Not intended to be a comprehensive examination of European painting, this exhibition focused on European painters who demonstrated the continent’s dominant trends. The artists were selected by the directors of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf, The Jewish Museum in New York, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Sponsored by The Mead Corporation, the exhibition previewed at the Maison de la Culture in Grenoble, France before it officially debuted at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Subsequently, the show traveled to The Jewish Museum in New York, the National Collection of Fine Arts at the Smithsonian Institution, the MCA, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Dayton Art Institute.