he Contemporary Arts Center (CAC)—one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States—is a pioneering contemporary art museum located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media. Remaining committed to programming that reflects "the art of the last five minutes," the CAC has displayed the works of many now-famous artists early in their careers, including Andy Warhol.
Early History and Timeline
1939 With the encouragement of Edward M. M. Warburg and Alfred H. Barr of New York's Museum of Modern Art, local art appreciators Peggy Frank, Betty Pollack and Rita Rentschler form the "Cincinnati Modern Art Society." Its inaugural exhibition, Modern Paintings from Cincinnati Collections, opened in the basement of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
1940 The Society establishes a Lending Gallery of Local Art, one of the first of its kind in the United States. The Society exhibits Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) as part of Picasso-Forty Years of His Art.
1941-47 The Society presents exhibitions of the art of Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Paul Klee, Alexander Calder, Henri Rousseau, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, László Moholy-Nagy, Rufino Tamayo and Theo van Doesburg.
1948 The Society presents the first American retrospective of Juan Gris.
1951 Buckminster Fuller lectures at the Society.
1952 Architects Carl Strauss and Ray Roush and a young architect in their office, Michael Graves, remodel a large part of the lower floor of the Cincinnati Art Museum to serve as permanent exhibition galleries for the Society. The Society's membership subsequently votes to change the organization's name to the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC).
1954 The CAC organizes a major exhibition of the work of David Smith.
1957 John Cage performs at the CAC.
1958 Membership at the CAC continues to thrive; doubling since 1953.
1963 The CAC presents one of the first museum exhibitions of Pop art, An American Viewpoint 1963, featuring work by Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann.
1964 The CAC moves to the Women's Exchange Building in downtown Cincinnati.
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