CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/21/2020

Scholarly 'The Irascibles' documents the Abstract Expressionists' epic 1950 protest of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Featured spreads are from The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum (New York, 1950), the first documentation of the legendary 1950 showdown between 18 leading abstract expressionists and the Metropolitan Museum of Art—made famous by a Nina Leen's group portrait for Life magazine. "Dear Sir," they wrote to Metropolitan president, Roland L. Redmond, "The undersigned painters reject the monster national exhibition to be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art next December, and will not submit work to its jury. The organization of the exhibition and the choice of jurors by Francis Henry Taylor and Robert Beverly Hale, the Metropolitan’s Director and the Associate Curator of American Art, does not warrant any hope that a just proportion of advanced art will be included. We draw to the attention of those gentlemen the historical fact that, for roughly a hundred years, only advanced art has made any consequential contribution to civilization. Mr. Taylor on more than one occasion has publicly declared his contempt for modern painting; Mr. Hale, in accepting a jury notoriously hostile to advanced art, takes his place beside Mr. Taylor. We believe that all advanced artists of America will join us in our stand." The letter was signed by twenty-eight artists, among them William Baziotes, James Brooks, Fritz Bultman, Jimmy Ernst, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Weldon Kees, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Richard Pousette-Dart, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Hedda Sterne, Clyfford Still and Bradley Walker Tomlin. Collecting 18 paintings by the artists, images from Leen’s photoshoot and extensive documentation of the letter-writing process with relevant catalogs and magazines, this is a fitting book to consider as artists continue to protest museums with problematic power structures today.