Author Description

The book is published to accompany the second of three cycles of exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art. The first cycle, ModernStarts, explored the period from 1880 to 1920; Making Choices considers the years between 1920 and 1960; the third cycle, Open Ends, will concentrate on art since 1960. More than 300 works are reproduced in Making Choices, representing all of the Museum's curatorial departments: architecture and design, drawings, film and video, painting and sculpture, photography, and prints and illustrated books. By selecting four years from a span of four decades, the authors were able for each year to delve deeply into the Museum's rich collection, assembling many fascinating but unfamiliar works along with justly famous masterpieces. The resulting groupings and juxtapositions reflect the simultaneous convergence and divergence of a wide range of creative endeavors at any one moment. For example: Christina's World, an outstanding example of Andrew Wyeth's realist dissent from modernist innovation, and Number 1, 1948, Jackson Pollock's landmark experiment in abstraction, were both painted in 1948. In this lively book, they face each other on opposite pages, challenging the reader to grapple with the vital multiplicity of modern art.