American Prints Today/1959
September 15 – October 18, 1959
Ground Floor, Central Gallery
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.
Overview: These 62 etchings, engravings, woodcuts, lithographs, and serigraphs were executed by 55 American artists between 1956 and 1958. They were selected from 2,054 works, which had been submitted by 639 artists to a jury of members of the Print Council's board of directors. 8 identical sets were shown in 16 participating museums, so that an exhibition of original prints could be shown in 8 cities simultaneously. One complete set, purchased by the National Gallery of Art, was circulated for 2 years by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Another set, purchased by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, toured small French museums through the United States Information Agency. This was the first multiple print exhibition in the United States. All the prints were available for sale through the Print Council of America, a non-profit organization established to promote interest in the collecting of prints.
Attendance: 15,619
Catalog: American Prints Today/1959. New York: Print Council of America, 1959.
Other Venues: Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service