Installation view of Stock Up for the Holidays: An Anthology of Pop Art

Installation view, Stock Up for the Holidays: An Anthology of Pop Art, Dec 10, 1962 – Jan 2, 1963, Pace Gallery, Boston © 2025 Jim Dine / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © 2025 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), courtesy The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative; © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann / Licensed by ARS / VAGA, New York

Essays

Pace Through the Decades

Published Friday, Apr 25, 2025

In 1960, Arne Glimcher and his wife, Milly–while still students–founded Pace Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. On April 25, 2025, Pace celebrates 65 years since its founding and the beginning of a legacy dedicated to platforming art and artists internationally. In celebration of this anniversary, explore a snapshot of our gallery’s history through the decades, highlighting just a portion of our first exhibitions with artists including Louise Nevelson, Jean Dubuffet, Agnes Martin, Julian Schnabel, Sam Gilliam, and others.

1960

Pace Gallery is founded by Arne Glimcher, with its first exhibition opening on April 25.
Installation view of Recent Sculpture by Louise Nevelson

Installation view, Louise Nevelson: Recent Sculpture, May 29 - Jun 24, 1961, Pace Gallery, Boston, MA © 2019 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1961

Recent Sculpture, Pace’s first exhibition of work by Louise Nevelson, opens at 125 Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts on May 29.

As an art student I spent many weekends driving from Boston to New York to observe the scene. Each time I visited MoMA I was captivated by Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral. Afred Barr had brilliantly created an installation in a black alcove, producing an environment, a concept new to American art. I had never seen anything like it...

Arne Glimcher

Announcement card for Stock Up For the Holidays: An Anthology of Pop Art

Stock Up For the Holidays: An Anthology of Pop Art, December 10, 1962 – January 2, 1963, Pace Gallery, Boston

1962

Josef Albers: Paintings, Pace’s first Josef Albers exhibition, opens in Boston.
Stock Up For the Holidays: An Anthology of Pop Art opens Dec 10 at Pace’s Boston gallery.
Announcement card for Pace's 9 West 57th Street gallery

1963

Pace Gallery opens its doors at 9 West 57th Street in New York.

1964

Pace’s first Claes Oldenberg exhibition opens on May 11.
First International Girlie Exhibit investigates the pin-up through the work of contemporary artists such as Marjorie Strider, Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann.
Installation view of Selected Works 1960-1966 by Lucas Samaras at Pace Gallery, 9 West 57th Street, New York

Installation view, Lucas Samaras: Selected Works 1960-1966, Oct 8 – Nov 5, 1966. Pace Gallery, 9 West 57th Street, New York © Lucas Samaras

1965

Beyond Realism, the first museum-quality exhibition in contemporary commercial galleries, presents an analysis of the role of surrealism in Pop Art.

1966

Recent Work, Pace’s first exhibition of work by Paul Thek, opens April 2 in New York.
Lucas Samaras: Selected Works 1960-1966, Pace’s first solo-exhibition to feature Samaras, opens October 8.
Installation view of Dark by Robert Whitman

1967

In 1967—the same year he would found Experiments in Art and Technology with Robert Rauschenberg—Robert Whitman’s exhibition Dark is shut down by the local health authorities due to the exhibition’s use of laser technology.
Installation view of Painted Sculptures by Jean Dubuffet

Installation view, Jean Dubuffet: Painted Sculptures, Apr 13 – May 18, 1968, Pace Gallery, 9 West 57th Street, New York © Jean Dubuffet / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1968

Jean Dubuffet: Painted Sculptures, Pace’s first exhibition of work by Jean Dubuffet, opens at 9 West 57th Street in New York.
Installation view of The Process Works by Piet Mondrian

1970

Piet Mondrian: The Process Works opens April 11 in New York, featuring a fabricated salon based on Mondrian’s drawings.
“I conceived the idea of building the Salon de Mme. B. from Mondrian’s plan, and with Harry Holtzman’s permission it was realized. In Mondrian’s text, Home, Street, City he writes about a material for the interior that is descriptive of all the properties of Formica. Harry Holtzman still retained Mondrian’s paint tubes and palette. Although the paint was mostly dry, we took them to the chemists at American Cyanimid, and from the pigment they matched colors and produced the panels out of which we constructed the Salon de Mme. B.”

Arne Glimcher

1973

Pace’s first exhibition of work by Larry Bell opens on January 7 in New York.
Installation view of New Paintings by Agnes Martin

Installation view, Agnes Martin: New Paintings, Mar 1 – Apr 1, 1975, Pace Gallery, 32 East 57th Street, New York © 2025 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1975

Agnes Martin: New Paintings, Pace’s first exhibition of works by Martin, opens March 1 in New York
“She bought an air-stream trailer and headed back to New Mexico, where she had previously lived and taught art, settling on a mesa in Cuba, New Mexico. After an absence from painting of six or seven years, she built a studio, planted vegetables, and began painting again.”

Arne Glimcher, (opens in a new window) Adventures in Art: 40 Years at Pace

Polaroid by Agnes Martin

© 2025 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Polaroid by Agnes Martin

© 2025 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

One day in early 1975, Agnes appeared at the gallery, said she was painting again, and asked if we’d show her new work. A visit to New Mexico revealed the first red and blue paintings of 1974.

Lisa by Chuck Close

Chuck Close, Linda, 1975-76 © Chuck Close

1976

Pace opens Ad Reinhardt: Paintings, the gallery’s first exhibition of works by Reinhardt, on October 2.

1977

Eleven Ways to Use the Words to See, Pace’s first exhibition of work by Lee Krasner, opens February 19.
Pace’s first exhibition of work by Chuck Close opens April 30.

1978

Pace’s first Mark Rothko exhibition, The 1958–1959 Murals, opens October 23.
Catalogues_2021_Grids_V01 (1).jpg

Grids: Format and Image in 20th Century Art, Pace Publishing, 1979

1979

Pace publishes (opens in a new window) Grids: Format and Image in 20th Century Art. Made to accompany a 1979 group exhibition on view at Pace in New York and The Akron Art Institute, Ohio, this catalogue brings together historic works by Josef Albers, Carl Andre, Robert Irwin, Lee Krasner, Ellsworth Kelly, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Louise Nevelson, and Frank Stella, among others.
The book includes a text by Rosalind Krauss, and its design alludes to the theme of the exhibition—the grid as a pictorial device and thematic element—through an overlay plastic grid cover.
“In my continuing research for the book Modern Art and Modern Science, I investigated the grid, the most dominant aesthetic organizing device of the twentieth century. In the process, I conceived and organized the exhibition Grids, and invited Rosalind Krauss to write the catalogue. It would later become an important part of her work in The Originality of the Avant-Garde, published in 1981.”

Arne Glimcher

Sittings 8 x 10, 1/13/79 by Lucas Samaras

Lucas Samaras, Sittings 8 x 10, 1/13/79, 1979 © Lucas Samaras

1980

The Whitney Museum of American Art acquires work by Jasper Johns.
“The Whitney Museum of American Art has paid $1 million for a painting by Jasper Johns, believed to be the highest price ever for the work of a living artist. The 1958 painting, a famous precursor of the Pop Art movement, is Three Flags.”

Grace Glueck for The New York Times, originally published September 27, 1980 

1981

Lucas Samaras: Sittings
Lee Krasner: Solstice
Mark Rothko: The Surrealist Years

1983

Tony Smith: Paintings and Sculpture
Installation view of Julian Schnabel at Pace Gallery in New York

Installation view, Julian Schnabel, Nov 2 – Dec 1, 1984, Pace Gallery, New York © 2025 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1984

Pace presents its first exhibition of work by Julian Schnabel.
“I was introduced to Julian Schnabel’s work by Chuck Close, who asked me to meet him at Mary Boone’s gallery to see Julian’s first plate painting show. Chuck’s enthusiasm was infectious and I was very impressed by the sheer power and originality of Julian’s enterprise.”

Arne Glimcher

1985

Pace presents Calder’s Calders, the gallery’s first exhibition of work by Alexander Calder.

1989

Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals are sold to Japan’s Kawamura Museum.
Cover and slipcase of Je Suis Le Cahier: The Sketchbooks of Picasso

Je Suis le Cahier: The Sketchbooks of Picasso, 1986, Atlantic Monthly Press

1986

Following the 1981 presentation of Pablo Picasso: The Avignon Paintings—Pace’s inaugural exhibition of works by Picasso—and The Sculpture of Picasso in 1982, Je Suis le Cahier: The Sketchbooks of Picasso opens at the gallery’s East 57th Street space.
Je Suis le Cahier, the first exhibition to introduce Picasso’s sketchbooks to the world, traveled to numerous art institutions internationally following its run in New York. A (opens in a new window) catalogue devoted to this exhibition—edited by Arne and Marc Glimcher—remains a key resource on the artist.
“The catalogue for the exhibition was a significant addition to the Picasso literature, published by Atlantic Monthly Press. The volume included a descriptive listing and image of each of the 175 sketchbooks in the estate.”

Arne Glimcher, (opens in a new window) Adventures in Art: 40 Years at Pace

Louise Nevelson Remembered: Sculpture and Collages

Louise Nevelson Remembered, 1989, Pace Publishing

1989

Published following Louise Nevelson’s passing in 1988, (opens in a new window) Louise Nevelson Remembered brings together materials that encompass the sculptor’s career, including brochures, accordion-fold leaflets, a collection of postcards, and loose images of her artworks.
An interview with Nevelson by Arne Glimcher from 1976 accompanies twelve letters of remembrance by her friends and peers, among them Edward Albee, Lucas Samaras, Diana MacKown, Hilton Kramer, Jean Lipman, and John Cage.
Pace Gallery at 142 Greene Street

Pace Gallery, 142 Greene Street

1990

In May 1990, Pace opens its gallery at 142 Greene Street with Julian Schnabel’s first sculpture exhibition.
“When Leo Castelli decided to close his auxiliary space at 142 Greene Street, we took over the lease, because our artists wanted to show their work in SoHo, where they lived. We then embarked on a plan to create a new identity for the venue by extending our exhibition program.”

Arne Glimcher, (opens in a new window) Adventures in Art: 40 Years at Pace

Installation view of The Attic Series by Robert Mangold

1992

Antoni Tàpies: Recent Works, Pace’s first exhibition of works by Tàpies, opens February 19.
The Attic Series, Pace’s first exhibition of works by Robert Mangold, opens February 14.
Pace’s first exhibition of work by Claes Oldenburg opens September 18.
Drawing into Film: Director's Drawings opens March 26 in New York. The exhibition takes as its subject the tangible artifacts of the film director’s artistic process, from scripts and notes to storyboards and drawings.
Installation view of Sculpture and Drawing by Joel Shapiro

Installation view, Joel Shapiro: Sculpture and Drawing, Apr 30– Jun 18, 1993, Pace Gallery, New York © 2025 Joel Shapiro / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

1993

Pace’s first exhibition of work by Joel Shapiro—Joel Shapiro: Sculpture and Drawing—opens April 30.

1994

Claes Oldenburg/Coosje van Bruggen Large–Scale Projects: Drawings and Sculpture

1995

Kiki Smith: New Work

1996

Lucas Samaras: Kiss Kill/Perverted Geometries/Inedibles/Self-Absrption

1998

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquires Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing.
With his Erased de Kooning Drawing, Rauschenberg set out to discover if an artwork could be made entirely through erasure, rather than accumulation. After first trying with his own works, the artist approached Willem de Kooning for a drawing to erase. Somewhat reluctantly, de Kooning agreed.
Pace sold the artwork to SFMoMA, which the museum purchased through a gift of Phyllis Wattis, in 1998.
Arne and Marc Glimcher in Pace Gallery’s seventh-floor performance space. Photograph by Martien Mulder

Arne and Marc Glimcher take in the view of Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and beyond in Pace Gallery’s seventh-floor performance space. Photograph by Martien Mulder for W Magazine

2000-2020s

The 2000s saw our establishment in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, along with global expansion in Europe and Asia, meeting our artists and collectors where they are. Today, we continue to build new connections in communities across the world, most recently in Tokyo and Berlin.

My parents had a vision of a gallery that put art and artists above all. To underscore that idea, they named it Pace Gallery. Although this was an “inside” reference to my grandfather’s name, to the world it was meant to evoke the forward motion of artists’ dedication to our collective culture.

Marc Glimcher, CEO

In 2019, we opened our eight-story New York flagship in Chelsea, where we continue to make history through our exhibitions and Pace Live programming. We look forward to sharing the next chapters of our story with you in the coming months and years.

Pace Live

Since launching Pace Live in 2019, we've brought over 100 events to global audiences—in-person at our galleries and online—including interdisciplinary performances, concerts, conversations, and more.
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Pace Publishing

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  • Essays — Pace Through the Decades, Apr 25, 2025