MoMA as Educator: The Legacy of Alfred H. Barr, Jr

ISBN 0-262-11258-2 Sybil Kantor's history of the intellectual origins of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an engaging account of Alfred Barr, Jr.'s, pivotal role in acquainting an American audience with the modernist movement in art that had developed in Europe and the Soviet Union in the first part of the twentieth century. [...]by temperament Barr shied away from praise and attention that were directed his way; he typically attributed whatever successes the museum's policies were having to his associates and supporters. [...]Barr did not equate modern art solely with abstract, nonobjective, geometric works. Among the prominent women who took an interest in modern art and in different ways supported Barr's efforts were Abby Rockefeller, the most important, said Barr, in bringing MoMA into being; Lillie P. Bliss, whose collection of modern art was critical to the establishment of MoMA's permanent collection; Mary Quinn Sullivan, an amateur artist and art teacher and friend of Abby Rockefeller; Katherine Dreier, an artist and one of the founders with Marcel Duchamp and Wassily Kandinsky of the Société Anonyme; and Dorothy Miller, Barr's invaluable museum assistant.