"Forum 49 was a summer-long series of sophisticated programs held in 1949, beginning with the forum "What Is An Artist?" and ending with the controversial "French Art vs American Art Today." Record crowds attended the exhibits of paintings and programs focused on the avant-garde in many areas (architecture, psychoanalysis, poetry, jazz) all held in a gallery at 200 Commercial Street."
-Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Shown: Adolph Gottlieb talking with Cecil Hemley at the Provincetown Art Association, sitting in front of Expectation of Evil (1945), Summer 1949. Photographer: Bill Witt.
Shown: Adolph Gottlieb, Expectation of Evil, 1945, oil, gouache & tempera on canvas, 43 1/8 x 27 1/8 inches, currently in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In Provincetown, Massachusetts in the summer of 1949, a group of artists and avant-garde thinkers led by Weldon Kees, organized a weekly series of speakers, readings, and discussions on various issues impacting the art, music, and literature of the day. Intended to promote the exchange of ideas among progressive artists and thinkers in diverse fields, Forum 49included a major art exhibition, lectures, panel discussions, poetry readings, and more. It was conceived by painter/poet Weldon Kees, painter Fritz Bultman, and poet Cecil Hemley. All three were friends of Adolph Gottlieb's and they recruited Gottlieb to arrange loans of paintings by artists who were not regular visitors to Provincetown, as well as to organize two panels and be a featured speaker, and to be the nominal Chair of the entire event.
On August 11th, Gottlieb organized a panel and led the discussion for the topic "French vs. U.S. Art Today." The topic caused much debate among the audience and comments in the press from as far away as New York and Washington, DC. Forum 49 turned out to be a model for interdisciplinary artists' symposia, lectures, readings, events, and regular discussion groups like "The Club" in New York. It also made Provincetown a destination for more artists and others interested in new ideas.
Below is a selection of press, ephemera, and photographs from this monumental summer event.
"Now about the series of programs for this summer. At a meeting last night I made the suggestion that, to get a double-barreled effect, we should not only have a big opening on July 3, but also on that evening present the first of our programs. The series, incidentally, is to be called Forum 49, and we plan to plaster the Cape with posters and flood the press with publicity releases within the next few weeks. We all agree that the panel you are going to do is a natural for the July 3 opening."
-Weldon Kees in a letter to Adolph Gottlieb, June 8, 1949
Shown: Weldon Kees addressing a Forum 49 group, Provincetown, MA, Summer 1949. Courtesy Provincetown Art Association and Museum archive.
"Adolph Gottlieb, much-publicized of late as a leading figure among avant-garde painters, held the fort for so-called "unintelligible" art. To Mr. Gottlieb, the process of creation is guided by an element of mystery, -the artist by strong inner compulsions that force him to express what he feels, come what may. The ensuing violation of accepted patterns of thought were indicative not of chaos, Mr. Gottlieb stated, but of the evolution of new ideas. Defending the maze of rhythmic shapes and riotous color that surrounded the audience, he described them as the true art of today -the logical outgrowth and humanistic blend of the great traditions of cubism and surrealism."
- An excerpt from The Provincetown Advocate, July 7, 1949
Shown: A Forum 49 group, Summer 1949, Adolph Gottlieb is pictured in the center row, second from left. Seated to the right of Gottlieb are Karl Knaths and Weldon Kees. Photographer: Bill Witt. Courtesy Provincetown Art Association and Museum archive.
Shown: A Forum 49 group, Summer 1949, Adolph Gottlieb is pictured in the front row, second from left. Seated to the right of Gottlieb are Karl Knaths and Weldon Kees. Photographer: Bill Witt. Courtesy Provincetown Art Association and Museum archive.
"Gottlieb spoke of a Forum series that was organized in Provincetown in 1949 by Weldon Kees and others. Gottlieb was asked to organize a panel on the topic “French vs. American Art”. The topic raised quite a commotion and Fritz Bultman, who was then a Francophile (now he is anti-French), and Hans Hoffman got up a circular attacking the forum which they distributed outside of the hall. Later that evening Gottlieb met Hoffman at a party and asked him what he thought of the panel discussion. Hoffman said it was fine. Gottlieb asked him why he put out the circular. Hoffman said that he objected to the title, “American vs. French Art”. The French should have come first. Gottlieb told him it did in the title. “Oh”, Hoffman said, “Then it’s O.K.”
- Irving Sandler's Conversation with Adolph Gottlieb at the HCE Gallery, August 15, 1957, Irving Sandler Papers at the Getty Research Institute Special Collections
Shown: Schedule of events and advertisements for Forum 49 in the month of July, Provincetown, MA. Courtesy Provincetown Art Association and Museum archive.
Shown: Schedule of events and advertisements for Forum 49 in the month of August, Provincetown, MA. Courtesy Provincetown Art Association and Museum archive.