MoMA Goes to Paris in 1938 - by Caroline M Riley (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The book considers MoMA's first international exhibition, Three Centuries of American Art, on view in Paris in 1938. With over 750 artworks across media dating from 1609 to 1938, the exhibition displayed the politicization of American art and a museum's impact on the formation of American art history. It was the US government's first interaction with MoMA to use art to advance foreign policy. The book answers a fundamental question: How did Three Centuries locate and offer the heterogeneous mix that was American culture in the 1930s to an international audience grappling with its own political instabilities?"--

Book Synopsis

Three Centuries of American Art in 1938 was the Museum of Modern Art's first international exhibition. With over 750 artworks on view in Paris ranging from seventeenth-century colonial portraits to Mickey Mouse and spanning architecture, film, folk art, painting, prints, and sculpture, it was the most comprehensive display of American art to date in Europe and an important contributor to the internationalization of American art. MoMA Goes to Paris in 1938 explores how, at a time when the concept of artworks as "masterpieces" was very much up for debate, the exhibition expressed a vision of American art and culture that was not only an art historical endeavor but also a formulation of national identity. Caroline M. Riley demonstrates in what ways, at the brink of international war in the politically turbulent 1930s, MoMA collaborated with the US Department of State for the first time to deploy works of art as diplomatic agents.

From the Back Cover

"With MoMA Goes to Paris in 1938, Caroline M. Riley brings the full force of art historical close looking to bear on the museum's landmark, ocean-crossing show. In stirring, kaleidoscopic accounts, her book draws needed attention to Three Centuries of American Art as a key case study in soft diplomacy, in the birth of the 'American art' canon, and in how to piece together--with careful precision--how museum work works."--Jennifer Jane Marshall, author of Machine Art, 1934

"Riley's deep, multilayered archival work exposes aspects of the exhibitionary project that rarely make it into the art-historical narrative--and yet are essential in the production of public art history. Through her examination of publicity, loans, and installation itineraries, she demonstrates how MoMA attempted to use art as a tool of diplomacy on the eve of World War II."--Kristina Wilson, author of The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925-1934

Review Quotes

"Riley's contribution to the new scholarship on MoMA is timely and important to understanding the specific impact of the museum's exhibition program on art history."
-- "Panorama"

"This well-researched and richly illustrated book significantly contributes to stress the centrality of museum studies within art and cultural history. Most importantly, it calls attention to the transnational character of 'national' imaginaries and the inherent reflexive nature of any cultural practice."-- "European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire"

"A detailed account of the many contingencies and the vast efforts, planning and negotiation required to stage an exhibition, particularly one on this scale and with an international venue. . . . An impressively thorough account."-- "Early Popular Visual Culture"

About the Author

Caroline M. Riley is Research Associate in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of California, Davis. A curator and academic, she is a historian of American visual culture in a global context.