Société Anonyme, Inc. was an art organization founded in 1920 by Katherine Dreier,

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

and

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

. The society sponsored lectures, concerts, publications, and exhibitions of modern art, including the International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926. Between 1920 and 1940 they held 80 exhibitions showing mostly

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

and abstract art. Their galleries in their "first modest headquarters" were at 19 East 47th Street.

picked the name " Société Anonyme", having seen it in French magazines, but knowing little French, assumed it referred to some anonymous society. It actually means "Corporation", but Duchamp thought it a fine name and later while the legal paperwork was being written up the "Inc." was added, making its English translation, "Corporation, Inc.". The Société gave

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr; uk, Олександр Порфирович Архипенко, Romanized: Olexandr Porfyrovych Arkhypenko; February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian and American ...

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, Fernand Léger,

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, and Louis Eilshemius their first one-man shows in America, helped to familiarize American viewers with the little known work of Piet Mondrian and

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and sponsored traveling exhibitions, lectures by artists and critics, and other special events. It also put on the United States' first comprehensive survey of postwar international art, at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926, three years before the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

came into existence. Katherine Dreier deeply resented this upstart rival, whose wealthy backers, she felt, had stolen her mission and her ideas and even her name -- the Société Anonyme's subtitle was "Museum of Modern Art." In truth however, Dreier's tireless idealism could not make up for her lack of significant financial support. The Société Anonyme's exhibition rooms were too small, but Dreier's attempts to find larger quarters kept breaking down because the funds, which came mainly from her and her two sisters, were insufficient. Her society – as time went on it became more and more a one-woman operation – could and did claim precedence, nevertheless, as the first museum anywhere in the world that was devoted exclusively to modern art. The Société's headquarters in New Jersey closed in 1928, but Dreier continued to organize events, and accumulate artwork to add to the Société Anonyme's collection. Dreier donated the collection to the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

in 1941.Yale University Art Gallery, Collection Overview
December 2012, p. 7 On April 30, 1950, the 30th anniversary of the Société Anonyme's first exhibition, Dreier and Duchamp hosted a dinner at the New Haven Lawn Club, where they formally dissolved the organization.

References

* * by William Clark *Catalog of the Societe's collection at Yale, Collection of the Societe Anonyme: Museum of Modern Art *

External links

Yale University website on Société Anonyme
(Disable Firefox Adblock to view the entire site.) * Katherine S. Dreier Papers/Société Anonyme Archive (YCAL MSS 101) at th
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University

In Good Company
''Hammer Museum exhibition review by Karen Dunbar in'' X-TRA : Contemporary Art Quarterly
Little-known Star Artists
''Hammer Museum exhibition review by Naomi Hume in'' X-TRA : Contemporary Art Quarterly {{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Anonyme (Art) Modern art Clubs and societies in the United States