The Art of This Century Gallery

The Art of This Century Gallery was an art space on the seventh floor at 57th Street in Manhattan with two connected commercial areas and four distinct display rooms. Each room featured curved walls and suspended artworks, designed to showcase different artistic styles in separate settings.

Peggy Guggenheim opened this gallery in 1942 on 57th Street during a period when European artists were seeking refuge in New York. The space quickly became an important center for the rising abstract art movement in America.

The gallery showcased established European artists alongside emerging American painters like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who would later define modern art movements. This mixture of international and homegrown talent made the space a meeting place for the developing abstract art scene.

The space was divided into four specialized galleries: Abstract, Surrealist, Kinetic, and Daylight, each with its own character for different art forms. Visitors could move through these separate rooms and experience each artistic approach one after another.

Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler designed the interior with unusual features like ultramarine canvas walls and mechanical viewing devices for the artworks. These innovative design elements made the visit itself into an artistic experience rather than just looking at paintings.

Location: New York City

Inception: 1942

GPS coordinates: 40.76356,-73.97578

Latest update: December 10, 2025 15:58