Photo by William Claxton
The museum opened, with its new iconic spiral building, in late-1959 - so it was pretty new when Trane visited. They probably figured it would be a good photo op, given the buzz about the Frank Lloyd Wright design. Tried to find out what exhibitions occurred in 1960 - probably just stuff from there own collection to start with...
EDIT: Here's another pic - don't recognize the artist...
The artwork behind Coltrane is painting, by Pierre Soulages. There's further information about the early exhibitions here: http://web.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/anotherkind/indexie.html
Well done! I figured it wasn't raw or ragged enough to be by any of the US painters of the time who favored black paint, like Kline or Motherwell. Shoulda thought of Europeans.
Looks like Robert Motherwell
That pin-stripe jacket is class.
Wow! What a shot!
I've never seen this image before. Easily one of my favorites
Is he flipping bird?
He's pointing to a small case he is holding. Big enough for a Soprano sax?
With his middle finger?
I see three knuckles so index finger, no?
Guess you're right, thanks. He had big hands.
This is my current phone background. Trane the goat.
hard af