A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520257009)

This engrossing memoir brings to vivid life the behind-the-scenes struggles of Marcia Tucker, the first woman to be hired as a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. Tucker came of age in the 1960s, and this spirited account of her life draws the reader directly into the burgeoning feminist movement and the excitement of the New York art world during that time. Her own new ways of thinking led her to take principled stands that have changed the way art museums consider contemporary art. As curator of painting and sculpture at the Whitney, she organized major exhibitions of the work of Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, and Richard Tuttle, among others. As founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, she organized and curated groundbreaking exhibitions that often focused on the nexus of art and politics. The book highlights Tucker's commitment to forging a new system when the prevailing one proved too narrow for her expansive vision.

Author: Marcia Tucker
ISBN-10: 0520257006
ISBN-13: 9780520257009
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 10/22/2008
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.16lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.32w x 0.82d

Review Citation(s):
Village Voice 10/22/2008 pg. 14
Library Journal 10/06/2008