 | Katherine Sophie Dreier's 1930 oil painting "Two Worlds (Zwei Welten)" is featured in the Yale Art Gallery's traveling exhibition devoted to works by the Société Anonyme, a group that helped promote appreciation of modern art in America. |
This spring, the Yale University Art Gallery will launch a major two-year traveling exhibition drawn from its collection of artwork once held by the Société Anonyme, known as America's first "experimental museum" for modern art.
"The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America" features more than 240 works by such renowned artists as Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Man Ray and Joseph Stella, along with lesser-known artists who made significant contributions to modernism.
Organized by the Yale Art Gallery, the exhibition marks the first time that a substantial portion of the historic collection has been permitted to travel. The exhibit will begin its tour at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (April 23-Aug. 20, 2006), before traveling on to The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (Oct. 14, 2006-Jan. 21, 2007); Dallas Museum of Art, Texas (June 10-Sept. 16, 2007); and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee (Oct. 26, 2007-Feb. 3, 2008). The exhibition will be presented at the Yale Art Gallery in fall of 2010.
The Société Anonyme was founded in New York in 1920 by Katherine S. Dreier, Duchamp and Man Ray in order to promote contemporary art to American audiences. (The title, reportedly a suggestion of Man Ray's, is the French idiomatic phrase denoting a company, and meaninglessly translates as "Incorporated Inc.") The group fulfilled its mission by organizing exhibitions and other programs. In time, it also amassed an renowned collection of European and American art, dating primarily from 1920 to 1940.
In 1941, Dreier and Duchamp gave the majority of the collection to Yale. In 1953, Duchamp bequeathed Dreier's personal collection, which includes one of the largest groups of his works in America. Together, these gifts became the cornerstone of the gallery's noted collection of modern art.
"In 1920, when the Société Anonyme presented its first exhibition, there were no museums in America that specialized in modern art. Most of this country's critics regarded such movements as Cubism as unworthy of serious consideration," says Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale Art Gallery. "Some 30 years, 80 exhibitions and 40 publications later, when the Société Anonyme disbanded, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum were all thriving institutions, and New York was emerging as the new international center of the avant-garde.
"Katherine Dreier's energetic and visionary espousal of the art and artists of her time, and her ability to generate that same enthusiasm in others, played a crucial role in America's embrace of modernism," adds Reynolds. "Her story, and the extraordinary collection of works that she helped to assemble, deserve to be better known. We are delighted to have this opportunity to share this fascinating and important exhibition with new audiences across the country."
"The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America" is one of a series of traveling exhibitions that have been organized by the Yale Art Gallery to ensure that its collections are accessible to the public while its main building, designed by Louis I. Kahn, is closed for renovation. The exhibition and accompanying publication were organized by Jennifer R. Gross, the Seymour H. Knox Jr. Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Susan Greenberg, the Horace W. Goldsmith Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, both of the Yale Art Gallery.
The exhibition is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support provided by Mr. and Mrs. James H. Clark Jr. (B.A. 1958); Mr. and Mrs. James Howard Cullum Clark (B.A. 1989); Helen Runnells DuBois (B.A. 1978) and Raymond F. DuBois Jr.; Leonard F. Hill (B.A. 1969); Mr. and Mrs. George T. Lee Jr. (B.A. 1957); Dr. and Mrs. Edmund P. Pillsbury (B.A. 1965); Mark H. Resnick (B.A. 1978); Cathy R. Siegel and Kenneth Weiss; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Smith (B.A. 1950); Michael Sullivan (B.A. 1973); and Mr. and Mrs. John Walsh (B.A. 1961).
A special website -- linked to the gallery's main site at http://artgallery.yale.edu -- is being created in conjunction with the exhibition. The site will feature a comprehensive selection of images from the Société Anonyme Collection and information about the history and mission of the organization, as well as details about the current traveling show. Highlights will include early Société Anonyme exhibition materials, video clips of works by Duchamp and an audio interview with Katherine Dreier. The out-of-print 1984 catalogue raisonné of the collection will also be accessible on this site.
T H I S
Modern art collection takes to the
road in gallery's traveling exhibit
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
University launching new program to train tomorrow's journalists
Alliance will boost Yale-BIPI research collaborations
INTERNATIONAL YALE
Yale delegates meet with world leaders at Davos
SOM students learn about India's markets during trips
Faculty member named Young Global LeaderYale honored for design of Farmington Canal site
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Derek Briggs named the Beinecke Professor of Geology, Geophysics
Joan Feigenbaum appointed the Henry Ford II Professor . . .
Mark Johnson designated the Kemp Professor of Chemistry
Abraham Silberschatz named the Sidney J. Weinberg Professor . . .Black History Month celebration features talks, performances
Team will study atmospheric 'tsunamis' from on high
Study: Even with recycling, there's not enough metal to meet global demand
Works reveal how humans can 'turn ugliness into music'
Comic Mozart opera proclaims 'Women Are Like That'
Art of adornment is focus of 'Baubles, Bangles and Beads'
Modern art collection takes to the road in gallery's traveling exhibit
Guidelines set standards for doctors' relationships with drug companies
Medications reduce brain changes in youths with bipolar disorder
Study illuminates how the body fights viruses without attacking itself
Use of cell phones by medical personnel cuts rate of error . . .
Six Yale scientists receive awards for their research on aging
Exhibit features magical objects from the Babylonian Collection
Chaplain Frederick J. Streets to be honored as a 'trail blazer'
In Memoriam: A. Dwight Culler, renowned scholar of Victorian literature
Yale BioHaven Entrepreneurship Seminar Series . . .
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News
Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines
Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases|
E-Mail Us|Yale Home