Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped the Museum of Modern Art - by Romy Silver-Kohn & Ann Temkin (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

[Memorializes fourteen of the] imaginative, gutsy, underappreciated women who have had a formative impact on MoMA's development.--Martin Filler "The New York Review of Books"

[An] anthology of lively essays by women on each of the visionary founders: Lillie P. Bliss, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Quinn Sullivan.--Hilarie M. Sheats "The New York Times"

[Spotlights] the overlooked, often incorrectly recorded history of [MoMA's] creation.--Rachel Corbett "Cultured"

[The book] honors the under-sung female arts professionals and patrons who helped build and foster the New York institution over decades.--Brad Philips "Artnet"

[These women] were indelible to the way the museum functioned and thrived. [...] Think appreciatively of them during your next museum visit.--Sarah Moroz "The Brooklyn Rail"

Beautifully written.--Laurie Fendrich "Two Coats of Paint"

In 1928, the three women--a socialite, a relative recluse and a radical artist--decided something had to be done about the fact that there was no place in New York to show the exciting work that was being done in the early 20th Century. They decided to change that, raised funds and founded the Museum of Modern Art in 1929. Their stories are paired with some of the museum's most iconic works, including Paul Cézanne's The Bather, Amedeo Modigliani's Anna Zborowska and Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, all there courtesy of Lillie P. Bliss.--Mary Gregory "Observer"

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.--Lindsay King "Library Journal"

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.--Walker Mimms "The New York Times Book Review"

The Museum of Modern Art ranks alongside the Metropolitan Museum as New York's premier museum, but according to this book--a compendium of short biographies complied by MoMA curator Ann Temkin and researcher Romy Silver-Kohn--it might not have existed at all without the help of the women chronicled herein.-- "Artnews"

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"