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A Curator's Quest

Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture of the Museum of Modern Art, 1967–1988
by William Rubin
A Curator's Quest: Building the Collection of Painting and Sculpture of the Museum of Modern Art, 1967–1988. Overlook Duckworth. 2012. 480p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781590201176. $100. FINE ARTS
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In this massive tome, a project nearly completed at Rubin's (former director, painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art) death in 2006 is finally realized. The curator continued the legacy of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA's first director, as he shaped the permanent collection to best document the development of modern art. Supplementing his memoir are more than 300 pages of color plates featuring objects Rubin considered the best of his MoMA acquisitions, interspersed with excerpts of his writing and interviews. Following that are illustrated transcripts of the eight "Pioneers of Modernism" lectures he delivered at Sotheby's in 1997 and 1998, and the book concludes with list of the exhibitions Rubin organized for MoMA and photography credits.
VERDICT This major monument to a groundbreaking curator provides evidence of how Rubin's vision shapes our view of modern art.
Reviewed by Lindsay M. King, Yale Univ. Lib., New Haven, CT , Jul 01, 2012
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