The undersigned group of artists have noted that the Guggenheim Museum is in the process of carrying out the construction of a new building which has been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The drawing and description of its plan that have appeared in the New York papers and other publications make it clear that the interior design of the building is not suitable for a sympathetic display of painting and sculpture. The basic concept of curvilinear slope for presentation of painting and sculpture indicates a callous disregard for the fundamental rectilinear frame of reference necessary for the adequate visual contemplation of works of art.

We strongly urge the Trustees of the Guggenheim Museum to reconsider the plans for the new building.

— Calvin Albert, Milton Avery, Will Barnet, Paul Bodin, Henry Botkin, Byron Browne, Herman Cherry, George Constant, Willem de Kooning, Herbert Ferber, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Seymour Lipton, Sally Michel, George L. K. Morris, Robert Motherwell, Charles Schucker, John Sennhauser, Leon P. Smith and Jack Tworkov

Excerpt from a 1956 open letter to James Johnson Sweeney and Guggenheim trustees, LAPHAM’S QUARTERLY