ART: USA: NOW (1962)

 
The painting "Ikon" (first image, on left), by Margo Hoff, was part of ART: USA: NOW, The Johnson [Wax] Collection, which, beginning in late 1962, toured the world more extensively than any collection of American art of its time. Exhibitions were held in (among other locations) Tokyo, Hawaii, London (second image: Mrs. "Lady Bird" Johnson discusses the collection with Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden), Sweden, Paris, Germany, Athens, and Monaco (third image: Princess Grace of Monaco is photographed at the opening...when it was discovered that there was no gallery in Monte Carlo large enough to accommodate the artworks, Princess Grace had the Salons Privés of the Casino emptied of their gambling tables—at the height of the season—so the contemporary paintings could be seen on the Riviera). Cultural ministers from Poland and Yugoslavia sought to present the show, but were overruled by their governments. "Ikon," as well as the entire collection, is now part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection.

The show was memorialized in a boxed, two-volume edition featuring a total of 102 artists (including, among many others, Hopper, O'Keeffe, de Kooning, Pollock, Yunkers, Cadmus, Osver, Tooker, Mitchell, Rivers, Diebenkorn, and Motherwell). A photo of each artist is accompanied by an autobiographical overview, foldout full-color reproduction of their featured artpiece, as well as multiple black-and-white examples of additional work. 
Art USA Now; Edited by Lee Nordness, Text by Allen S. Weller. A Studio Book, Viking Press, New York. Copyright 1963. 466 pages. Library of Congress catalog card number 62-19607.