The Men Who Brought Modernism to the USA

When New York’s Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1929 – having been instigated by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan, otherwise known as “The Ladies” – it was the only museum in America showing solely modern art, and the first to exhibit European modernism. Alfred H. Barr, Jr had been brought in as the museum’s first director, and by November of 1929 he was loaning works by the likes of Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

Meanwhile, Barr…