In 1936, Dr. Leslie, with the help of Hortense
Mendel, began showing the work of emigre and young artists in an empty
room in The Composing Room offices. Called the A-D Gallery, it was
the first place in New York City dedicated to exhibiting the graphic
and typographic arts.
The first exhibit as described by Percy Seitlin:
"A young man by the name of Herbert Matter had just arrived
in this country from Switzerland with a bagful of ski posters and
photgraphs of snow covered mountains. Also came camera portraits
and various specimens of his typographic work. We decided to let
him hang some of his things on the walls and gave him a party...
the result was a crowd of almost bargain-basement dimensions, and
thirsty too. Everyone was excited by the audacity and skill of Matter's
work."
The A-D gallery was one of the only places in
New York city for young artists to come into contact with the work
of european emigresand soon became a social meeting place for designers
to meet each other, as well as prospective clients and employers.
Dr. Leslie knew many people in New York and went out of his way
to introduce people to each other. The gallery and the magazine
became mirrors of each other. Often a feature in the magazine would
become a show and vice-versa.
In 1959, the gallery was reactivated and renamed
Gallery 303, after it's room number. In addition to showcasing artist's
work, the new gallery was became host to the lecture series, "Heritage
of the Graphic Arts", held through the sixties.
This is as complete a list as possible that I have compiled from announcements in trade magazines, the PM and A-D magazines, press releases, and invitations and keepsakes in the NYPL archives. End dates that don't match end dates on invitations or keepsakes are based on press releases announcing exhibition extensions.
| 1936 |
- PM Gallery Exhibits work of Herbert Matter: December 3 - 17
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| 1937 |
|
|
1938
|
- Peggy Boone Drawings: February 1938
- PM Gallery Exhibits work of Hans Alexander Mueller - Woodcuts: April
- Ruth Bernhard Photos: May 20 - June 10
- Gustav Wolf Woodcuts: June
|
|
1939
|
- Herbert Bayer - Posters and Advertising Art: April 12 - 30
- George Salter - Book Jackets: May
- Desha, Dora and Apaden - Fashion: July 26 - August 31
- Kutner: November
- Tony Palazzo - Magazine and Advertising Layout: December
|
| 1940 |
- William Sharp - Cartoon Illustration: January
- Howard W. Willard: March 29 - April 19
- Warshaw Collection of Business Americana - Printing and Advertising Arts 1840 - 1890: May - September
|
| 1941 |
- Design in Education: Growing Art, Childrens Art Work: January - March
- Studies in Advanced Design: Students of Herbert Bayers American Advertising Guild Class:May 16 - June 6
- Arnold Newman / Ben Rose Photos: September 17 - October
- Silk Screen Prints: October 27 - November 12
Ruth Chaney, Harry Gottleib, Eugene Morley, Hyman Warsager, Anthony Velonis, Ruth Gikow, Elizabeth Olds, Leonard Pytlak, Harry Sternberg, Mervin Jules
|
| 1942 |
- Andre Dugo : February 11- March
- Advance Guard of Advertising Artists: Frank Barr, Herbert Bayer, Lester Beall, Jean Carlu, E. McKnight Kauffer,
Herbert Matter, Laszlo Moholy Nagy, Paul Rand, Ladislav Sutnar: through March
- Art for Recorded Music selected from Columbia
and Victor: August 7 - September
- The Face of the War: an exhibition of paintings in tempura by Xanti: October 15 - November 6
- Drawings by Susanne Suba: November 17 - December 5
|
| 1943 |
- Hans Bendix: Drawings and Watercolors: February - March 19
- Breitenbach - Photography: April
- Paintings, drawings and designs by Jim Flora: June 11 - July 18
- Art by Six Young People Under Twenty: Lili Cassell, Ernest Costa, Marjorie Mermelstein, Harold Paris, Paul Silverman, Marianne Streit: November 19 - December 30
|
| 1944 |
- Giusti and Moller Exhibit: November 28 - January 3, 1945
|
| 1945 |
- Richard Erdoes - Drawings: Februart 9 - March 2
- Lettering & Calligraphy in Current Advertising and Publishing
under the direction of George Salter and Paul Standard:
Arnold Bank, Frank Bartuska, Toni Bonagura, William Brooke, J. Albert
Cavanagh, Warren Chappell, Edgard Cirlin, T. M. Clelan, W. A. Dwiggins,
Philip Grushkin, Robert Haas, J. J. Herman, Rand Holub, Gustav Jensen,
M. R. Kaufman, Riki Levinson, Sam H. Marsh, William Metzig, Oscar
Ogg, George Salter, David Soshenski, Andrew Szoeke, Tommy Thompson,
Jeanyee wong, Miriam Woods: May 10 - June 29
- A Guide to Lester Beall:
November 19 - January 18, 1946
|
| 1946 |
- Four Veterans:
Herbert Bender, Charles Egri, Gene Federico, Seymour Robins: February 11 - March 15
- Gergely / Barschel: Tibor Gergely, Hans J. Barschel: March 26 - April 26
- The Composing Room Story - Twenty Years with
the Composing Room: June
|
| 1947
|
- Ladislav Sutnar: His work from 1929-1946: January 10 - March 7
- Paul Rand: March 30 - May 29
- Bookbindings and Jackets: June 3 - 20
- The Art Squad Show - including Alex Steinweiss, Gene Federico and Seymour Robins. All studied under Leon Friend at Abraham Lincoln High School: June 25 - July 14
- Early American Advertising Art - assembled by Clarence P Hornung: July 16 - August 22
- Hugo Steiner-Prag: August 25 - September 30
- Alex Steinweiss : Visual Communications Techniques: October 14 - November 28
|
| 1948 |
|
| 1949 |
|
| 1950 |
- Morton Goldsholl: February 7 - March 31
- Book Jacket Designs #3: April 17 - June 16
|
| 1951 |
- Young Designers: April 16 - 27
Book Jacket Design #4: contains work from Jean Carlu, E. McKnight Kauffer, Alvin Lustig, George Salter, Gene Federico, et al.: May 22 - July 6
|
| 1959
|
-
Gallery opens after a 7 year hiatus. Renames and creates Gallery 303 to display typographic arts
-
Typography USA - Type Director's Club: May 25 - June 30
- Brownjohn, Chermayeff and Geismar: July 15 - 31
- Glad Hand Press: August 3 - 15
- Making of A Book - Lester Douglas: September 1 - 30
- High School of Art and Design: October 1 - 15
- Second run: Brownjohn, Chermayeff and Geismar: October 19 - November 20
- Graphis Collection of Foreign Posters: November 23 - December 11
- Cooper Union Art School Alumni: December 15 - January 27 1960
|
| 1960
|
- CIBA USA February 1 - 29
- Ten Designers from Milan: studio boggeri, erberto carboni, franco grignani, max huber, bruno munari, bob noorda, giovannie pintori, michele provinciali, albe steiner and heinz waibl : March 4 - March 31
- NYC Community College 10th Anniversary Art Alumni: April 4 - 28
- Pratt - New Talent Exhibition: May 5- 27
- The Visual Dynamic: Editorial art from McCall's magazine: October 3 - October 28
- Lester Rossin Creative Group Show - Saul Bass, Neil Boyle, Clifford Condack, Dora, Helen Federico, Bert Groedel, Hoo V.V. Roy Kuhlman, David Stone Martin, Sam Martine, Merle James, Susan Perl, Ray Prohaska, Tony Schwartz, Robert Smith and Tony Sugarman: November 3 - 30
- John Averill: November 15 - December 30
- Society of Typographic Arts Show: December 5 - January 20, 1961
|
| 1961 |
- Sudler Hennessey and Lubalin show: February 3 - 28
- Neiman Marcus: March 7 - 30
- Mario Micosi: March 13 - 31
- CBC Television Graphics - Canadian Broadcasting Corp.: April 5 - 26
- AIGA Children's Book Show - Children's Books from 1958 - 1960: April 19 - May 19
- George Nelson and Company: May 2 -31
- Gerstner - Kutter Exhibit: June 5 - June 30
- Push Pin Studios: September 13 - October 11
- New York Times: October 18 - November 21
- George Salter: A Third of A Century of Graphic Work: December 14 - January 11, 1962
|
| 1962 |
- Fortune Magazine Exhibit: January 17 - February 16
- Graphics from Paris - Jean Carlu, Jean Colin, Jean Effel, Roger Excoffon, Raymond Gid, Marcel Jacno, J. Nathan-Garamond, Remy Peignot, J. Picart Le Doux, Raymond Savignac: March 15 - April 12
- 55 Years of Lucian Bernhard: May 3 - June 15
- Bernard Brussel-Smith: September 21 - October 24
- Jean Garcia: October 29 - November 2
- Gyorgy Kepes: November 8 - December 5
- Cross Section: Young Designers #1: December 13 -January 30, 1963
|
| 1963
|
- Irving Miller: February 7 - March 13
- Time Inc. - work done by Time Art Director Sheldon Cotler and staff artists Walter Lefman, Richard Boland and Ron Devito: March 21 - April 24
- Cross Section: Young Designers #2: May 2 - June 12
- Sutter and Wartik graphic Design: June 20 - July 17
- Composing Room Awards - Carnegie Institute of Technology, Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, RIT, School of Visual Arts, Yale University: September 12 - October 16
- Peter Hirsch: October 23 - December 3
- Graphics from Germany: December 12- January 22, 1964
|
| 1964
|
- Cross Section: Young Designers #3: January 30 - March 11
- NBC Graphics - Bob Greenwall, AD, Robert Staples, Asst. Dir, Stan Stubenberg & Frank Cataldo, designers: March 30 - May 13
- Des Asmussen - Illustrations and Drawings: May 18 - May 22
- Contemporary Fine Presses in America - Victor Hammer, Edward Colker, Greenwood Press, The Ward Ritchie Press, The Allen Press and the Plantin Press as well as the Antique Press, Gladhand Press, Peter Pauper Press and Prial Press.: May 26 - June 19
- Lotte Jacobi - A Retrospective of Photographs: June 25 - July 22
- Anton Stankowski: August 5 - September 23
- Peter Gee: September 30 - October 28
- A-Z - Young Designers #4: November 10 - December 22
- Anna Jaffe Calligraphy Students, Tel Aviv (Israeli School): November 30 - December 11
|
| 1965
|
- Geigy Pharmaceutical: January 20 - February 26
- Elly Gross: March 10 - March 31
- George Giusti: March 4 - April 14
- Typographica - Herbert Spencer: April 21 - May 28
- Ward and Saks: June 4 - July 9
- Gallery of American Automobile Print Show: August 2 - September 9
- John Massey: September 15 - October 27
- Young Designers #5: November 10 - December 22
|
| 1966
|
-
Morton Goldsholl: January 13 - February 24
- Georg Trump: March 2 - April 15
- CBS Graphics: April 21 - May 31
- Young Designers #6: June 8 - July 8
- Polish Posters Show: July 14 - August 23
- University Press Books: September
- The Advertising Made by Carl Ally: September 13 - October 26
- The Art of Art for Children's Books by Diana Klemin: November 1 - 30
- Young Designers #7: December 7 - January 18, 1967
|
| 1967
|
- Posters by Group 9 - Czech Artists: January 3 - January 22
- Metromedia graphics: Work of Roger Ferriter, Len Johnson, Marilyn Grosser, Bernie Koller, Jay Tribich: January 24 - March 7
- Morgan Press Retrospective: April 11 - May 5
- Young Designers Series #8: Edward Bianchji, Burton Blum, Nicholas Fasciano, John McVicker, Sagebrush-Skip Andrews, Ed Mell and Roger Zimmerman: April 29 - June 30
- Sports Illustrated Show: May 10 - June 2
- A Generation of Graphic Arts: 40th Anniversary of the Composing Room: June 7 - June 29
- Society of Publication Designers Show - Magazine Design Awards: July 7 - August 1
- Composing Room Awards Show: August 16 - August 29
- Gallery under construction in September & October
|
| 1968
|
- Young Designers: January 9 - February 2
- Art Kane: February 13 - March 15
- Herb Lubalin: April 4 - April 30
- Wells Rich Greene, Inc. Advertising: May 8 - May 30
- Society of Publication Designers Show 1968 Magazine Design Awards: June 5 - August 9
- Bernard Weil '68 Abstract Paintings: August 16 - August 31
- The, The, & Thee - Mo Lebowitz - Antique Press Show: August 19 - August 31
- IBM Show: September 18 - October 18
- Graphic art by Klaus Winter and Helmut Bischoff: December 9 - 31
|
| 1969
|
-
Young and Rubicam: January 9 - February 15
- Chuck Bua, Executive AD of Douglas D. Simon Advertising, Inc: February 27 - March 18
- ABC Graphics: March 26 - April 29
- NW Ayer - Recent Advertising: May 21 - June 20
- An Exhibition and Film by Hallmark Cards - Hermann Zapf and his Work: July 15 - August 15
- The Third Eye: Black Lite Graphics: September 24 - October 22
- M&G - Ted Menten and Norman Gardner: October 29 - November 26
- Ketchum McLeod & Grove: December 10 - December 23
|
| 1970
|
-
The Black Artist in Graphic Communication: January 9 - February 20
PDF of the article "Black Artist in Graphic Communication" by Dr. Cheryl D. Miller about this exhibition
from Communication Arts, 2022
- Show it like it is: 20th Anniversary New York City Community College Commercial Art Department Alumni: March 3 - March 20
- Oldrich Menhart (Czech designer): April 1 - April 21
- Young Designers: April 29 - June 30
- Schwartz-Wassnyg Inc: September
- Warren Chappell - A Retrospective: October 7- November 20
- Center for Visual Studies, MIT - Gyorgy Kepes: December 11, 1970 - January 16
|
| 1971
|
- Advertising in the Public Interest: January 28 - March 15
- AIGA Eleventh Annual Children's Book Show: April 29
- Seven Women - Nina Salzberg, Carol Caputo, Ann Wallingford, Maggie Fowler, Adrienne Leban, Nancy Greenberg, Rose Ann Parisi: March 26 - May 5
- Award Show - Society of Philadelphia Designers: tentative mid May - June
|
