The 32nd Venice Biennale signals the sensational arrival of American Pop art on the international scene. A concurrent exhibition at the ICA, American Art Since 1950, celebrates the artists representing the U.S. in Venice: John Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Morris Louis, Kenneth Nland, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia is founded.
The ICA relocates to 100 Newbury Street.
Newly designed by architect and ICA founder Nathaniel Saltonstall, the Metropolitan Boston Arts Center, at 1175 Soldiers Field Road, becomes the museum’s home for two years.
The ICA organizes an unprecedented U.S. museum exhibition dedicated to the career of Viennese expressionist Egon Schiele.
Young Talent in New England takes art outside the museum: installed on the walls of a Stop & Shop store on Memorial Drive, the exhibition displays the work of regional artists and anticipates the growing interest in American consumer culture among pop artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol.
Eminent art historian William Rubin organizes the first U.S. museum survey dedicated to Spanish painter Roberto Matta (sponsored by MoMA in collaboration with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the ICA).
The ICA celebrates twenty years at the forefront of contemporary art in Boston with highlights from previous exhibitions.
Selection 1957 inaugurates an annual exhibition program surveying New England artists, organized most years through 1964.
Thomas Messer is appointed director, serving in that position until 1962.
The ICA moves to new quarters at 230 The Fenway.