Best known for co-founding New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet with George Balanchine, Lincoln Kirstein, a writer, critic, curator, impresario, and taste-maker, was also a key figure in MoMA’s early history. With his prescient belief in the role of dance within the museum, his championing of figuration in the face of prevailing abstraction, and his position at the center of a New York network of queer artists, intimates, and collaborators, Kirstein’s impact remains profoundly resonant today.
Associate Curator Samantha Friedman will present MoMA’s new exhibition, which brings together nearly 300 rarely seen artworks. She will discuss Kirstein’s influence on the Museum’s collecting, exhibition, and publication history, as well as intimate interactions with numerous League artists including Jared French and Paul Cadmus.
Lincoln Kirstein’s Modern
March 17–June 15, 2019
The Museum of Modern Art