Photograph of Grace Hartigan, mid-1950s, by Walt Silver. Dorothy C. Miller Papers, I.9.f, from the Museum of Modern Art Archives.
Esopus 12 (Spring 2009)
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Modern Artifacts 6: States of Grace
Introduction by Michelle Elligott
“The Museum of Modern Art played a significant role in Hartigan’s early career. Alfred H. Barr, Jr. founding director of MoMA, and curator Dorothy Miller visited Hartigan’s third solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1953 and acquired for the institution the second painting that Hartigan ever sold: Persian Jacket (1952).”—Michelle Elligott
This latest offering from the MoMA Archives features materials relating to the late painter Grace Hartigan. Reproduced in their original black and white, they document the life of an artist known for her use of vivid, explosive color.
Michelle Elligott is the Rona Roob Senior Museum Archivist at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Elligott coedited Art in Our Time: A Chronicle of the Museum of Modern Art, cocurated MoMA’s “1969” exhibition, and has published and lectured widely.