Museu Vieira da Silva - Sonnabend Paris – New York

The exhibition brought together 49 works from the historic Sonnabend Gallery in Paris, which had been instrumental in presenting American artists in Europe for the first time, featuring 15 artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist, Jim Dine, and Michelangelo Pistoletto. The exhibition focused on the gallery's first five years of activity in Paris, from 1962 to 1967 — a pivotal moment in the assertion of American culture in Europe — and was also conceived as a tribute to Ileana Sonnabend (1914–2007), one of the most important American gallerists and collectors, and a recognition of António Homem, her successor and the generous curator of the show. The exhibition held particular resonance for the museum itself. It was presented in the year marking both the 20th anniversary of the museum's opening and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Foundation, and it allowed visitors to understand the Parisian context in which Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szenes lived alongside American art. For many of the artists shown, their presence at the Sonnabend Gallery in Paris had represented their first introduction to Europe, placing Pop Art in direct confrontation with the École de Paris — a movement of which Vieira da Silva was one of the leading figures. The exhibition was the result of a collaboration between the Fundação Arpad Szenes–Vieira da Silva, the Sonnabend Collection Foundation of New York, and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia – Ca' Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna.