Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art - Hardcover
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