The New Adam

[Image via the Guggenheim]

It was early fall of 1962 and Harold Stevenson was experiencing one of his most productive years as a working artist. He was in a relationship with Lord Timothy Willoughby. As with modern day couples, the two struggled to find balance between  their home life and dedication to their careers. Willoughby traveled extensively to maintain his business interests (a future blog post). Stevenson would argue he could not travel at whim because he was committed to his painting schedules.

Willoughby left their flat in Paris and  Harold remained. His monumental The New Adam was a 9-panel work in progress, a tribute to his lover, Timothy.  The piece was scheduled for a spring 1963 exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. He needed a stand-in model.

With his lover in Spain, Stevenson found the actor Sal Mineo. Or rather, Sal Mineo found Harold. Sal was in Paris filming The Longest Day. His gal pal, Jill Haworth was also in Paris filming her next role. Sal, having finished his commitments and with nothing to do each day while waiting for Jill, found himself associating with the Americans in Paris. He began spending each day at Stevenson’s studio. He agreed to pose nude. Harold’s painting continued all day every day as long as he had natural light. The painting was soon finished.

Iris Clert, Harold Stevenson’s agent mailed Lawrence Alloway, the Guggenheim curator, a photograph of the work. Alloway immediately wrote back and deemed the painting so “spectacular” it would distract from the included works of artists Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol. The male odalisque was banned from the 1963 Six Painters and the  Object. Alloway was not dissuaded from Harold’s plea to let the other artists decide if their work could stand up against his. Instead of becoming Five Painters and the Object, Stevenson was replaced with Robert Rauschenberg.

Following the Guggenheim’s decision, Iris Clert announced she would display “the biggest nude in the world”  at her gallery, 28 Faubourg Saint-Honore, Paris, France. Beating out the Guggenheim’s March exhibition, it went on display in January 1963. Long before social media, the Iris Time was the art world’s news source for happenings. Her printed newsletter reached patrons, galleries, museums, artists, and the media throughout the world. It would be another forty years before Stevenson was invited back to the Guggenheim.

Support for Stevenson’s work continued outside the mainstream art market. Private collectors began acquiring his work. In 1964, Richard Feigen and Howard Palmer agreed to exhibit The New Adam at their newly opened Feigen/Palmer Gallery, 515 No. La Cienega, Los Angeles. Sal Mineo attended the opening on January 5th. The film Harold by Andy Warhol was screened and is acknowledged as a Warhol first film.

Following the Los Angeles, exhibit, Feigen took the Stevenson exhibit to the 53 E Division, Chicago gallery. For this event, Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot was screened for the guests. Wilder had purchased Stevenson’s Finger, an oil on canvas, while visiting the Iris Clert gallery in 1961. The piece was included as one of 24 in the exhibit.

Lastly, in 1964, Feigen exhibited The New Adam along with 17 other pieces at the gallery on 24 East 81 Street, New York. A number of supporters attended the opening including Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga, Charlotte Gilbertson, and Robert Indiana

The New Adam remained in private storage for decades until 1998, when Stevenson lent it to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

Perhaps with a turn in social culture, the Guggenheim acquired Stevenson’s The New Adam for its permanent collection in 2005. This began when Harold Stevenson personally wrote a letter to Lisa Dennison, who had recently been appointed Director of the Guggenheim. He appealed to her sense of justice, denouncing the wrong he had endured at the hands of Alloway. She thoughtfully considered the history and visited Harold and the painting where both were residing on Long Island. He persuaded her. The New Adam was finally home where it truly belonged in the Guggenheim.

In 2013, the Guggenheim reported The New Adam as one of the top ten most popular pieces searched from their online collection. In 2007, the Guggenheim lent The New Adam for the Pop Art 1956-1968 exhibition at the Scuderie Quirinale, Rome Italy.

The New Adam went from banned to beloved – it just took fifty years to happen.

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