Kynaston McShine: The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect (1999)

“The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect surveys the ways in which artists, mostly of the 20th century, have addressed the museum, commented on its nature, confronted its concepts and functions, drawn from its methods, and examined its relationship to the art it contains. This lively, involving, and intellectually provocative presentation encompasses a tremendous variety of artworks, large and small, intimate and expansive, in mediums both familiar and surprising: paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints, videos, and installations. Fully illustrated with the works of an international cross section of more than 60 artists.

Published on the occasion of the MoMA exhibition, this book features an introductory essay by Kynaston McShine, curator of the exhibition. In the ensuing plate secton, short entries by several authors on the art and artists accompany 233 illustrations representing works of artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Eve Arnold, Garry Winogrand, and Thomas Struth. Personal museums and cabinets of curiosities, large and in miniature, have been created by Carles Wilson Peale, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Cornell, Claes Oldenburg, Fluxus, and Mark Dion; others have focused on images of the destruction or transformation of museums, such as the painter Hubert Robert (the first curator of the Louvre), Edward Ruscha, Komar and Melamid, and Christo.

This wealth of material is followed by an anthology of manifestos, statements, and meditations written by artists; biographies and exhibition stories of the artists; and a bibliography of general and monographic publications.” (book jacket, modified)

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1999
ISBN 0870700928, 9780870700927
296 pages
via MoMA

Exh. reviews: Robert Smith (NY Times, 1999), Economist (1999), Thomas Crow (Artforum).

Exhibition
Publisher
WorldCat

PDF, PDF (65 MB)

Margit Rowell, Deborah Wye: The Russian Avant-Garde Book, 1910-1934 (2002–) [English, Spanish]

“Russian avant-garde books made between 1900s-30s reflect a vivid and tumultuous period in that nation’s history that had ramifications for art, society, and politics. The early books, with their variously sized pages of coarse paper, illustrations entwined with printed, hand-written, and stamped texts, and provocative covers, were intended to shock academic conventions and bourgeois sensibilities. After the 1917 Revolution, books appeared with optimistic designs and photomontage meant to reach the masses and symbolize a rational, machine-led future. Later books showcased modern Soviet architecture and industry in the service of the government’s agenda.

Major artists adopted the book format during these two decades. They include Natalia Goncharova, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Olga Rozanova, the Stenberg brothers, Varvara Stepanova, and others. These artists often collaborated with poets, who created their own transrational language to accompany the imaginative illustrations. Three major artistic movements, Futurism, Suprematism, and Constructivism, that developed during this period in painting and sculpture also found their echo in the book format.

This publication accompanied an exhibition of Russian avant-garde books at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Featuring some 300 books, this was the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted exclusively to the illustrated books made during this period. It was prompted by a gift to MoMA of more than 1,000 Russian avant-garde illustrated books from The Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York.”

With essays by Deborah Wye, Nina Gurianova, Jared Ash, Gerald Janecek, and Margit Rowell.

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2002
ISBN 0870700073, 9780870700071
304 pages
via MoMA

Reviews: Holland Cotter (NY Times, 2002), Steven Heller (Eye, 2002).
Exh. review: Kristin M. Jones (Frieze, 2002).

Exhibition website
Publisher (incl. installation views)
WorldCat

English: PDF, PDF (2002, 72 MB)
Spanish: PDF, PDF (2003, 74 MB)

Kynaston L. McShine (ed.): Information (1970)

Catalogue for an exhibition curated by Kynaston McShine and held at MoMA in New York between 2 July-20 September 1970.

The exhibition presented videos and installations by 100 American and European artists (e.g. Vito Acconci, Art & Language, Daniel Buren, Jan Dibbets, Hans Haacke, Dennis Oppenheim, Edward Ruscha, Robert Smithson, or Jeff Wall). It included an early example of dealing with publicly accessible archives within the context of an exhibition and some of the participating artists confronted the issues of political and media based contents: Haacke established MoMA Poll as a first link between the areas of politics and the museum by presenting an open poll on the way the Rockefeller family acted with regard to Nixon’s plans in Indochina.

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970
207 pages
via MoMA

Commentary: Eve Meltzer (Oxford Art Journal, 2006), Interviews with Adrian Piper and Hans Haacke (Doreen Mende, Displayer, 2007), Adam Lauder (2010).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (52 MB)