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Author Kantor, Sybil Gordon.

Title Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and the intellectual origins of the Museum of Modern Art / Sybil Gordon Kantor.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2002]
©2002

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xxiii, 472 pages) : illustrations
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Summary Growing up with the twentieth century, Alfred Barr (1902-1981), founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, harnessed the cataclysm that was modernism. In this book--part intellectual biography, part institutional history--Sybil Gordon Kantor tells the story of the rise of modern art in America and of the man responsible for its triumph. Following the trajectory of Barr's career from the 1920s through the 1940s, Kantor penetrates the myths, both positive and negative, that surround Barr and his achievements. Barr fervently believed in an aesthetic based on the intrinsic traits of a work of art and the materials and techniques involved in its creation. Kantor shows how this formalist approach was expressed in the organizational structure of the multidepartmental museum itself, whose collections, exhibitions, and publications all expressed Barr's vision. At the same time, she shows how Barr's ability to reconcile classical objectivity and mythic irrationality allowed him to perceive modernism as an open-ended phenomenon that expanded beyond purist abstract modernism to include surrealist, nationalist, realist, and expressionist art. Drawing on interviews with Barr's contemporaries as well as on Barr's extensive correspondence, Kantor also paints vivid portraits of, among others, Jere Abbott, Katherine Dreier, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Philip Johnson, Lincoln Kirstein, Agnes Mongan, J.B. Neumann, and Paul Sachs.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) -- History.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
History.
Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1902-1981.
Barr, Alfred Hamilton, 1902-
Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1902-1981.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
Art museum directors -- United States -- Biography.
Art museum directors.
United States.
Genre/Form Biographies.
Electronic books.
History.
Biographies.
Other Form: Print version: Kantor, Sybil Gordon. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and the intellectual origins of the Museum of Modern Art. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2002 0262112582 (DLC) 2001044034 (OCoLC)47254277
ISBN 9780262276696 (electronic book)
0262276690 (electronic book)
1423729951 (electronic book)
9781423729952 (electronic book)