Art on Display 1949-69Art on Display 1949-69

Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64 set out to bring to London an extensive survey of the latest and most exciting developments in the international art world, all in order to catch up with events in America and on the continent.

The first commission signed by both of them was the Palazzo Bianco in Genoa, a thoroughgoing restoration project of an old building re-opened as a museum. This project was swiftly followed by work on its sister museum Palazzo Rosso over the road.

Bo Bardi explicitly chose the easel because it is a working instrument, the place where the painting is born in the air, saying that she wanted paintings to be seen as works.

The single object which most characterises Scarpa's museum projects is the easel. Hardly an innovation, nonetheless Scarpa's easel is significant, both in its highly crafted detail, and in its usage.

In 1965-6 Aldo van Eyck designed and realised a temporary pavilion for the fifth edition of the open air sculpture exhibition in Park Sonsbeek. The pavilion was to house the smaller and more vulnerable sculpture works.

The two exhibitions in Amsterdam and Liège marked the short but turbulent life of Cobra: a group of artists from Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.