The subtitle of INVENTING THE MODERN . . . 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 . . . . From the Gilded Age hobbyists to the imposing professionals of later decades: in a way this book chronicles women outstepping the limits on their gender to become. simply. tastemakers. — New York Times Book 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. — Library Journal
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. —Stacy Schiff. Pulitzer-Prize winning author
Edited by Ann Temkin and Romy Silver-Kohn. Foreword by Anna Deavere Smith. Essays by Mary Schmidt Campbell. Sloane Crosley. Mary Gabriel. Jennifer Gray. Juliet Kinchin. Farran Smith Nehme. Nell Irvin Painter. Romy Silver-Kohn. Roberta Smith. Lanka Tattersall. Ann Temkin. Anne Umland. Kate Walbert. and Brenda Wineapple
The Museum of Modern Art owes much of its success to a group of remarkable women who—as founders. patrons. curators. and department directors—shaped its future during its early decades. Inventing the Modern tells the stories of fourteen pioneering women. ranging from eminences such as cofounder Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. the most recognized name among them. to several women who are today virtually unknown. such as the Museum’s longtime registrar Dorothy Dudley. There were influential curators like Iris Barry. who played an outsize role in establishing the study of film as an art form. and inventive leaders like Sarah Newmeyer. who as the Museum’s first director of publicity launched enterprising campaigns to capture the public’s imagination. These women were mavericks who turned their ideas into action: envisioning and establishing the Museum. directing departments. and transforming their disciplines.
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