Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings

by Alfred H. Barr Jr., Irving Sandler

Before Alfred Barr there was no museum in America devoted exclusively to exhibiting art by living artists on a continuing basis. Barr, an exacting intellectual, a man of unyielding principle, an influential tastemaker, and an inspired teacher, brought such a museum into being - The Museum of Modern Art in New York - founded in 1929, when he was only twenty-seven. But from the start Barr's vision of the scope of a museum went beyond painting and sculpture. And so the Museum exhibited architecture, machine-made products for the home, well-designed automobiles, films, posters, typography - all in addition to maintaining an innovative and busy schedule of shows of painting and sculpture. Through this concept of a museum and sculpture. Through this concept of a museum Barr was largely responsible for the way things look today: our cars, our houses, our furniture, our clothes, books, and advertisements. This collection of Barr's writing - many of which appeared in journals that are no longer in print or are otherwise accessible- is the first to enable us to survey the entire span of his contributions. The 35 pieces reprinted here, ranging over forty years.... witness the dramatic shifts in public taste as Cubism and Abstract Expressionism became familiar - to a great extent through the evangelism of Alfred Barr - and can watch the beleaguered Barr struggle with disgruntled artists, uncomprehending trustees, and a jeering press. --- excerpts from book's dustjacket

Genres: Art

302 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

Alfred Hamilton Barr, Jr. (1902 -1981) known as Alfred H. Barr, Jr., was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of popular attitudes toward modern art; for example, his arranging of the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition of 1935, in the words of author Bernice Kert, was "a precursor to the hold Van Gogh has to this day on the contemporary imagination."

Reviews

[Mills College Library]

709.04 B2681 1986