Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art
Edited with text by Ann Temkin, Romy Silver-Kohn. Foreword by Anna Deavere Smith. Text by Mary Schmidt Campbell, Sloane Crosley, Mary Gabriel, Jennifer Gray, Juliet Kinchin, Farran Smith Nehme, Nell Irvin Painter, Roberta Smith, Lanka Tattersall, Anne Umland, Kate Walbert, Brenda Wineapple.
Profiles of fourteen women who transformed the country's foremost modern art museum in its fledgling years
Founded in 1929, the Museum of Modern Art owes much of its early success to a number of remarkable women who shaped the future of the institution in its first decades. As founders, patrons, curators and directors of various departments, these figures boldly defied societal norms to launch this radical venture during the depths of the Great Depression. They were fortunate in the freedoms afforded by uncharted territory; because the notion of a museum of modern art was new, there was a conspicuous absence of the professional prerequisites, official structures and respectable salaries that would have limited the jobs to men. This left the door open for a host of women to define their own roles and invent new fields. This book profiles 14 pioneering figures who made an indelible mark not only on MoMA, but on the culture of their time. Inventing the Modern transports the reader to the grit and glamour of midtown Manhattan in the 1930s and ’40s. It deepens our understanding of MoMA’s history and contributes to a broader understanding of women’s achievement in the 20th century. Subjects include: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, Margaret Scolari Barr, Ernestine Fantl, Iris Barry, Elodie Courter, Sarah Newmeyer, Dorothy Miller, Dorothy Dudley, Nancy Newhall, Elizabeth Mock, Olga Guggenheim, Jean Volkmer.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Pulitzer-Prize winning author
Stacy Schiff
The women behind The Museum of Modern Art are a disparate lot: plucky, unassuming, discerning, ubiquitous, invisible. Their stories are—in these finely honed portraits—universally thrilling. A volume of rich, revelatory chronicles, from Mary Quinn Sullivan’s improbable downtown shopping spree to Elizabeth Mock’s embrace of modern architecture to Olga Guggenheim’s decision to replace two Monets lost in the Museum's 1958 fire with, well, two Monets.
Library Journal
Lindsay King
Starred review: For readers curious about how museums work, this engaging new look at MoMA’s origins will whet appetites for further scholarship on these fascinating figures.
The New York Times Book Review
Walker Mimms
The subtitle of 'Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped the Museum of Modern Art' is no girlboss revisionism. Without the visionaries profiled within—especially Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan—New York’s citadel for the avant-garde would likely not exist.
The Brooklyn Rail
Sarah Moroz
[These women] were indelible to the way the museum functioned and thrived. [...] Think appreciatively of them during your next museum visit.
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FORMAT: Hbk, 6.25 x 9.25 in. / 384 pgs / 235 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $65 ISBN: 9781633450790 PUBLISHER: The Museum of Modern Art, New York AVAILABLE: 9/3/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited with text by Ann Temkin, Romy Silver-Kohn. Foreword by Anna Deavere Smith. Text by Mary Schmidt Campbell, Sloane Crosley, Mary Gabriel, Jennifer Gray, Juliet Kinchin, Farran Smith Nehme, Nell Irvin Painter, Roberta Smith, Lanka Tattersall, Anne Umland, Kate Walbert, Brenda Wineapple.
Profiles of fourteen women who transformed the country's foremost modern art museum in its fledgling years
Founded in 1929, the Museum of Modern Art owes much of its early success to a number of remarkable women who shaped the future of the institution in its first decades. As founders, patrons, curators and directors of various departments, these figures boldly defied societal norms to launch this radical venture during the depths of the Great Depression. They were fortunate in the freedoms afforded by uncharted territory; because the notion of a museum of modern art was new, there was a conspicuous absence of the professional prerequisites, official structures and respectable salaries that would have limited the jobs to men. This left the door open for a host of women to define their own roles and invent new fields. This book profiles 14 pioneering figures who made an indelible mark not only on MoMA, but on the culture of their time. Inventing the Modern transports the reader to the grit and glamour of midtown Manhattan in the 1930s and ’40s. It deepens our understanding of MoMA’s history and contributes to a broader understanding of women’s achievement in the 20th century.
Subjects include: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, Margaret Scolari Barr, Ernestine Fantl, Iris Barry, Elodie Courter, Sarah Newmeyer, Dorothy Miller, Dorothy Dudley, Nancy Newhall, Elizabeth Mock, Olga Guggenheim, Jean Volkmer.