The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America

By Yale University Press

Book Overview

A visual feast of modern European and American art from one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary collections

This beautifully illustrated book highlights the unique history of The Soci?t? Anonyme, Inc., an organization founded in 1920 by the artists Katherine S. Dreier (1877-1952), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), and Man Ray (1890-1976). As America's first "experimental museum" for modern art, the Soci?t? Anonyme provided a means for artists, rather than historians, to chronicle the rise of modernism. Led by Dreier and Duchamp, the group eventually assembled a collection of more than one thousand artworks, which it presented to the public in a variety of innovative programs, publications, and exhibitions.

The incredible collection of the Soci?t? Anonyme now belongs to the Yale University Art Gallery, a gift from the Soci?t? and Dreier. It features the work of more than one hundred artists, many of whom are among the century's most renowned--including Jean Arp, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Piet Mondrian, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, and Joseph Stella--as well as works by lesser-known artists whose contributions to modernism are substantial.

With new archival information, including personal correspondence between Dreier and the artists whose work she assembled, a host of previously unpublished images, essays by leading scholars, and an interview with artists Robert and Sylvia Mangold about the contemporary significance of this collection, this fascinating book is essential to our understanding of the reception and interpretation of modernism in America.

Published in association with the Yale University Art Gallery

Exhibition Schedule:

Dallas Museum of Art (June 10, 2007 - September 16, 2007)

Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville (October 26, 2007 - February 3, 2008)

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (April 23 - August 13, 2006)

The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (October 14, 2006-January 21, 2007)

Yale University Art Gallery (2011)

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300109210
• ISBN13: 9780300109214
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 4.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.9" x 12.1"