ICA Celebrates 75 Years Of Modern Art

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The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Sunday marks the museum's official birthday.

Since the beginning the ICA fashioned itself as a renegade art museum — and artists responded. For its first gala in 1936 Salvador Dali and his wife showed up dressed as sharks.

Over the years the ICA presented cutting-edge works in 13 different locations. The list of world-famous artists who've passed through is exhaustive.

ICA Director Jill Medvedow said the museum has always worked to engage and challenge Boston audiences. "In the early 1940s, when Boston was racially and ethnically segregated, the ICA organized two landmark exhibitions," she said. One was called "Mexican Painters" and another was "Paintings and Sculpture by American Negro Artists."

This timeline tracks the ICA's evolution.