Katherine S. Dreier and Socie?te? Anonyme. Another History of Modernism

Abstract

Before the inauguration in 1929 of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), there had already been another Museum of Modern Art. This museum was called Socie?te? Anonyme-Museum of Modern Art 1920. The year -1920- was added as an indication after 1929 to highlight the starting date of a story that had not to be misunderstood. Since then and until 1950, the Socie?te? Anonyme became an essential historical and cultural reference for American and International Art. The birth of the MoMA itself had many relations with this small society of artists. Within a few years the Socie?te? Anonyme also collected an extraordinary compilation of works that later –between 1940s and 1950s– became the fund of the most signi cant art collections of the American museums.This essay examines some of the aspects that typify the history and function of the Socie?te? Anonyme in New York in 1920, in which Katherine S.Dreier (1877-1952), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and Man Ray (1890-1976) started actually this radical experiment on the 29th of April.