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A Pioneer in the Collecting O F Modem Art, Mary Quinn Sullivan Became an Honorary Trustee for Came and Who Instilled in Her a Belief That Famed Armory Show

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A Pioneer in the Collecting O F Modem Art, Mary Quinn Sullivan Became an Honorary Trustee for Came and Who Instilled in Her a Belief That Famed Armory Show GIFTS OF THE GAMBOLIERS generation of American artists into the lifelong friendship defined by a growing collection, alongside drawings by Modi­ interest in modern art and the urgent need gliani and prints by Matisse and Henri de to present this new art to the public. Upon Toulouse-Lautrec, to mention only a few her return to the United States, Quinn of the European highlights. If collecting taught art classes at the DeWitt Clinton contemporary art was deemed “one of our High School in New York for several years, greatest sports” by Peat, surely Sullivan and for a time lived with the Dreier family served as the Gamboliers’ team captain. in Brooklyn. Sullivan’s life was devoted to art from In 1909 she once again traveled to Eu­ an early age. Born in Indianapolis in 1877, rope, this time to England, where she en­ the eldest of eight children o f the farming rolled at the Slade School of Drawing and family of Thomas and Anne Quinn, Mary Painting for the academic term 1909-10. Josephine Quinn attended Shortridge She attended lectures on the history of High School, one of the country’s most in­ art given by the influential art historian, novative public schools of its day. Her in­ art critic, and painter Roger Fry, who was terest in art was developed in classes taught at that time organizing an exhibition at by Roda Selleck, the head of Shortridge’s the Grafton Galleries in London that is art department, whose assistant Quinn be­ now seen as a precursor to New York’s A pioneer in the collecting o f modem art, Mary Quinn Sullivan became an honorary trustee for came and who instilled in her a belief that famed Armory Show. Works by Edouard life of the Museum of Modern Art in 1935. art should have a presence in daily life. Manet, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, With Selleck’s assistance Quinn re­ Pablo Picasso, and Matisse, among others, employees, and goings-on at the Art Insti­ ceived a scholarship to attend Brooklyn’s defined a trajectory in the development tute were often published in the company Pratt Institute in 1899 in order to con­ o f French modernism over the previous magazine, The Ayrogram. tinue her education as an artist. There thirty years that caused “shrieks o f misun­ The purchases remained the property she met a fellow student Katherine derstanding” not only in London but also o f the Gamboliers for three years and were Dreier, who would establish the Societe in America. Fry continuously emphasized then offered as gifts to the museum. Before Anonymne in 1920, a group devoted to line and form in art over realistic and nat­ the three-year period was over, works of promoting modern art. The group’s collec­ uralistic tendencies. Presaging the Gambo­ art purchased with the Gambolier Fund tion of art, assembled with the assistance liers’ experiment almost two decades later, were often loaned to the museum to of the artist Marcel Duchamp, would Fry helped form London’s Contemporary supplement exhibitions. If items were later be presented to Yale University in 1941, Art Society in 1909 and 1910, a society refused by the museum, they would be becoming the core collection of the Yale for the acquisition of modern works o f art. distributed through a lottery to members University Art Gallery. Dreier’s financial Fry’s command of the history o f art, his of the group. independence could not be matched by sympathy for modernism, and his efforts The museum’s director, Peat, acknowl­ her friend’s, but when Quinn received an in support o f it would surely have made a edged the group’s efforts on many oc­ assignment by New York’s Board of Educa­ considerable impact on Quinn. casions. In 1931 at the annual meeting tion to observe art schools abroad, they set Quinn joined the faculty of the Pratt marking the group’s fourth anniversary off to take the “grand tour” of Europe for Institute in fall 1910 as instructor in draw­ he wrote: “Already many paintings, prints three months beginning in October 1902. ing and design in the School o f Household and drawings have been acquired by The One can only imagine the animated Science and Arts where she taught until Gamboliers which will make important discussions the two might have had as 1917, eventually becoming supervisor of additions to the museum’s collections and they visited important sites and museums design. Although her thoughts concern­ we assume that as the organization grows, in France and Italy. Theirs would be a ing the debates spawned in February and it will be even more effective in its mission of bringing to Indianapolis a most vital Opposite: French artist Henri Matisse’s 1927 lithograph Seated Dancer, Left Leg Folded collection of contemporary art.” Astute Under, from the series Dix Danseuses (Ten Dancers). Matisse, one of the best-known artists purchasing brought the work of a younger o f the twentieth century, died o f a heart attack in 1954. 12 | TRACES | Winter 2009.
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