History of the Renaissance Society: The First Seventy-five Years

"What concerns me alone I only think, what concerns my friends I tell them, what can be of interest to only a limited public I write, and what the world ought to know is printed?" Georg Christoph Lichtenberg This major book commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Renaissance Society. The contents of the book were culled from all the Society's current records, its historical documents in the collection of The Archives of American Art of The Smithsonian Institution, and the permanent collections of this country's most renowned public museums. Several essays offer detailed and engaging histories of the Society and its context. John Vinci presents a personal rumination on the exhibition of Mies van der Rohe, and Anne Rorimer offers a typically brilliant account of Daniel Buren's in situ work and its later repercussions. Many of the book's 104 illustrations document what were the first U.S. museum exhibitions for some of the 20th century's most renowned artists such as Calder, Leger, Moholy-Nagy, van der Rohe, Orozco, Matta, Kosuth, Bourgeois, Pashke, and Mike Kelley. With documentation of every known exhibition, artist, publication and special event at The Renaissance Society from its founding in 1915 through 1990, this publication is a vital reference for contemporary art and exhibition in the 20th century.