When it first opened – on Thursday, November 15, 1945 – an extravagant party was held on the premises; an article by Edward Alden Jewell in the next morning’s Times reported on everything from the “first-rate” paintings to the sumptuous decorations, the work, he surmised, of “most of the florists in town”.
The entire dance world, or so it seemed, turned out for the reception, surely less for the chance to contemplate paintings by Chagall and de Chirico than for an up-close view of Pavel Tchelitchew and Tamara Toumanova.
[2] The gallery’s inaugural exhibition in November 1945, entitled “The Fantastic in Modern Art”,[3] was organized by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler, the editors of Surrealist magazine View.
In 1947 the gallery hosted "Bloodflames 1947",[4] a show organized by Nicolas Calas and designed by Frederick Kiesler[5] which was the last collective manifestation of the surrealist exiles' group in New York.
[7] In 1952, Andy Warhol had his first solo exhibition at the Hugo Gallery named "Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote" (June 16 – July 3, 1952).