Modern Art on Display: The Legacies of Six Collectors

Modern Art on Display: The Legacies of Six Collectors is structured as a sequence of case studies that pair collectors of modern art with artists they particularly favored: Duncan Phillips and Augustus Vincent Tack; Albert Barnes and Chaim Soutine; Albert Eugene Gallatin and Juan Gris; Lillie Bliss and Paul Cézanne; Etta Cone and Henri Matisse; G. David Thompson and Paul Klee. The case studies are linked by a thematic focus on the integral relationship between the collectors’ acquired knowledge about the work they amassed and their innovative display models. This focus brings a new perspective to the history of collecting and interpreting modern art in America for nearly half a century (1915-1960). By examining the books the collectors themselves read and analyzing archival photographs of their displays, the author makes a case for the historical significance of how the collectors presented the art they acquired before their collections were institutionalized.

About the Author

K. Porter Aichele is professor emerita at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.