Background
Alice Goldfarb Marquis was born on March 30, 1930 in Munich, Germany. She was the daughter of Erwin and Emmy Goldfarb. Her family escaped the Nazis, arriving in New York in 1938.
(Why another book on Duchamp? Because of all the previous ...)
Why another book on Duchamp? Because of all the previous books on Duchamp. Arguably the most influential artist of the 20th century, Duchamp, the son of a successful notary, was also a shrewd manager of his image and interests--so much so that many of those who have written about him have been dazzled by his self-created persona when trying to assess his elusive legacy and equally elusive character. Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare is not the first full-length biography of Duchamp, but it is the first to present him in all his human contradictions and to take a refreshingly objective look at his real contribution to modern art. The well-known facts are beautifully explored here: Duchamp's myriad personal relations (with family, lovers, collectors, and artists ranging from Man Ray, Picabia, and Breton to the Stettheimer sisters and the Arensbergs); the creation of major works such as the "readymades" and the "Large Glass"; his passion for chess and presumed abandonment of painting. But beyond this, author Alice Goldfarb Marquis looks past the diffident, humorous mask that Duchamp wore with friend and acquaintance alike, to explore the passions and insecurities that motivated many of his artistic and personal evolutions. She separates the artist from the con artist, to determine just how profound an influence Duchamp has really been. Based on numerous unpublished sources and first-hand interviews, Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare stands as a groundbreaking contribution to the ever-burgeoning field of Duchamp studies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0878466444/?tag=2022091-20
1981
(Dust jacket notes: "On May 10, 1939, when the museum of M...)
Dust jacket notes: "On May 10, 1939, when the museum of Modern Art celebrated the opening of its handsome new home on Manhattan's West Fifty-third Street, it signaled the triumph of modern art and its foremost missionary and defender, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of that opening, Alice Goldfarb Marquis offers a superlatively entertaining account of MOMA's first director and guiding genius, who transformed a three-room exhibition gallery into a world-famous museum -- and in the process became perhaps the single most powerful influence in the creation of today's art establishment. Handpicked by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller to head a fledgling museum dedicated to the controversial art of the twentieth century, Alfred Barr seemed an unlikely choice. The frail, bespectacled art professor from Wellesley, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was virtually unknown, had no administrative experience, and could hardly be expected to deal successfully in the rapacious, tightly interconnected arena of the international art market. But young Barr proved astonishingly capable, quickly establishing a network of contacts among artists, dealers, influential critics, wealthy patrons, and potential donors. Though limited by a minuscule buying budget, Barr had an unfailing eye for excellence and an unexpected talent for haggling, enabling him to acquire for MOMA the world's finest collection of modern art -- a catalog of masterpieces now valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Mondrian, Rousseau, Braque, Klee, Rodin, Moore, Giacometti, Arp, Picasso, Rothko, Pollock -- Barr's wide-ranging taste encompassed them all. And his carefully planned exhibitions and explanatory notes made them understandable to millions of MOMA's visitors. Nor was Barr's interest limited to the 'fine arts.' Under his direction the museum brought aesthetic standards to the materials of everyday life...."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809244047/?tag=2022091-20
1989
(After forty years of subsidy and billions of dollars spen...)
After forty years of subsidy and billions of dollars spent, American arts institutions are no more secure financially than before. Behind the headlines about controversial grants to the arts abides a realm of conservatism, bureaucracy, and jostling special interests, Alice Goldfarb Marquis maintains. With well-established, mainstream institutions capturing the bulk of government subsidies, artistic repertoires are reaching ever further into the past while truly innovative artists languish on the sidelines. Art Lessons is a fresh look at how Americans fund the arts - and why - by a major cultural historian. Packed with anecdotes about the creation of such leading cultural institutions as Lincoln Center, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the American Film Institute, and filled with stories about politicians, artists, philanthropists, and NEA chairs, the book offers a behind-the-scenes look at our cultural elite: the early battles over whether to allow affluent Jews to be part of the fund-raising establishment ... the controversies over the influence of popular artists such as Leonard Bernstein ("Nobody liked him except the public," carped one critic) ... the monumental mistakes made in the building of Washington's Kennedy Center, which have necessitated repeated federal bailouts ... and much more. From John Kennedy's determination to bolster America's arts as part of his Cold War strategy against the Soviets, to Richard Nixon's support of the NEA's greatest expansion, to Ronald Reagan's abortive efforts to slash arts funding when Republican arts patrons and corporate funders objected, the book is filled with surprises.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465004377/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(In the years of his greatest dominance, Clement Greenberg...)
In the years of his greatest dominance, Clement Greenberg almost single-handedly established Jackson Pollock and the New York School at the center of the American art world. His work set the tone for art criticism for half a century to come. This biography, based on unpublished and previously unavailable documents, interviews and archives, presents a riveting story of imagination and grandiosity, of vision and tragic excess. With clarity and insight, Alice Goldfarb Marquis, author of the widely acclaimed Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare (which the Washington Times called "the one indispensable Duchamp companion") and Art Lessons (named best nonfiction book of the year by the San Diego Book Awards), explores Greenberg's complex relations with numerous friends and lovers, including Pollock, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler and Harold Rosenberg. It also recreates the heady art scene in America from the 1940s through the 1980s, detailing the ways in which a generation of critics, with Greenberg at the helm, used personal conviction and innate notions of taste to set the course of modern art. Greenberg remains an indispensable reference in any discussion of art criticism, and Art Czar is the first biography to provide a complete, evenhanded portrait of the man, his work and his times.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0878467017/?tag=2022091-20
2006
(Brushstroke! reveals the secret behind a cache of Old Mas...)
Brushstroke! reveals the secret behind a cache of Old Masters hidden since World War II on display in New York's Museum of the New. Marquis tells a tale which shows that what you see in art is not always what you get.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615988954/?tag=2022091-20
2014
historian journalist publisher researcher writer
Alice Goldfarb Marquis was born on March 30, 1930 in Munich, Germany. She was the daughter of Erwin and Emmy Goldfarb. Her family escaped the Nazis, arriving in New York in 1938.
Marquis attended Hunter High School. She received her bachelor's degree in 1966 and her master's degree in Art History in 1969 from San Diego State University. She also earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in History from the University California in San Diego in 1978.
Marquis started her career as a freelance writer, living in Europe, while her husband worked as a journalist at Stars and Stripes. They later owned their own weekly newspaper about 15 miles south of San Francisco, where Marquis worked as an editor till 1959, until they decided to sell their company and travel.
Marquis and her husband traveled the world, including the Middle East, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and India for two years. At last they moved to San Diego in 1961 where they co-owned three biweekly papers of the Star News Publications with another couple. That year she also started her studying. She graduated in 1966 and taught journalism and photography at a local high school for two years.
At that time Marquis also started writing a variety of book and cultural reviews for the newspapers she co-owned. The pieces were published under different pseudonyms to give the impression of a large staff, she wrote in her Web site biography.
The couple sold their newspapers and ended their marriage in the early 1970s. After that, Marquis worked as an instructor at University California in San Diego till 1982. Since then, she was an independent writer and journalist, based in California.
(Dust jacket notes: "On May 10, 1939, when the museum of M...)
1989(In the years of his greatest dominance, Clement Greenberg...)
2006(Brushstroke! reveals the secret behind a cache of Old Mas...)
2014(After forty years of subsidy and billions of dollars spen...)
1995(Why another book on Duchamp? Because of all the previous ...)
1981(Book by Marquis, Alice Goldfarb)
1991Marquis was a member of American History Association, American Culture Association and Athenaeum Music and Art Library Association.
Friends and colleagues described her as a person of verve and style who had a wonderful sense of humor and a zest for life.
Marquis married Lowell Blankfort on June 26, 1949. They got divorced on March 1973. The couple had 1 child, John. A short marriage to her next husband Raoul Marquis ended in 1976.