Virginia Dwan is one of the most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century American art. Her eponymously named galleries, the first established in a Los Angeles storefront in 1959, followed by a second in New York in 1965, became a beacon for influential postwar American and European artists. She sponsored the debut show for Yves Klein in the United States, and she championed such artists as Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Sol LeWitt, and Ad Reinhardt. Her Los Angeles gallery featured abstract expressionism, neo-dada, and pop, while the New York branch became associated with the emerging movements of minimalism and conceptualism. At the same time, the gallery's influence expanded to remote locations in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, where Dwan sponsored such iconic earthworks as Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Michael Heizer's Double Negative, and Walter De Maria's Lightning Field. Though Dwan was a major force in the art world of the sixties and seventies, her story and the history of her gallery have been largely unexplored until now. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art celebrating Dwan's gift to the Gallery of her extraordinary personal collection, From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery, 1959 1971 explores her remarkable career. Alongside lush full-color images of one hundred leading artworks, the book deepens our understanding of the artistic exchanges Dwan facilitated during this age of mobility, when air travel and the interstate highway system linked the two coasts and transformed the making of art and the sites of its exhibition. James Meyer, the curator of the exhibition and the foremost authority on minimal art, contributes a essay that is a sophisticated and broad-ranging analysis of Dawn's legacy. Honoring Dwan's significant influence and impact on postwar art, From Los Angeles to New York is a rich and informative collection that will be treasured by fans of contemporary art.

About the Author
James Meyer is the deputy director and chief curator at the Dia Art Foundation. He is the author or editor of several books, including Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties Minimalism. His writing has appeared in Artforum and October, among other publications. Virginia Dwan founded the Dwan gallery in Los Angeles in 1959.


Book Information
ISBN 9780226425108
Author James Meyer
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 2466g
Dimensions(mm) 29mm * 25mm * 4mm