New York 1962 - 1964, on view at the Jewish Museum (NY) July 22, 2022 - January 8, 2023, is an ambitious show that succeeds on all fronts. It recreates parts of exhibits curated by the JM’s forward-thinking director Alan Solomon that were the first to feature “the new art,” art that broke away from abstract expressionism to show work inspired by the artist’s lives and experiences. It sets the scene with installations of streetscapes, department stores, poetry readings, living rooms, kitchens, and news broadcasts (including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the JFK assassination, and MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech).

Solomon was the first curator to organize a retrospective of Rauchenberg and Johns. This relationship continued when Solomon was selected to curate the US display at the 34th Venice Biennale (1964), where Rauchenberg won the Grand Prize. The gallery showing news interviews with Solomon and Italian critics and all the art sent to Venice was a real treat. The show excels at reminding visitors what a turbulent time the early 60s were in US culture, ending with an extensive presentation of work about the struggle for Civil Rights.

More information about the curator, Germano Celant (September 11, 1940 – April 29, 2020), former artistic director of fondazione prada in Milan.