Innovation in American Art / 1970-1975

Phillips New York: June 29 - August 9, 2023

The Phillips exhibition Innovation in American Art 1970–1975: A Fifty-Year Perspective, curated by Arnold Lehman, surveyed a pivotal half-decade of post-war American art that upended traditional mediums and institutional boundaries. Encompassing works across painting, sculpture, process art, and conceptual practice, the exhibition examined how artists during this transformative period radically subverted rigid minimalism and formalist dogmas through industrial experimentation, tactile materiality, and expanded spatial design. By bringing together a diverse roster of post-war innovators, the survey highlighted a generational shift toward fluid, humanized, and pluralistic approaches that permanently reshaped the trajectory of contemporary art.