Finding 60: Exterior Sign for the Museum of Non-Objective Painting

May 2, 2011

As evidenced by the sign visible through the museum window, this photograph, found within the Exhibition files, was taken during the Kandinsky Memorial Exhibition, which was held at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting from March 15 to April 29, 1945. Although the photograph shows the museum facade, documents found in the Hilla Rebay records help paint an even clearer picture of the exterior of 24 East 54th Street, where the museum was housed from 1939 until 1947. Correspondence between Rebay and the Reliance Sign Company, accompanied by a sketch and paint sample, reveal that the simple "Museum" sign had a blue metal background and raised white wooden letters. The 16-foot, 8-inch-high and 22-inch-wide sign hung 10 feet above the sidewalk, placing it approximately in the center of the 41-foot-high building. The blue paint samples, like the sign, are on galvanized metal. Correspondence from the sign company also reveals that Rebay, who picked sample A, was limited in her choice of blue shades for the sign due to the tendency of blue paint to fade. The sign was erected on the extreme west end of the building in February of 1940 and presumably remained there until the museum's move into a townhouse at 1071 Fifth Avenue in 1948.

–Shirin Khaki, Archives Assistant