Grace Morley

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Grace Louise McCann Morley (born November 3, 1900 in Berkeley ; † January 8, 1985 in New Delhi ) was an American art historian , museologist and museum director . She was a founding member of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and was its director from 1934 to 1958.

Life

Morley grew up in St. Helena, California and did not attend school for the first 10 years of her life. She then studied at St. Helena High School and then studied arts and literature at the University of California at Berkeley. Because there had been no French courses at her school , she taught herself French and in 1924 wrote her master's thesis on the poetry of Aristotle in French. In 1926 she completed her doctorate in art history in Paris with a subject on French art and literature in the 17th century under Gustave Reynier . Then shortly taught at Goucher College of the University of Maryland in Baltimore French literature and language until 1930 as curator at the Cincinnati Museum of Art began.

In 1934 she became museum director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and worked in this position until 1958. Morley thus headed the second museum for modern art in the USA and, during her tenure, designed many exhibitions on European artists and thus also made them outside New York known. But she also curated many exhibitions by American artists. She broke new ground in the field of museum education: she offered courses in art history at the museum, established a museum library and regularly showed films. One of the most important achievements, however, is the establishment of a collection of modern art. The SFMOMA was one of the first museums in the United States to buy art by the then young and still unknown Abstract Expressionists .

Between 1940 and 1945, Morley was a member of the State Department's Art Committee, organizing and curating exhibitions of American art abroad, particularly in Latin America . In 1946 she advised the preparatory conference for the establishment of UNESCO . Between 1946 and 1949, at the request of the US State Department, she was a museum advisor to UNESCO and then head of the museum department of the UN organization. In this function she was mainly occupied with the clarification of looted art cases in Germany and mediated between the allied victorious powers. She was also responsible for the first issues of the UNESCO magazine "Museum", which is dedicated to museological issues.

In 1949 she completely returned to SFMOMA and became director there again. 9 years later she resigned in a dispute with the board of directors. For a short time she was deputy director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , but then moved to India in 1960 and became the founding director of the New Delhi National Museum , which quickly became India's largest and most important museum.

engagement

Morley served as vice president of the American Federation of Arts and arts advisor to the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs while active in the United States . She was also an active member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and was head of the South and Southeast Asia Section from 1967 to 1978 .

Honors

In 1937 Morley received honorary doctorates from Mills College, the University of California, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. The Indian government awarded her the Padma Bhushan , one of the highest civil orders in the country. She was also awarded the French Legion of Honor .

In honor of Morley, SFMOMA founded the Grace McCann Morley Legacy Society, which rewards donations to the museum with privileges. The ICOM offers a Grace Morley Research Fellowship for young museologists every year.

Works (selection)

  • An introduction to contemporary Peruvian painting . San Francisco Museum of Art, 1942
  • Karl Morris; Retrospective , American Federation of Arts, 1960
  • The sentiment de la nature en France dans la première moitié du dix-septième siècle . B. Franklin, New York, 1972
  • Museum today . University of Baroda, 1981
  • Indian Sculpture , Roli Books, 2005 (new edition)

literature

  • Grace Louise (McCann) Morley, Suzanne B. Riess: Art, Artists, Museums, and the San Francisco Museum of Art. Bancroft Library, Regional Oral History Office, 1960 ( digitized )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death report in the New York Times , January 26, 1985
  2. ↑ Grace McCann Morley Legacy Society ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , San Francisco Museum of Art  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sfmoma.org
  3. ↑ Press release on the 2012 scholarship ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , ICOM @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / icom.museum
personal data
SURNAME Morley, Grace
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McCann Morley, Grace Louise (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American art historian, museologist and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1985
Place of death New Delhi