Lillie P. Bliss
Collector, Advocate, and Visionary Benefactor of the Museum of Modern Art
Series: Contextualizing Art Markets;
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Product details:
- Publisher Bloomsbury Visual Arts
- Date of Publication 29 May 2025
- Number of Volumes Hardback
- ISBN 9781350459731
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages pages
- Size 236x156x20 mm
- Weight 720 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 46 bw illus 700
Categories
Long description:
She helped found MoMA and pioneered the promotion of work of American and French modern artists at the turn of the 20th century, but until now, her life and legacy remain woefully under examined.
An early pioneer and patron of French and American modernism, Lillie P. Bliss (1864-1931) was one of three female cofounders of MoMA in 1929, and went on to furnish the museum with one of the finest collections of modern art in the world. Presenting case-studies alongside data-driven analysis drawn from original research into the American art market, this book reconstructs Bliss's influential career in rich and compelling detail. It weaves together extensive archival material related to the art and the artists that Bliss collected and patronised - such as Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, and Odilon Redon - the art market of the time and the evolution of the New York museum ecosystem, and highlights the importance of private collecting in the development of American museums.
By revisiting MoMA's foundational history, author Irene Walsh explores how Lillie P. Bliss's visionary bequest of over 120 artworks upon her death in 1931 profoundly influenced and shaped the institution, questioning why her pioneering role has been overshadowed by other collectors. Combining biography, market knowledge, institutional analysis, and art history, it enriches our understanding of early 20th-century dealer dynamics and collection strategies in New York, illuminates the role of collections in shaping art narratives, while offering contemporary insights into women's agency in the arts. Global, interdisciplinary, and timely, the book provides fascinating first-hand research into a collector of great importance, and will make a long standing contribution to studies in the art market and 20th-century collecting.
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Series Editor Preface
1. Introduction: Engaging with Modern Art, Artists, and Advocacy in Progressive-era New York
Foundations and a turn towards art at an opportune time
Establishing a market presence through the Macbeth Gallery
The emergence of Arthur B. Davies
The Armory Show as seminal moment
2. Collecting and Exhibiting in a Fractured World
The Armory Show and war influence art and taste, and reshape the art market
Marius deZayas as prime dealer and influencer
Inaugural museum exhibitions of modern art provide inspiration
3. Achieving "A Perfectly Rounded Thing"
Replicating the museum exhibitions in an expanded collection
Opportunities, losses, liberation
Advantageous engagement with a transatlantic dealer network
Transactional dealer relationships in a post-Davies world
4. From Dream to Reality: A Museum is Born
Inception and foundational challenges
The exhibition programme's impact on identity, narrative, and reputation
Bliss's valedictory season
5. The Bliss Bequest: "A Big and Generous Idea"
The Last Will and Testament as guide and precedent
The American Luxembourg as defensive strategy
MoMA earns the Bequest
6. The Rise and Fall of the Bliss Collection
The Bliss collection at work: didactic exhibitions and donor influence
The Bliss collection adrift as institutional identity evolves
The war years: financial challenges, management discontinuity, flawed deaccessioning
Epilogue
Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Notes
Index
Lillie P. Bliss: Collector, Advocate, and Visionary Benefactor of the Museum of Modern Art
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