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{{Short description|American curator}}
'''Dorothy Canning Miller''' (] ] — ] ]) was an ] art ] and one of the most influential people in American modern art for more than half of the ].<ref name="PollockNYMag">{{cite web |url= http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/n_9461/ |title= Mama MoMA |author= Lindsay Pollock |work= ] |date= ] ] |quote= Unlike her ], who tended to spend most of his time amid the white-glove set on the ], Miller was most comfortable in the ] casualness ].… Her favorite hangout in the ] was Romany Marie’s Cafe, on ], which served cheap ]n food and beer and had, at the time, the best ]. There she met ], and hung out with ] and even ], the Arctic explorer. “At Marie’s, people didn’t have enough money to get drunk. People just talked and talked and talked,” she said. }}</ref> The first professionally trained curator at the ],<ref name="JeffersChristies">{{cite web |url= http://www.christies.com/pwa_sites/pwa_cta_nov03_ny/specialview.asp?sale=3 |title= Dorothy C. Miller: The discerning eye of the collector-curator |author= Wendy Jeffers |work= ] art auction catalogue |date= November 2003 |quote= Remarkable both for its quality and breadth, the Dorothy C. Miller collection echoes the lively aesthetic debates that took place in and around her ] apartment during the intellectual genesis of ] in the ] and ].… ]… fabricated the mobile ''The Red Ghost'' for the focal point of the ceiling of her apartment. As Miller told the story, Calder arrived with pliers, a suitcase full of wires and various biomorphic shapes which, after mounting a rickety wooden stepladder, he hung from a chandelier finial in her ceiling. }}</ref> she was one of the very few women in her time who held a museum position of such responsibility.<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica">{{cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_9_91/ai_108278515 |title= Dorothy C. Miller 1904-2003 - Front Page - Obituary |author= Rona Roob |work= ] |date= September 2003 |quote= Her respect for the artists she selected is reflected in the catalogues for these shows, which consist principally of statements from the artists themselves. She believed that the artists and their work should speak directly, without any interpretation or explanation from her, and that visitors should form their own opinions. Miller's special qualities were an extraordinary eye, strong convictions and a quiet, gentle courage. Artists and dealers respected and admired her, and many of them became her friends. Her modesty and seriousness of purpose earned her the esteem of the staff with whom she worked. }}</ref>
{{redirect|Dorothy Miller|the Blackfoot activist from Iowa|Dorothy Lonewolf Miller}}
]
'''Dorothy Canning Miller''' (February 6, 1904 – July 11, 2003) was an American art ] and one of the most influential people in American ] for more than half of the 20th century.<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> The first professionally trained curator at the ] (MoMA),<ref name="JeffersChristies"/> she was one of the very few women in her time who held a museum position of such responsibility.<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/>


==Early life and education==
Miller, the daughter of Arthur Barrett Miller and Edith Almena Canning,<ref name="ArchivesMoMA">{{cite web |url= http://moma.org/research/archives/EAD/dcmillerf.html |title= Dorothy C. Miller Papers |work= ] Archives |quote= }}</ref> was born in ] and grew up in ]. After graduating from ] in 1925,<ref name="KimmelmanMiller">{{cite web |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E3DB1E3DF931A25754C0A9659C8B63 |title= Dorothy Miller Is Dead at 99; Discovered American Artists |author= Michael Kimmelman |work= ] |date= ] ] |quote= The ''Americans'' shows began in 1942 with a selection of what were then mostly unknown artists of eclectic styles from across the country. The format was to have a select group of artists, abstract and figurative, each presented in some depth. The slender catalogs had statements by the artists. Typically, Ms. Miller wanted them to speak for themselves rather than presuming to speak for them. She was invariably a step ahead of public taste. }}</ref> she trained with ] of the ], which was then one of the most creative and ambitious museums in the country,<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> and worked there from 1926 to 1929.<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> From 1930 to 1932, she worked at the ], curating a collection of ] art.<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/>
Miller, the daughter of Arthur Barrett Miller and Edith Almena Canning, was born in ] and grew up in ].<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/> After graduating from ] in 1925,<ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> she trained with ] of the ], which was then one of the most creative and ambitious museums in the country,<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> and worked there from 1926 to 1929.<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> From 1930 to 1932, she worked for Mrs. Henry Lang cataloging and researching a collection of ]<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/> which was to be donated to the ].


==Career at MoMA==
==The Museum of Modern Art==
The Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1929, did not yet have its own building in the early ] and was housed in a series of temporary quarters. Miller first came to director ]'s attention in 1933,<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> when she and ]<ref name="KimmelmanMillerCahill">{{cite web |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D81338F937A25756C0A965958260 |title= Art in Review: Dorothy Miller and Holger Cahill Archives of American Art |author= Michael Kimmelman |work= ] |date= ] ] |quote= Unfortunately, their names are no longer familiar to many in the art world who owe them a sizable debt, but ] and Dorothy Miller helped to put American art, especially American modernist art, on the map.… This splendid exhibition, organized by Wendy Jeffers, who is preparing a biography of Miller and Cahill, focuses on their pioneering advocacy in the ] of an impressively wide range of work.… contrary to what many people still believe, American modernism achieved prominence, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Cahill and Miller, well before the ] was formed in the ]. }}</ref> (with whom Miller was living in ]<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> — they married in 1938<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/>) were curating the First Municipal Art Exhibition in space donated by the ].<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> Some of the participating artists wanted to boycott the show after the ] mural '']'' was deliberately destroyed during the construction of the ]. Miller asked Barr to intercede in the controversy, which he did. The Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1929, did not yet have its own building in the early 1930s and was housed in a series of temporary quarters. Miller first came to director ]'s attention in 1933,<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> when she and ]<ref name="KimmelmanMillerCahill"/> (with whom Miller was living in ]<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> — they married in 1938<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/>) were curating the First Municipal Art Exhibition in space donated by the ].<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> Some of the participating artists wanted to boycott the show after the ] mural '']'' was deliberately destroyed during the ]. Miller asked Barr to intercede in the controversy, which he did.


Not long after that she put on her “best summer hat”<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> and went to the Museum to ask him for a job. Barr hired her as his assistant curator in 1934 and over the years she progressed through the ranks, becoming Barr's most trusted ]<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> and, by 1947, curator of the ].<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/> Not long after that she put on her "best summer hat"<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> and went to the Museum to ask him for a job. Barr hired her as his assistant curator in 1934 and over the years she progressed through the ranks, becoming Barr's most trusted ]<ref name="PollockNYMag"/> and, by 1947, curator of the ].<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/>


In 1959, Miller was appointed to the art committee for ],<ref name="ChaseManhattanTime"/> serving with ] (chief designer for ]), Robert Hale (curator of American painting at the ]), ] (director of the ]), Perry Rathbone (director of the ]), and ]
==Exhibitions==
{{Quotation|“Dorothy Miller… played a brilliant role in tracing, at the right time and in the right place, two astonishing decades of American art. She wrote a major history of those incredible years … through a series of living visual events that steered spectators, both sophisticated and naive, through the most uncharted and thrilling seas the New York art world has ever known.”|]|] <ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; }}


In 1968, she was appointed to a commission to choose modern art works for the ] in Albany, NY.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection and Plaza Memorials |date=May 3, 2002 |publisher=Rizzoli International Publications |isbn=0847824551 |page=11}}</ref>
===The ''Americans'' shows===
From the early ] through the early ], Miller organised six contemporary ''Americans'' shows<ref name="RussellNYT">{{cite web |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E6DE163BF936A35751C0A964948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 |title= Art: She Found the New in American Painting |author= John Russell |work= ] |date= ] ] |quote= …on six occasions during the period from 1942 to 1963, Dorothy Miller was curator of an anthology of new American painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. Though much contested at the time, these anthologies gave a first institutional showing in New York to many artists of whom much has been heard since. Miss Miller showed ], ] and ] in 1946, ], ], ] and ] in 1952, ], ], ] and ] in 1956, ], ], ], ] and ] in 1959 and ], ], ], ] and ] in 1963. It would have been difficult to top that list during the years in question. }}</ref><ref name="AmericansEighteenArtists">{{cite web |url= http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/lef/027101.shtml |title= Americans 1942: 18 Artists from 9 States |work= Exhibition catalogue description, AntiQbook }}</ref><ref name="Americans1963ILAB">{{cite web |url= http://www.ilab.org/db/book2059_10295.html |title= Americans 1963 |work= Exhibition catalogue description, ] |quote= }}</ref> which introduced a total of ninety artists to the American museum public.<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> In contrast to the usual large group shows,<ref name="AmericansFifteenCampbell">{{cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n1_v84/ai_17803671 |title= Objects on parade - paintings by Herman Rose |author= Lawrence Campbell |work= ] |date= January 1996 |quote= In contrast with the wide-ranging surveys of American art then shown annually at many museums, this exhibition was intended to display a small number of artists in depth. Miller had ventured far and wide, and in making her selection she ignored what was, in 1952, fashionable taste. }}</ref> in which hundreds of artists are represented by one work each, Miller devised a format in which a larger selection of works by a smaller number of artists were represented in individual galleries.


After her retirement from MoMA in 1969, Miller became a ] and art advisor for ], the ], and the ].<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/><ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> She was an honorary trustee of MoMA from 1984 until her death in 2003 at age 99.
====''Americans 1942: 18 Artists From 9 States''====
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====1946: ''Fourteen Americans''==== ==The ''Americans'' shows==
From the early 1940s through the early 1960s, Miller organised six contemporary ''Americans'' shows<ref name="RussellNYT"/><ref name="AmericansEighteenArtists"/><ref name="Americans1963ILAB"/> which introduced a total of ninety artists to the American museum public.<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> In contrast to the usual large group shows, in which hundreds of artists are represented by one work each, Miller devised a format in which larger selections of works by a smaller number of artists were represented in individual galleries.<ref name="AmericansFifteenCampbell"/> She famously said, "What you try to achieve are climaxes—introduction, surprise, going around the corner and seeing something unexpected, perhaps several climaxes with very dramatic things, then a quiet tapering off with something to let you out alive."<ref>{{cite book|author1=Michelle Elligott with Romy Silver|authorlink1=Modern Women: A Partial History|editor1-last=Butler|editor1-first=Cornelia|editor2-last=Schwartz|editor2-first=Alexandra|title=Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art|date=2010|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art|location=New York|pages=518}}</ref>
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====1952: ''Fifteen Americans''==== ===''Americans 1942: 18 Artists From 9 States''===
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====1956: ''Twelve Americans''==== ===1946: ''Fourteen Americans''===
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====1959: ''Sixteen Americans''==== ===1952: ''Fifteen Americans''===
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====''Americans 1963''==== ===1956: ''Twelve Americans''===
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===''Americans 1963''===
{{Quotation|“If I hadn’t known any artists, I certainly wouldn’t know a damn thing about art. You simply have to know the people and see them working and let them tell you about their pictures.”|Dorothy Canning Miller|] <ref name="PollockNYMag"/> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; }}
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===''The New American Painting''=== ==''The New American Painting''==
On an international scale, Miller's most influential show was ''The New American Painting,''<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/><ref name="NewAmericanTate">{{cite web |url= http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/newamericanpainting/default.shtm |title= The New American Painting 24 February – 22 March 1959 |author= AHB (]) |work= ] |quote= }}</ref> which toured eight ]an countries in 1958 and 1959.<ref name="NewAmericanQuestia">{{cite web |url= http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-new-american-painting-as-shown-in-eight-european-countries-1958-1959-by-.jsp |title= The New American Painting: As Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958-1959 |publisher= Museum of Modern Art |work= ] |quote= }}</ref> This exhibition significantly changed European perceptions of American art,<ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> firmly establishing the importance of contemporary American painting,<ref name="JeffersChristies"/> particularly the American ],<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> for an international audience. On an international scale, Miller's most influential show was ''The New American Painting'',<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/><ref name="NewAmericanTate"/> which toured eight European countries in 1958 and 1959.<ref name="NewAmericanQuestia"/> This exhibition significantly changed European perceptions of ],<ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> firmly establishing the importance of contemporary American painting,<ref name="JeffersChristies"/> particularly the American ],<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/> for an international audience.


''The New American Painting'' tour showcased eighty one paintings by seventeen artists: ''The New American Painting'' tour showcased eighty-one paintings by seventeen artists:
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==Tributes==
{|
* "She was a straight shooter, very respectful of the art and the artists and the museum, something you don't get that much of anymore. The ''Americans'' shows set the tone for my time.&nbsp;... They were exhibitions of what was going on, pointing to the future" – ]<ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/>
| &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; || ] || &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; || ] || &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; || ] || &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; || ]
* "Her eyes were just incredible, smart and very important in the art world. There will never be anyone quite like her again." – ]<ref name="PollockNYMag"/>
|-
* "She brought sparkle and prestige and credibility to American art." – ]<ref name="PollockNYMag"/>
| || ] || || ] || || ] || || ]
* "Miller's career was marked by an uncanny ability to recognize new and innovative artists encompassing many different styles. In a career that spanned more than 60 years, she left many more conservative curators in her wake." – Wendy Jeffers<ref name="JeffersChristies"/>
|-
| || ] || || ] || || ] || || ]
|-
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|-
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|}


==Awards==
Awards and honors in recognition of Dorothy Miller's contributions to museum ]ship<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/><ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/><ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> included:
* 1959: ], honorary ]
* 1982: ], ]
* 1982: ''A Curator's Choice, 1942-63: A Tribute to Dorothy Miller'', Rosa Esman Gallery, New York City.
* 1983: ] governor's award


==Tributes== ==Books==
(This is an incomplete list.)
* “Dorothy Miller… was MoMA’s first curator and director ]’s most trusted ], a ] scenester for several decades, and the woman who did the most for post] American art.… For much of Miller’s tenure, the gallery scene in New York was almost nonexistent. The museum was a lifeline for young artists, and Miller was virtually a modernist den mother… ” —Lindsay Pollock <ref name="PollockNYMag"/>
* 1981: ''The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection''. With ], William Slattery Lieberman, ], and ] ]: Hudson Hills Press. {{ISBN|0-933920-24-5}}.
* 1983: ''Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings''. With Eleanor Price Mather. ]: ]. {{ISBN|0-87413-208-8}}.
* 1984: ''Art at Work: The Chase Manhattan Collection''. With Willard C. Butcher, ], ], and ], the project manager for ].<ref name="SeveringhausDunlapNYT"/> Marshall Lee, ed. ]: ]. {{ISBN|0-525-24272-4}}.
* 1985: ''Art for the Public: The Collection of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey''. With ]. ]: ]. {{ISBN|0-914773-00-3}}.


==References==
* “She was a straight shooter, very respectful of the art and the artists and the museum, something you don't get that much of anymore. The ''Americans'' shows set the tone for my time.… They were exhibitions of what was going on, pointing to the future…” —] <ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/>
{{reflist|refs=


<ref name="PollockNYMag">{{cite web |url= https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/n_9461/ |title= Mama MoMA |author= ] |work= ] |date= November 3, 2003 |quote= Unlike her ], who tended to spend most of his time amid the white-glove set on the ], Miller was most comfortable in the ] casualness ].&nbsp;... Her favorite hangout in the thirties was ]'s Cafe, on ], which served cheap ] and beer and had, at the time, the best ]&nbsp;... 'At Marie's, people didn't have enough money to get drunk. People just talked and talked and talked,' she said. }}</ref>
* “She brought sparkle and prestige and credibility to American art.” —] <ref name="PollockNYMag"/>


<ref name="JeffersChristies">{{cite web |url= http://www.christies.com/pwa_sites/pwa_cta_nov03_ny/specialview.asp?sale=3 |title= Dorothy C. Miller: The discerning eye of the collector-curator |author= Wendy Jeffers |work= ] art auction catalogue |date= November 2003 |quote= Remarkable both for its quality and breadth, the Dorothy C. Miller collection echoes the lively aesthetic debates that took place in and around her ] apartment during the intellectual genesis of ] in the 1930s and 1940s.&nbsp;... ]&nbsp;... fabricated the mobile ''The Red Ghost'' for the focal point of the ceiling of her apartment. As Miller told the story, Calder arrived with pliers, a suitcase full of wires and various biomorphic shapes which, after mounting a rickety wooden stepladder, he hung from a chandelier finial in her ceiling.}}</ref>
* “Her generosity, and her smile, and her eyes. Her eyes were just incredible, smart and very important in the art world. There will never be anyone quite like her again.” —] <ref name="PollockNYMag"/>


<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica">{{cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_9_91/ai_108278515 |title= Dorothy C. Miller 1904-2003 - Front Page - Obituary |author= Rona Roob |work= ] |date= September 2003 }} ]: "Dorothy Miller&nbsp;... played a brilliant role in tracing, at the right time and in the right place, two astonishing decades of American art. She wrote a major history of those incredible years&nbsp;... through a series of living visual events that steered spectators, both sophisticated and naive, through the most uncharted and thrilling seas the New York art world has ever known."</ref>
* “Miller approached painting with a very particular, personal, what I would call a womanly warmth. Her physical presence—the voice was part of it, this very subtle, imperceptible animation. I lived in a very out-of-the-way place in a very out-of-the-way part of the building. Just to visit was an act of generosity on her part. There was no big ego out there to block her vision.” —] <ref name="PollockNYMag"/>


<ref name="ArchivesMoMA">{{cite web |url= http://moma.org/research/archives/EAD/dcmillerf.html |title= Dorothy C. Miller Papers |work= Museum of Modern Art Archives |access-date= 2008-01-25 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071123105906/http://www.moma.org/research/archives/EAD/dcmillerf.html |archive-date= 2007-11-23 |url-status= dead }}</ref>
* “Miller's career was marked by an uncanny ability to recognize new and innovative artists encompassing many different styles. In a career that spanned more than 60 years, she left many more conservative curators in her wake.” —Wendy Jeffers <ref name="JeffersChristies"/>


<ref name="KimmelmanMiller">{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/12/arts/dorothy-miller-is-dead-at-99-discovered-american-artists.html |title= Dorothy Miller Is Dead at 99; Discovered American Artists |author= ] |work= ] |date= July 12, 2003 |quote= The ''Americans'' shows began in 1942 with a selection of what were then mostly unknown artists of eclectic styles from across the country. The format was to have a select group of artists, abstract and figurative, each presented in some depth. The slender catalogs had statements by the artists. Typically, Ms. Miller wanted them to speak for themselves rather than presuming to speak for them. She was invariably a step ahead of public taste. }}</ref>
{{Quotation|“One day in 1942, ] arrived at the museum with an ornately decorated shoe-shine stand that she had discovered on the street, along with the Italian ] who had made it. Miller found it remarkable, and called ] down, who agreed, whereupon they decided to display it in the lobby… Miller always wished ] had purchased the shoe-shine stand.”|Lindsay Pollack|] <ref name="PollockNYMag"/> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; }}


<ref name="KimmelmanMillerCahill">{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/14/arts/art-in-review-157093.html |title= Art in Review: Dorothy Miller and Holger Cahill Archives of American Art |author= ] |work= The New York Times |date= May 14, 1993 |quote= Unfortunately, their names are no longer familiar to many in the art world who owe them a sizable debt, but ] and Dorothy Miller helped to put American art, especially American modernist art, on the map.&nbsp;... contrary to what many people still believe, ] achieved prominence, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Cahill and Miller, well before the ] was formed in the 1940s. }}</ref>
In 1959, Miller was appointed to the art committee for ],<ref name="ChaseManhattanTIME">{{cite web |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895438,00.html |title= Wall Street Treasure |author= |author= '']'' magazine |date= ] ] |quote= }}</ref> serving with ] (chief designer for ]), Robert Hale (curator of American painting at the ]), ] (director of the ]), Perry Rathbone (director of the ]), and ]


<ref name="RussellNYT">{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/05/arts/art-she-found-the-new-in-american-painting.html?pagewanted=1 |title= Art: She Found the New in American Painting |author= John Russell |work= ] |date= February 5, 1982 |authorlink= John Russell (art critic) }}</ref>
After Miller's retirement from MoMA in 1969, she became a ] and art advisor for ], the ], the ], and other institutions.<ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/><ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> She was an honorary trustee of the Museum of Modern Art from 1984 until her death, at age 99, in 2003.


<ref name="AmericansEighteenArtists">{{cite web |url= http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/lef/027101.shtml |title= Americans 1942: 18 Artists from 9 States |work= Exhibition catalogue description, AntiQbook |access-date= 2008-01-25 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110707151402/http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/lef/027101.shtml |archive-date= 2011-07-07 |url-status= dead }}</ref>
Awards and honors in recognition of Dorothy Miller's contributions to museum ]ship<ref name="RoobArtInAmerica"/><ref name="ArchivesMoMA"/><ref name="KimmelmanMiller"/> have included:
* 1959: ], honorary ]
* 1982: ], ]
* 1982: ''A Curator's Choice, 1942-63: A Tribute to Dorothy Miller'', Rosa Esman Gallery, New York City.
* 1983: ] governor's award


<ref name="Americans1963ILAB">{{cite web|url=http://www.ilab.org/db/book2059_10295.html |title=Americans 1963 |work=Exhibition catalogue description, ] }}{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Books==
(This is an incomplete list.)
* 1981: ''The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection.'' With Lee Boltin, William Slattery Lieberman, ], and ] ]: Hudson Hills Press. ISBN 0-93392-024-5.


<ref name="AmericansFifteenCampbell">{{cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n1_v84/ai_17803671 |title= Objects on parade - paintings by Herman Rose |author= Lawrence Campbell |work= ] |date= January 1996 }}</ref>
* 1983: ''Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings.'' With Eleanor Price Mather. ]: ] Press. ISBN 0-87413-208-8.


<ref name="NewAmericanTate">{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/newamericanpainting/default.shtm |title=The New American Painting 24 February – 22 March 1959 |author=(]) |work=] |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121044147/http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/newamericanpainting/default.shtm |archivedate=21 November 2007 }}</ref>
* 1984: ''Art at Work: The Chase Manhattan Collection.'' With Willard C. Butcher, ], ], and ], the project manager for ].<ref name="SeveringhausDunlapNYT">{{cite web |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4D61131F933A15753C1A961948260 |title= J. Walter Severinghaus, 81, Former Architect |author= David W. Dunlap |work= ] |date= ] ] |quote= }}</ref> Marshall Lee, ed. ]: ]. ISBN 0-52524-272-4.


<ref name="NewAmericanQuestia">{{cite web |url= https://www.questia.com/library/book/the-new-american-painting-as-shown-in-eight-european-countries-1958-1959-by-.jsp |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110605082040/http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-new-american-painting-as-shown-in-eight-european-countries-1958-1959-by-.jsp |url-status= dead |archive-date= June 5, 2011 |title= The New American Painting: As Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958–1959 |publisher= Museum of Modern Art }}{{ISBN?}}</ref>
* 1985: ''Art for the Public: The Collection of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.'' With Sam Hunter. ]: ]. ISBN 0-91477-300-3.


<ref name="ChaseManhattanTime">{{cite magazine |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895438,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110204203837/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895438,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= February 4, 2011 |title= Wall Street Treasure |magazine= ] |date= June 30, 1961 }}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}


<ref name="SeveringhausDunlapNYT">{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/20/obituaries/j-walter-severinghaus-81-former-architect.html |title= J. Walter Severinghaus, 81, Former Architect |author= David W. Dunlap |work= ] |date= October 20, 1987 }}</ref>
;Further reading
* {{cite web |url= http://www.nysun.com/article/63061 |title= Notes From a Young Artist |author= ] review of '']: The Art of Writing'' at the ] |work= ] |date= ] ] |quote= The exhibition principally comprises numerous letters or missives that the artist Byars sent to the MoMA curator Dorothy C. Miller… }}


}}


;Further reading
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Dorothy Canning}}
* {{cite web |url= http://www.nysun.com/article/63061 |title= Notes From a Young Artist |author= ] review of '']: The Art of Writing'' at the Museum of Modern Art |work= ] |date= September 20, 2007 |quote= The exhibition principally comprises numerous letters or missives that the artist Byars sent to the MoMA curator Dorothy C. Miller}}


==External links==
*'s collection at the ]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Dorothy Canning}}
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Latest revision as of 17:45, 6 March 2023

American curator "Dorothy Miller" redirects here. For the Blackfoot activist from Iowa, see Dorothy Lonewolf Miller.
Dorothy Canning Miller

Dorothy Canning Miller (February 6, 1904 – July 11, 2003) was an American art curator and one of the most influential people in American modern art for more than half of the 20th century. The first professionally trained curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), she was one of the very few women in her time who held a museum position of such responsibility.

Early life and education

Miller, the daughter of Arthur Barrett Miller and Edith Almena Canning, was born in Hopedale, Massachusetts and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. After graduating from Smith College in 1925, she trained with John Cotton Dana of the Newark Museum, which was then one of the most creative and ambitious museums in the country, and worked there from 1926 to 1929. From 1930 to 1932, she worked for Mrs. Henry Lang cataloging and researching a collection of Native American art which was to be donated to the Montclair Art Museum.

Career at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1929, did not yet have its own building in the early 1930s and was housed in a series of temporary quarters. Miller first came to director Alfred H. Barr, Jr.'s attention in 1933, when she and Holger Cahill (with whom Miller was living in Greenwich Village — they married in 1938) were curating the First Municipal Art Exhibition in space donated by the Rockefeller family. Some of the participating artists wanted to boycott the show after the Diego Rivera mural Man at the Crossroads was deliberately destroyed during the construction of Rockefeller Center. Miller asked Barr to intercede in the controversy, which he did.

Not long after that she put on her "best summer hat" and went to the Museum to ask him for a job. Barr hired her as his assistant curator in 1934 and over the years she progressed through the ranks, becoming Barr's most trusted collaborator and, by 1947, curator of the museum collections.

In 1959, Miller was appointed to the art committee for One Chase Manhattan Plaza, serving with Gordon Bunshaft (chief designer for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill), Robert Hale (curator of American painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), James Johnson Sweeney (director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Perry Rathbone (director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and Alfred H. Barr, Jr.

In 1968, she was appointed to a commission to choose modern art works for the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY.

After her retirement from MoMA in 1969, Miller became a trustee and art advisor for Rockefeller University, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. She was an honorary trustee of MoMA from 1984 until her death in 2003 at age 99.

The Americans shows

From the early 1940s through the early 1960s, Miller organised six contemporary Americans shows which introduced a total of ninety artists to the American museum public. In contrast to the usual large group shows, in which hundreds of artists are represented by one work each, Miller devised a format in which larger selections of works by a smaller number of artists were represented in individual galleries. She famously said, "What you try to achieve are climaxes—introduction, surprise, going around the corner and seeing something unexpected, perhaps several climaxes with very dramatic things, then a quiet tapering off with something to let you out alive."

Americans 1942: 18 Artists From 9 States

1946: Fourteen Americans

1952: Fifteen Americans

1956: Twelve Americans

1959: Sixteen Americans

Americans 1963

The New American Painting

On an international scale, Miller's most influential show was The New American Painting, which toured eight European countries in 1958 and 1959. This exhibition significantly changed European perceptions of American art, firmly establishing the importance of contemporary American painting, particularly the American abstract expressionists, for an international audience.

The New American Painting tour showcased eighty-one paintings by seventeen artists:

Tributes

  • "She was a straight shooter, very respectful of the art and the artists and the museum, something you don't get that much of anymore. The Americans shows set the tone for my time. ... They were exhibitions of what was going on, pointing to the future" – Frank Stella
  • "Her eyes were just incredible, smart and very important in the art world. There will never be anyone quite like her again." – Ellsworth Kelly
  • "She brought sparkle and prestige and credibility to American art." – James Rosenquist
  • "Miller's career was marked by an uncanny ability to recognize new and innovative artists encompassing many different styles. In a career that spanned more than 60 years, she left many more conservative curators in her wake." – Wendy Jeffers

Awards

Awards and honors in recognition of Dorothy Miller's contributions to museum connoisseurship included:

Books

(This is an incomplete list.)

References

  1. ^ Lindsay Pollock (November 3, 2003). "Mama MoMA". New York. Unlike her mentor, who tended to spend most of his time amid the white-glove set on the Upper East Side, Miller was most comfortable in the bohemian casualness downtown. ... Her favorite hangout in the thirties was Romany Marie's Cafe, on 8th Street, which served cheap Romanian food and beer and had, at the time, the best salon ... 'At Marie's, people didn't have enough money to get drunk. People just talked and talked and talked,' she said.
  2. ^ Wendy Jeffers (November 2003). "Dorothy C. Miller: The discerning eye of the collector-curator". Christie's art auction catalogue. Remarkable both for its quality and breadth, the Dorothy C. Miller collection echoes the lively aesthetic debates that took place in and around her Greenwich Village apartment during the intellectual genesis of Abstract Expressionist art in the 1930s and 1940s. ... Alexander Calder ... fabricated the mobile The Red Ghost for the focal point of the ceiling of her apartment. As Miller told the story, Calder arrived with pliers, a suitcase full of wires and various biomorphic shapes which, after mounting a rickety wooden stepladder, he hung from a chandelier finial in her ceiling.
  3. ^ Rona Roob (September 2003). "Dorothy C. Miller 1904-2003 - Front Page - Obituary". Art in America. Robert Rosenblum: "Dorothy Miller ... played a brilliant role in tracing, at the right time and in the right place, two astonishing decades of American art. She wrote a major history of those incredible years ... through a series of living visual events that steered spectators, both sophisticated and naive, through the most uncharted and thrilling seas the New York art world has ever known."
  4. ^ "Dorothy C. Miller Papers". Museum of Modern Art Archives. Archived from the original on 2007-11-23. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  5. ^ Michael Kimmelman (July 12, 2003). "Dorothy Miller Is Dead at 99; Discovered American Artists". The New York Times. The Americans shows began in 1942 with a selection of what were then mostly unknown artists of eclectic styles from across the country. The format was to have a select group of artists, abstract and figurative, each presented in some depth. The slender catalogs had statements by the artists. Typically, Ms. Miller wanted them to speak for themselves rather than presuming to speak for them. She was invariably a step ahead of public taste.
  6. Michael Kimmelman (May 14, 1993). "Art in Review: Dorothy Miller and Holger Cahill Archives of American Art". The New York Times. Unfortunately, their names are no longer familiar to many in the art world who owe them a sizable debt, but Holger Cahill and Dorothy Miller helped to put American art, especially American modernist art, on the map. ... contrary to what many people still believe, American modernism achieved prominence, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Cahill and Miller, well before the New York School was formed in the 1940s.
  7. "Wall Street Treasure". Time. June 30, 1961. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011.
  8. The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection and Plaza Memorials. Rizzoli International Publications. May 3, 2002. p. 11. ISBN 0847824551.
  9. John Russell (February 5, 1982). "Art: She Found the New in American Painting". The New York Times.
  10. "Americans 1942: 18 Artists from 9 States". Exhibition catalogue description, AntiQbook. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  11. "Americans 1963". Exhibition catalogue description, International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.
  12. Lawrence Campbell (January 1996). "Objects on parade - paintings by Herman Rose". Art in America.
  13. Michelle Elligott with Romy Silver (2010). Butler, Cornelia; Schwartz, Alexandra (eds.). Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 518.
  14. (AHB). "The New American Painting 24 February – 22 March 1959". Tate Britain. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007.
  15. "The New American Painting: As Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958–1959". Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011.
  16. David W. Dunlap (October 20, 1987). "J. Walter Severinghaus, 81, Former Architect". The New York Times.
Further reading

External links

Categories: