 1949 annual bears witness.” —The New York Times

More from this series

Learn more about the Whitney Biennial, the longest-running survey of American art.

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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