In 1957, the Museum’s exhibition The Sphere of Mondrian provided Houstonians the opportunity to view a sampling of works from abstract art’s greatest minds. Rather than tell the complete story of abstraction, the show sought to illustrate the general “climate” of thought that encompassed the modern movement. The accompanying catalogue to the exhibition features several black-and-white reproductions, an introduction by the Museum’s director and one of its chairmen, and an exhibition article, in which New York gallery owner Rose Fried discusses the evolution of “objective” or abstract art through the contributions of Mondrian, Kandinsky, and Malevich.

Artists featured in the exhibition: Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Burgoyne Diller, Cesar Domela, AdolpheFleischmann, Naum Gabo, Fritz Glarner, Sidney Gordin, Jean Gorin, Harry Holzman, Vilmos Huszar, FrantisekKupka, El Lissitzky, Albert Manchek, John McLaughlin, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian, Ben Nicholson, I. Rice Periera, George Rickey,  Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Georges Vantongerloo, Charmion von Wiegand, Robert Jay Wolff, and Jean Xceron.