“The first documenta exhibition held in Kassel in the summer of 1955 was not necessarily expected to continue. It was simply called “documenta: Art of the Twentieth Century,” and in that title lay the ambitions of the project. Occurring mid-year, mid-decade, mid-century, it positioned itself as a fulcrum between the past and the future. It consciously historicized contemporary art in the process of its development and in doing so influenced all such exhibitions since...”
