Modern Art Museums and the Modern Brand (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Modern Art Museums and the Modern Brand
Author: Sandra Zalman
Abstract: This will be a new special topics course taught in the School of Art at the University of Houston, aimed toward art and art history majors, as well as others interested in cultural history and museum studies.
Year: 2021
Audience: Undergraduate

Unpacking the MoMA Myth: Modernism under Revision (Article)
Title: Unpacking the MoMA Myth: Modernism under Revision
Author: Sandra Zalman
Abstract: This article unpacks certain origin myths about the Museum of Modern Art and its influence on the history of modernism. By analyzing the legacy of Alfred Barr’s Chart of Cubism and Abstract Art alongside the growth and display of the museum’s collection, this article argues that MoMA’s 1964 expansion as a critical turning point in the history of the institution. When MoMA turned away from the contemporary to showcase its permanent collections as a history of modern art, it reified its once ardent experimentalism and created a more concrete narrative of modern art than ever before. This article seeks to recover MoMA’s commitment to revisionism, complicate its origin myths (including Barr’s chart), and argues that offering a provisional modernism could be MoMA’s most radical legacy.
Year: 2020
Format: Journal
Publisher: Modernism and Modernity

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