Quentin Bajac

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art holds a special place in the hearts of many, whether artists or museumgoers, New Yorkers or visitors from around the world. It is a respite from the crowds and skyscrapers that surround it, as well as a place to commune with major works of modern and contemporary art.

Through essays and archival images, this lavishly illustrated volume pays tribute to the Sculpture Garden's beauty and remarkable history over the past 80 years. Oasis in the City: The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at The Museum of Modern Art features the sculptures that have become synonymous with the space, Philip Johnson's elegant and enduring design, and the Garden's diverse array of activities and events. From its inception in 1939, the Sculpture Garden—which launched the very concept of the garden as outdoor gallery for changing installations—has hosted exhibitions of sculpture by Alexander Calder, structures by Buckminster Fuller and Marcel Breuer, performances by Yayoi Kusama, and served as an important venue for music, dance, social gatherings and even protest.

Along with offering a behind-the-scenes history, this unique publication debuts a portfolio of images of the Sculpture Garden by eight prominent contemporary artists and photographers: Richard Pare, Candida Höfer, Tina Barney, Thomas Struth, Carrie Mae Weems, James Welling, Vera Lutter and Hiroshi Sugimoto. These projects demonstrate that while the outdoor gallery is constantly changing with the seasons, new programming, and rotations of art on display, it continues to be an inspiration to artists and the broader public alike.

Quentin Bajac is former Chief Curator of the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is currently the director of the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.

Peter Reed is Senior Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Romy Silver-Kohn is Research Assistant at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Ann Temkin is Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Featuring paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, video, film, architecture and design—from Paul Cézanne’s iconic painting "The Bather" (c. 1885) to a set of the 176 digital emoji we use on our mobile phones every day—the catalogue underscores the diversity and relevance of MoMA’s collection while providing a fresh perspective on the modern canon.

The book is organized chronologically according to the year each artwork entered the Museum’s collection. Short texts by curators accompany the plates, giving an overview of each work’s significance as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the process by which MoMA acquired it. An essay by the Museum’s director, Glenn D. Lowry, outlines the history of the institution and puts the collection in context, and a concise chronology charts the Museum’s growth. A departure from the usual “highlights” book, this unique catalog presents MoMA’s extraordinary collection from a new angle, telling the story of modern art through the growth of an institution that embraced an aesthetic revolution in the early 20th century and evolved along with it into the 21st.

Illustrated with over 400 reproductions, the book charts the photographic medium from early examples in the 1840s through its participation in international art movements such as Pictorialism and modernism. An in-depth introduction is followed by eight chapters of full-color plates, each introduced by a short essay, offering a fresh lens through which to appreciate works of exceptional significance, surprise and influence, and encouraging creative new readings. Masterworks by photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton, Nadar, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Henry Fox Talbot, August Sander, Edward Steichen and Carleton Watkins appear alongside lesser-known gems and vernacular forms of photography.

Quentin Bajac is former Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Geoffrey Batchen is Professor of Art History, Classics, and Religious Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Michel Frizot is former Professor at the Ècole du Louvre, Paris, and editor of A New History of Photography (1998).

Lucy Gallun is Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Sarah Hermanson Meister is Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of of Modern Art, New York.

Roxana Marcoci is Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Shelley Rice is Arts Professor at New York University.

Bonnie Yochelson is an independent curator and art historian based in New York.

One of the most influential photographers of our time, Stephen Shore has often been categorized as one of a group of artists of the 1970s who captured American popular culture in straightforward, unglamorous color images. While this is true, it is only part of the story: Shore has worked with many forms of photography, switching from cheap automatic cameras to large format in the 1970s, pioneering the use of color film before returning to black and white in the 1990s, and, in the 2000s, taking up the opportunities offered by digital photography, digital printing and social media.

Published to accompany the first comprehensive survey of Stephen Shore’s work in the US, this catalog reflects the full range of his contribution, including the gelatin silver prints he made as a teenager (and sold to The Museum of Modern Art); his photographs of the scene at Andy Warhol’s Factory, in New York; the color images he made during cross-country road trips in the 1970s; his recent explorations of Israel, the West Bank and Ukraine; and his current work on digital platforms, including Instagram.

This book offers a fresh, kaleidoscopic vision of the artist’s extensive career, presenting more than 400 reproductions arranged in a thematic framework, each grouping accompanied by a short but wide-ranging essay. This unique encyclopedia-style format makes visible the artist’s versatility of technique and the diversity of his output, reflecting his singular vision and uncompromising pursuit of photography’s possibilities.

Stephen Shore (born 1947) was the first living photographer to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz (40 years earlier). He has also had solo shows at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; George Eastman House, Rochester; Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1982 he has been the director of the Photography Program at Bard College, New York, where he is the Susan Weber Professor in the Arts.

Quentin Bajac is former Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

David Campany is an artist, writer and Reader in Photography at the University of Westminster, London.

Kristen Gaylord is Assistant Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum, Texas.

Martino Stierli is the Philip Johnson Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Swiss National Science Foundation Professor at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Art History.

Quentin Bajac is The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Sarah Hermanson Meister is a Curator in the Department of Photography at MoMA, New York.

The history of photography has been told many times, but never before through the incomparable collection of photographs at The Museum of Modern Art. As the second volume in a set of three books that together present a new and comprehensive history of photography through works from MoMA’s collection, this publication charts the medium during the height of the modernist period, from 1920 to 1960.

Only one other volume--Looking at Photographs, published in 1973--highlights the photographic treasures of MoMA’s collection; neither Beaumont Newhall’s classic History of Photography nor John Szarkowski’s Photography Until Now used the Museum collection as a springboard to approach photography’s distinctive history. The Museum’s significant role in the development of this history, and in the construction of a canon that championed photography as an art form (but also eclipsed certain alternative or unfamiliar practices) requires a reconsidered history for the 21st century. This publication offers a fresh critical lens through which to appreciate works of exceptional significance, surprise and influence, encouraging creative new readings.

The book begins with an in-depth introduction followed by eight chapters of full-color plates, each introduced by a short essay. Masterworks by photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray and Aleksander Rodchenko appear alongside lesser-known gems, and diverse notions of modernism enrich classic interpretations, so that the beautiful fictions and messy realities of photography are complicated, refreshed and, above all, enjoyed.

Quentin Bajac is The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Lucy Gallun is Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at MoMA.

Roxana Marcoci is Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at MoMA.

Sarah Hermanson Meister is Curator in the Department of Photography at MoMA.

Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist, visual artist and designer.

Mitra Abbaspour is an art historian and curator, formerly Associate Curator in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art.

Lee Ann Daffner is Conservator of Photographs at The Museum of Modern Art.

Maria Morris Hambourg is the founding curator of the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Quentin Bajac is The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art.

Jim Coddington has served as The Agnes Gund Chief Conservator at The Museum of Modern Art since 2002.

Constance McCabe is Head of the Photograph Conservation Department at The National Gallery of Art.

Matthew S. Witovsky is the Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator, Department of Photography, at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Quentin Bajac is former Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

David Campany is an artist, writer and reader in photography at the University of Westminster, London.

Noam M. Elcott is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, New York.

Lucy Gallun is Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Roxana Marconi is Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Sarah Hermanson Meister is Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Eva Respini is Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and a former Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Robert Slifkin is Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.