Main entry:

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), current owner, host institution, publisher.

Title & Author:

The shape of things : photographs from Robert B. Menschel / Quentin Bajac ; with an essay by Sarah Hermanson Meister.

Publication:

New York : The Museum of Modern Art [2016]
©2016

Description:

152 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 28 cm

Notes:
Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name held October 29, 2016-May 7, 2017 at the Museum of Modern Art.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 146-149) and index.
Print and presentation : trends in collecting and displaying photographs during John Szarkowski's tenure at the Museum of Modern Art / Sarah Hermanson Meister -- Essays and plates / Quentin Bajac.

Summary:

"The Shape of Things: Photographs from Robert B. Menschel presents an engaging survey of The Museum of Modern Art's multifaceted collection of photography. Borrowing its title from the eponymous work by Carrie Mae Weems, the exhibition is drawn entirely from works acquired over the past 40 years with the support of Robert B. Menschel, telling the story of photography from its beginnings. Covering more than 150 years of photography--from an 1843 view of Paris by William Henry Fox Talbot, the English father of photography, to An-My Lê's depictions of US military exercises in preparation for war in Iraq and Afghanistan--the exhibition underscores an equal attention to the past and the present, and a strong belief that they complement each other; and that each generation reinvents photography. Since Menschel joined the Committee on Photography at MoMA in 1977, over 500 works have entered the collection through his support, including 162 photographs he recently donated from his personal collection"--Provided by publisher.
"This survey explores 60 remarkable photographs from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, all acquired with the support of Robert B. Menschel and meticulously selected for the book by the museum's chief curator of photography, Quentin Bajac. Ranging from the contemporary artist Andreas Gursky to William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the medium's founding figures, these works collectively tell the story of photography from its beginnings, but upend and newly illuminate that story through their arrangement in reverse chronological order. Each image is the subject of a brief, elegant text. The book borrows its title from a work by Carrie Mae Weems, one of the many great photographs that Menschel has contributed to the collection."--Artbook& website (viewed November 14, 2016)

ISBN:

9781633450226 (hardcover)
1633450228 (hardcover)

Subject:

Menschel, Robert Photograph collections Exhibitions.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) Photograph collections Exhibitions.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
Photography History 20th century Exhibitions.
Photograph collections New York (State) New York Exhibitions.
Photographie Histoire 20e siècle Expositions.
Collections de photographies New York (État) New York Expositions.
Photography.
Photograph collections
New York (State) New York
1840-2005

Form/genre:

Exhibition catalogs.
exhibition catalogs.
History.
Catalogues d'exposition.

Added entries:

Menschel, Robert, museum trustee.
Bajac, Quentin, author.
Meister, Sarah Hermanson, writer of supplementary texual content.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), host institution.

Photographs from Robert B. Menschel

Holdings:

Location: Library main 293779
Call No.: BIB 238953
Status: Available