The Société anonyme

the long version

"This illustrated book highlights the unique history of the Societe Anonyme, Inc., an organization founded in 1920 by the artists Katherine S. Dreier (1877-1952), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), and Man Ray (1890-1976). As America's first "experimental museum" for modern art, the Societe Anonyme provided a means for artists, rather than historians, to chronicle the rise of modernism. Led by Dreier and Duchamp, the group presented to the public a variety of innovative programs, publications, and exhibitions and eventually assembled a collection of more than one thousand artworks." "With new archival information, including personal correspondence between Dreier and the artists whose work she assembled, a host of previously unpublished images, and essays by leading scholars, this book is essential to our understanding of the reception and interpretation of modernism in America."--Jacket.