NYU's Grey Art Museum Reopens with Ambitious 'Americans in Paris' Show

American artists moved to Paris after World War II to study, experiment, and make the art they wanted to make outside the pressures of critical judgment and popular taste. They lived in hotel rooms lacking heat and debated art and politics in cafes where they stretched their morning coffees into the afternoon.

And they did it all on $75 a month.

New York University's fine arts gallery examines this overlooked community of expat artists in a groundbreaking exhibition, Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962. Opening March 2, the landmark exhibition launches a new era for the newly re-named Grey Art Museum and its expanded location at 18 Cooper Square. Americans in Paris is the 48-year-old Grey's most ambitious show to date, featuring 130 pieces from 100 different collections and showcasing the art of Ellsworth Kelly, Ed Clark, and Joan Mitchell, among many others.

The expanded location is the result of a significant gift from Dr. James Cottrell and Joseph Lovett, renowned art patrons and activists. The Grey offers free admission to its state-of-the-art galleries and its academic but accessible exhibitions. The Cooper Square site also boasts the Cottrell Lovett Study Center, a long-sought laboratory for researchers of all levels and interests that will improve access to the Grey's renowned 6,000-piece collection of American, modern Asian, and Middle Eastern art.

Six years in the making, the inaugural exhibition explores the forces-including the support of the GI Bill-that created the vibrant community. The exhibition examines the artistic freedom the Americans found in post-war France, as well as the protection France afforded from the social and political headwinds affecting their counterparts in the U.S.

Curated by independent scholar Debra Bricker Balken with Grey Museum Director Lynn Gumpert, the exhibition is accompanied by a 300-page catalog that expands the circle of artists to include musicians, filmmakers, and writers. In addition to new scholarship, the book includes a timeline and dozens of oral histories. Upon closing July 20, the exhibition will travel to Massachusetts and Abu Dhabi.

Michele Wong, left, Laurie Duke, on ladder, and Lynn Gumpert lead the NYU Grey Art Museum. Photo by Tracey Friedman/NYU

Americans in Paris continues the Grey's tradition of academic investigations and scholarship that are central to its mission. In fact, the upcoming exhibition grew from 2017's acclaimed Inventing Downtown, a show that examined New York City's artist-led galleries in the 1950s and 1960s.

NYU News caught up with Gumpert to talk about this transformational moment for the former Grey Art Gallery, the significance of its inaugural exhibition, and the role of a fine arts museum in a university.

Let's begin with the most obvious question: Why did so many American artists gravitate to Paris in the wake of World War II?

Well, first of all, it's Paris, with its centuries-long reputation as the world's artistic capital - that is, until the mid-1940s with New York's ascendancy. Paris is so romantic, it has history and world-class museums, and you could still run into Picasso, visit Jean Arp, or see Satre, Beauvoir, and Giacometti drinking espresso in its famed cafes. Also, Paris fostered a certain freedom and a wide range of artistic approaches were possible. Some of the painters were still figurative where in New York, there was a strong emphasis on abstraction. Paris attracted artists like Leon Golub, Nancy Spero, and Peter Saul, who were still referencing the figure.

Of course, the GI Bill was a big incentive and it allowed [former soldiers] to enroll at one of a number of private academies. And it was easier than enrolling at an American university, where you had to apply a year in advance and wait to learn if you were accepted. They could go to Paris, sign up immediately at the Académie Julian, École des Beaux-Arts, or Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and paint without needing to get a day job. They received a stipend of $75 a month, which went far in post-occupied France. For example, hotels cost a dollar a day, and they could eat well in restaurants for 50 cents.

In the book's oral history, artist Jack Youngerman likens the GI Bill to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in terms of its significance to artists. "Pollack had the WPA, and we had the GI Bill," he says. "Those were two very important programs, and in a way, there's been nothing like that since." Do you agree?

Yes, exactly! It was a major seismic shift. Many of the artists, especially in the first wave who moved to Paris, had already attended art schools in the U.S., so they didn't need to learn the basics. But they could make artworks in their hotel rooms or at the academies.

'Panneau' (1951) by Jack Youngerman. ©2023 Estate of Jack Youngerman/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS) NY.

The community of artists seemed to be insular and rather isolated. What was it like to live and paint there at that time?

Very few of them learned French, and the French are not exactly open to Americans. They were expats in a community where they didn't speak the language. The ones who did speak French integrated better. But most lived in hotel rooms that didn't have heat, so they would go to cafes and hang out there because it was warm. They met other Americans in their classes, and they were introduced to each other.

They could study and work, but it was still a challenge to secure a show, especially in the Parisian galleries. How did American artists navigate that?

The galleries were most often closed to the young American artists, and that's why the French tradition of salons was important. There was going to be a show for American artists living in France in 1953, organized by the U.S. Embassy and the American Center for Students and Artists, but the all-French jury didn't feel the submissions were good enough and it was canceled. The resulting outrage led to an American-led effort and a show at Galerie Craven of 35 works by 31 artists selected from more than 300 submissions.

Salons were more open to contemporary artists of all nationalities. Many were juried, so the Americans had a better shot to have their work included. Only a handful of American artists had gallery shows, and that's what led to Galerie Huit, a cooperative gallery (named for its address at 8 Rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre). Artist Robert Rosenwald offered his studio to the American GIs when he left Paris, and the members chipped in money and they took turns sitting in the gallery. Al Held had his first solo exhibition there.

The newly named Grey Art Museum reopens March 2 at a larger space at 18 Cooper Square. Photo by Tracey Friedman/NYU

Most of the artists had returned to the U.S. by the early 1960s, and many settled in New York. Why did they return and why then?

The money from the GI Bill had dried up, and there were more opportunities to exhibit in New York. Artists here in New York City had gotten together and formed cooperative galleries. Previously, there were no galleries located south of East 57th Street and it was believed collectors would not go downtown. Then Leo Castelli curated the exhibition, Ninth Street Drawing Show, in 1951 and to everyone's surprise, the collectors came. There were many more opportunities to exhibit contemporary work by the 1960s than there were earlier.

The Americans in Paris exhibition, and the publication, showcase many familiar names-Kelly, Clark, Carmen Herrera, and Beauford Delaney, among others. But many of the artists are less well known. Explain the decision behind the choices.

It's really important to look back and discover artists who have been overlooked, for whatever reason, whether because of race or gender. Part of the thrill of working on the exhibition was uncovering so many new names. It was exciting to see the variety of styles these artists engaged in. Take Haywood "Bill" Rivers. He was an African American artist who worked on genre scenes, and he was voted managing director of Galerie Huit. He has a painting of an African American barbershop in the exhibition. We wanted to highlight both the diversity of the artists who moved to Paris then and the artistic freedom that existed there.

We also have kept track of every American artist we came across who spent a year or more in Paris during this period. This is far from a definitive survey-we want to encourage more research, because this is such a rich topic.

How does this fit into Grey's mission?

To me, that's the raison d'etre of a university art museum. When I was interviewing for this position with [then NYU president L. Jay] Oliva, he asked "Why does NYU need a museum? We have all these museums throughout the city." The same way that NYU needs a theater, it needs a museum. It's for the students who want to learn about art, to learn about the behind-the-scenes of museums. For classes, professors can request works from the NYU Art Collection for students to view. Likewise, we now have a dedicated space for scholars to view works they are researching. It raises the bar and is super exciting.