Alfred Barr

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Alfred Hamilton Barr, Jr. (known as Alfred H. Barr, Jr.) (1902–1981) was an art historian and the notable founding director (from 1929) of the Rockefeller family's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. From the latter perch, he would be one of the most influential forces in the development of popular attitudes towards modern art; for example, by arranging the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition of 1935, amongst many others.

Nelson Rockefeller, as MoMA president, dismissed Barr as director in 1943, but he stayed on as an advisory director and later was given the title of director of collections. He was also Nelson's personal art advisor for many years. By the time he left MoMA in 1968, Modern Art would be considered as legitimate of a field as earlier eras like the Renaissance.

Barr received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1946. Barr specialized in early twentieth-century painting. The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Award for museum scholarship was created in his honor.

1 Quotes
2 Works
3 Further reading
4 See also

[edit] Quotes

On the Museum of Modern Art: Barr said:

"This museum is a torpedo moving through time, its head the ever-advancing present, its tail the ever-receding past of 50 to 100 years ago" Alfred Barr, Director of Collections, Museum of Modern Art. Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, compiled by James B. Simpson. 1988

[edit] Works

Barr, Alfred H., Jr. "Chronicles." Painting and Sculpture in The Museum of Modern Art 1929- 1967. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1977, 619-650.

[edit] Further reading

Barr, Margaret Scolari. "Our Campaigns: Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and the Museum of Modern Art: A Biographical Chronicle of the Years 1930-1944." The New Criterion, special summer issue 1987, pp. 23-74.
Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Roob, Rona. "Alfred H. Barr, Jr.: A Chronicle of the Years 1902-1929." The New Criterion, special summer issue 1987, pp. 1-19.