From The Museum of Modern Art's founding by three pioneering women in 1929 to the disruptions and interventions of the 1960s and 1970s by women artists drawing attention to their own lack of representation in the Museum to contemporary work by women of the postfeminist generation, the history of women at MoMA is inextricable from the history of the institution. Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art, a groundbreaking examination of the Museum's collection, looks at work over the course of this history, by the modern and contemporary women artists whose diversity of practices and contributions to the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century have been enormous, if often underrecognized. Fifty essays, written by many of the strongest voices in current thinking on art and gender, examine both canonical figures and lesser-known artists. Modern Women attempts, in this great diversity of voices and ideas, to address the ways that history might account for the women missing from the familiar narrative of modernism; the ways that women variously fit into, redefine, or turn upside down the usual categories of art and art-making; and the ways that The Museum of Modern Art has been a site of both patronage and protest. Richly illustrated with works from MoMA's collection, this publication offers a lively discourse around gender and the production of meaning in art, one absolutely necessary for a more complex understanding of the art of our time.
Modern Women: Women at The Museum of Modern Art is made possible by the Modern Women's Fund, established by Sarah Peter.
Artists in the Book
Modern Women explores the work of over three hundred women artists represented in the Museum's collection through essays that examine topics such as women at the Bauhaus, design collaborations, photographers between the wars, the legacy of Maya Deren, performance art, architecture, land art, "Riot Grrrls," and contemporary portraiture, as well as shorter, focused essays on individual artists.
View list of all artists in the book
Modern Women: A Partial History
The Museum of Modern Art owes a large share of
its success to women. The Museum was the idea
and creation of three women, and from those
founders of 1929 to the associate director and
president of the Museum today, women have
been instrumental in the development of the
institution's mission, program, and collection. More
- Barr, Margaret Scolari (1901–1987)
- Barry, Iris (1895–1969)
- Bauer, Catherine (1905–1964)
- Bliss, Lillie P. (1864–1931)
- Bonney, Thérèse (1894–1978)
- Chief Curator
- Constantine, Mildred (1913–2008)
- Courter, Elodie (1911–1994)
- Crane, Josephine Boardman (1873–1972)
- Daniel, Greta (1909–1962)
- Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs
- Dudley, Dorothy H. (1903–1979)
- Founders
- Guggenheim, Olga Hirsch (1877–1970)
- Gund, Agnes (Born 1938)
- Halbreich, Kathy (Born 1949)
- Heiss, Alanna (Born 1943)
- Hostesses
- International Council
- Junior Council
- Lippard, Lucy R. (Born 1937)
- London, Barbara (Born 1946)
- Miller, Dorothy (1904–2003)
- Mock, Elizabeth Bauer (1911–1998)
- Modern Women's Fund
- Newhall, Nancy Wynne Parker (1908–1974)
- Newmeyer, Sarah (Dates unknown)
- Photography (6 Women Photographers) (October 11–November 15, 1949)
- Protest
- Rockefeller, Abby Aldrich (1874–1948)
- Rockefeller, Blanchette Ferry Hooker (1909–1992)
- Roob, Rona
- Sense and Sensibility: Women Artists and Minimalism in the 90s (June 15–September 11, 1994)
- Sipprell, Clara E. (1885–1975)
- Sullivan, Mary Quinn (1877–1939)
- Trustees
- Volkmer, Jean (Born 1920)
- WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (February 17–May 12, 2008)
