Finding 18: International Association of Art Critics XIth General Assembly Program

The Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art (AICA) was founded in 1950 to promote an international discourse of art criticism. The Eleventh General Assembly held in May 1959 brought together many of the world’s leading art scholars. The program page on the right contains a list of the organization’s officers, including Robert Goldwater and the AICA President and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Director, James Johnson Sweeney. The six-day event of art lectures, architectural tours, and social gatherings was held at museums throughout New York and Connecticut. The Guggenheim was involved in the planning of the general assembly through the efforts of Assistant Director Dr. Grace L. McCann Morley, however no events were held at the Guggenheim because its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building was still under construction. Morley, who was a former director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was hired by Sweeney in 1958 and remained with the Guggenheim for one year. After leaving the Guggenheim, she moved to India and became the founding director of the National Museum in New Delhi. The majority of records documenting Morley’s tenure at the museum are contained in the James Johnson Sweeney records. 

—Pete Asch, archives assistant