Director's Letter Fall 2013

The art historian Richard Meyer, in his recent book What Was Contemporary Art?, reminds us of one of modern art’s seminal moments, when Princeton’s own Alfred Barr, Class of 1922, and later the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, began teaching a course at Wellesley College in 1926–27, while still a graduate student at Harvard. Barr’s methodology united art and cultural production both high and low and, in his work at the Modern, helped to redefine Americans’ understanding of what art was and to launch it as public spectacle. Many of Barr’s Wellesley students went on to work as curators, journalists, and critics, spreading Barr’s approach and, as Meyer establishes, reminding us of the ripples that can emanate even from small academic communities.

Barr’s training at Princeton and its relationship to his better-known years at Harvard warrant further study. His later gift to Princeton of Andy Warhol’s Blue Marilyn—acquired directly from the artist—affords another glimpse into Barr’s roving curiosity and tastes and his enduring affection for his alma mater. In retelling the story of Barr’s teaching at Wellesley, Meyer shows us how relevant Barr’s approach remains to our own time, when we are again inclined to consider art in the context of wide-ranging cultural production. 

In being reminded of Barr’s pioneering methodology, I found myself considering the academy’s—and Princeton’s—role in innovation in the arts. Like Barr’s time at Wellesley, Princeton’s place in this story is too little known, including the University’s groundbreaking commitment in 1882 to cofound a department for the study of the history of art and a professionalized museum to house the University’s growing art collections. Founded on leading-edge principles that the history of art could be subjected to rigorous, quasi-scientific study, the Museum and department were at the forefront in positioning a collecting museum as a kind of research laboratory for the visual arts—just as they were in uniting the fields of art and archaeology (and formerly architecture as well) under a single intellectual umbrella.

The history of the Museum and what is now the Department of Art and Archaeology is punctuated with many such moments, including its commitment to the study of Asian art, its leadership in medieval studies, and its pioneering work with the history of photography. With the ongoing development of the Lewis Center for the Arts and, now, the construction of the Steven Holl–designed complex underway along Alexander Road, we have new opportunities for innovation, and new questions about how best to do this in what may be the nation’s most compelling hybrid of liberal arts college and research university. Performing that high-wire balancing act while reaffirming the University’s long-standing commitment to leadership in the humanities is no small feat, but once again we are faced with opportunities to chart a path forward that are daunting and exciting. 

This season, the Museum’s galleries once again provide evidence of our dedication to provoking new vantage points on the history of art. Our two major fall exhibitions do this in ways that are individually compelling and yet also gain through each other’s company. New Jersey as Non-Site, curated by the Museum’s Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kelly Baum, affords remarkable insights into what was the seemingly well-trod soil of the American artistic avant-garde of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, identifying New Jersey as being as important to postmodern art-making as New York and Los Angeles. In repositioning New Jersey itself as a laboratory for some of the era’s most advanced artistic experiments, the project is certain to ignite the interest of the art world and of more casual museumgoers alike. 

The Itinerant Languages of Photography, guest curated by Princeton faculty members Eduardo Cadava and Gabriela Nouzeilles, investigates photography as a constantly shifting record of culture, history, and meaning, and does so by exploring the movement of photographs across time and place. Drawing on archives and collections in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and the United States, the project brings together the work of well-known masters and emerging artists, affording even the most committed viewer of photography crucial new insights. Together, these two exhibitions and their companion publications remind us of the power (and necessity) of innovation, of art’s capacity to shape our shared memories and experiences, and of the role of the museum in the continual project of reanimating the art object. I am delighted that Alfred Barr’s legacy endures.

James Christen Steward 
Director