Alfred Barr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (born January 28, 1902 in Detroit , † August 15, 1981 in Salisbury , Connecticut , USA ) was an American art historian and founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York .

Live and act

Barr studied medieval and modern art history and archeology at Princeton University from 1918 to 1923 . After graduating, he went on a trip to Europe in 1924. From 1927 he taught at Wellesley College . He was the first to bring architecture , graphic design , photography , music and film into connection with painting and sculpture in the USA . In April 1927 he organized an exhibition of modern painting at the Farnsworth Museum in Wellesley .

Barr then went back to Europe, where he stayed for a year. After a stay in London he visited Rotterdam , where he met the architect JJP Oud and visited the Kröller-Müller collection . In Germany he made the acquaintance of Oskar Schlemmer and Lyonel Feininger . A visit to the Bauhaus Dessau , the Folkwang Museum in Essen and the New Department of the National Gallery in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin had a particular influence on him. In Dessau , Barr a. a. Walter Gropius , Paul Klee , László Moholy-Nagy , Oskar Schlemmer, Josef Albers and Lyonel Feininger. Further stations were Moscow , Leningrad and Paris .

In June 1929 Paul J. Sachs commissioned Alfred Barr , after consulting with Abby Aldrich Rockefeller , Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan (1877-1939), to set up a museum for modern art in New York. He became the first director of the Museum of Modern Art, which he built on the model of the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais .

Stephen C. Clark , chairman of the board of trustees and at the same time president of the museum, informed Barr in October 1943 that he had been relieved of his previous functions and that from now on he would only be advisory director while his salary was halved. In a press release, Clark stated that Barr would dedicate himself to writing books on modern art in the future. Barr's secretary, Dorothy Miller, suspected that Clark couldn't stand someone who had more art understanding than himself. Barr continued to exert a strong influence on the museum as scientific director until 1967.

At the Bel Ami International Art Competition in 1945/46 for the US film The Private Affairs of Bel Ami , in which twelve artists were asked to paint a picture of the temptation of Saint Anthony, Barr was with the Artist Marcel Duchamp and gallery owner Sidney Janis (1896–1989) member of the jury. In 1952 Barr was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

literature

  • Alfred Hamilton Barr, Irving Sandler, Amy Newman: Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. New York 1986, ISBN 0-8109-0715-1
  • Alice Goldfarb Marquis: Alfred H. Barr, Jr .: Missionary for the Modern . Chicago 1989, ISBN 0-8092-4155-2
  • Sybil Cantor: Alfred H. Barr, JR. and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art . Cambridge, Mass. 2002, ISBN 0-262-11258-2 .
  • David A. Hanks, Friedrich Meschede (eds.): Partners in Design: Alfred H. Barr Jr. and Philip Johnson: Bauhaus Pioneers in America , Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers [2017], ISBN 978-3-89790-496- 5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Elderfield (author), Matthias Wolf (translator): The MoMA in Berlin. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2004, ISBN 978-3-7757-1389-4 , p. 9
  2. ↑ The Museum of Modern Art (Engl.)
  3. ↑ Michael Conforti, James A. Ganz, Neil Harris, Sarah Lees, Gilbert T. Vincent: The Clark Brothers Collect, Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. New Haven and London ISBN 0-931102-65-0 , p. 171
  4. ↑ Michael Conforti, James A. Ganz, Neil Harris, Sarah Lees, Gilbert T. Vincent: The Clark Brothers Collect, Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings . New Haven and London ISBN 0-931102-65-0 , p. 209
personal data
SURNAME Barr, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barr, Alfred Hamilton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American art historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1981
Place of death Salisbury , Connecticut