Jacqueline Moss (1927–2005) was an American art historian, lecturer, writer and art critic. She was the curator of education at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (since renamed) and lectured widely on

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

and 20th-century art. Her articles and seminars often had a focus on women artists. In the 1980s, she had a travel business touring art and architecture in Europe, Asia and South America.

Career

Moss was associated with the Aldrich Museum in

Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York ...

for fifteen years. Larry Aldrich founded the museum to house his art collection of contemporary art."Oral history interview with Larry Aldrich, 1972 Apr. 25 – June 10"

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

. Retrieved November 4, 2011 Moss gave seminars, lectured and later became curator of education."Art History Seminars"
''The Hour'', Norwalk, Connecticut (November 4, 1977), p. 39. Retrieved November 3, 2011"Lunch and Art Tour to Feature Jacqueline Moss"
''The Hour'', Norwalk, Connecticut (May 29, 1984), p. 14. Retrieved November 3, 2011 In 1977, she began leading specialized tour groups to Europe to visit private collections and artists' studios, as well as museums like the Dutch

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of her ...

Otterlo Otterlo is a village in the municipality of Ede of province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe. The Kröller-Müller Museum, named after Helene Kröller-Müller, is situated nearby and has the world's ...

, known for its extensive collection of paintings by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

. In Norway, they visited a

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts a ...

in Borgund."Art, architecture tour to Sandinavia, Leningrad"
''The Hour'' (February 25, 1986), p. 9. Retrieved November 18, 2011 She taught at the

University of Bridgeport The University of Bridgeport (UB) is a private university in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. In 2021, the university was purchased by Goodwin University; it retain its own n ...

and

Housatonic Community College Housatonic Community College (HCC) is a public community college in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It part of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system. HCC grants associate degrees and also has certificate programs. Campus Lafayette Hall ...

in Connecticut"Jacqueline Moss on Hirshhorn Art"
''The Hour'', Norwalk, Connecticut (March 30, 1977), p. 14. Retrieved November 3, 2011 and lectured at the

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approxi ...

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. Prior to teaching on the university level, she taught at the

Daycroft School The Daycroft School was a co-educational private boarding school founded in 1928. Initially located at a private home in Darien, Connecticut, it relocated to Stamford in 1935, and in 1963, to the neighboring town of Greenwich, Connecticut. Reloca ...

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

."Brandeis Women Lunch October 27"
''The Hour'', Norwalk, Connecticut (October 24, 1977), p. 15. Retrieved November 3, 2011 She lectured on the art collection owned by

Joseph Hirshhorn Joseph Herman Hirshhorn (August 11, 1899 – August 31, 1981) was an entrepreneur, financier, and art collector. Biography Born in Mitau, Latvia, the twelfth of thirteen children, Hirshhorn emigrated to the United States with his widowed moth ...

at his Greenwich estate and led tours of the sculpture garden before it was sent to Washington, D.C. to the

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...

, built to house his art collection. Moss was also the art critic at '' The Advocate'' and a contributor to ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' and ''

Arts Magazine ''Arts Magazine'' was a prominent monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992. History Early years Launched in 1926 and originally titled ''The Art Digest,'' it was printed semi-monthly from Octobe ...

'', a monthly arts journal. Her article on Gertrude Greene was the cover story for the April 1981 issue of ''Arts''."Jacqueline Moss papers relating to painter Gertrude Greene, 1980–1981"
Archives of American Art. Retrieved November 3, 2011 Many of her articles were about women artists. Moss was also interested in the women's movement and how it gave rise to new expression by women artists, such as

Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...

and

May Stevens May Stevens (June 9, 1924 – December 9, 2019) was an American feminist artist, political activist, educator, and writer. Early life and education May Stevens was born in Boston to working-class parents, Alice Dick Stevens and Ralph Stanley ...

. At the Aldrich Museum, she curated a series on "Art by Contemporary Women Artists". She owned Jacqueline Moss Museum Tours, which led "special interest" tours of art and architecture around the world. Earlier trips went to European countries such as Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Germany. She first went to China in 1982 just after the country began to welcome tourism. China was still quite impoverished and primitive. Many Chinese, even in major cities, had never seen western faces because China was closed following its 1949 revolution. Travel was restricted and tourism became essentially non-existent until after the death of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

.George Zhibin Gu
"The China tourism explosion"
''Asia Times'' (March 7, 2006). Retrieved November 22, 2011 By the time Moss returned just three years later, in 1985, tourism had grown from 230,000 in 1978 to 1.4 million foreigners and non-Asian faces in major cities were no longer a novelty. On the second trip to China, Moss and her group followed the Old

Silk Route The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

and visited the

Mogao Caves The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...

. She also took groups to Egypt, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, Brazil, and other countries. In 1989, political unrest in China caused her to reschedule a return there. Moss held a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

degree from the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

and received a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in art history from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

in 1980. Her thesis was on the art of Gertrude Greene and is archived at the

at the Smithsonian.

Family

Moss was the daughter of Jacob Eisenberg, a musician and author of books and articles on piano. His last book, ''Let Me Help You'', contained three photos of her, one as an infant, one as a toddler and one as a young girl playing a piano duet with her brother, Roger.Jacob Eisenberg, "Let Me Help You" (1964), pp. 7, 8, 10. Jay-Roger Music Co., North Bergen, New Jersey. (From notations in book made by a Moss family member.) Her mother was

Ruth Brewer Eisenberg Ruth Brewer Eisenberg (1902–1996) was "Ivory" of "Ebony and Ivory," the inter-racial piano duo. Eisenberg and Margaret Patrick, "Ebony," each had a stroke in 1982, which partially disabled them. Prior to the stroke, each had studied and played ...

, "Ivory" of

Ebony and Ivory "Ebony and Ivory" is a song that was released in 1982 as a single by Paul McCartney featuring Stevie Wonder. It was issued on 29 March that year as the lead single from McCartney's third solo album, ''Tug of War'' (1982). Written by McCartney ...

, a piano duo of two grandmothers, one white and one black, who had had strokes and played together, one hand each.Georgia Dullea
"Ebony and Ivory: 1 Keyboard, 2 Good Hands"
''The New York Times'' (September 28, 1987), p. C13. Retrieved November 3, 2011

Selected publications

Catalogs

* Ida E. Rubin (Ed.) and Jacqueline Moss (text), ''Sculpture 76: An Outdoor Exhibition of Sculpture By Fifteen Living American Artists: Claes Oldenbourg,

George Rickey George Warren Rickey (June 6, 1907 – July 17, 2002) was an American kinetic sculptor. Early life and education Rickey was born on June 6, 1907, in South Bend, Indiana. When Rickey was still a child, his father, an executive with Singer S ...

Forrest Myers Forrest Warden Myers, also known as Frosty Myers (born 1941 in Long Beach, California) is an American sculptor. He is best known for his pieces ''Moon Museum'' (1969) and ''The Wall'' (1973), the latter being a monumental wall sculpture in the S ...

James Rosati James Rosati (1911 in Washington, Pennsylvania 1911 – 1988 in New York City) was an American abstract sculptor. He is best known for creating an outdoor sculpture in New York: a stainless steel ''Ideogram.'' Life Born near Pittsburgh, R ...

Reuben Nakian Reuben Nakian (August 10, 1897, College Point, New York – December 4, 1986, Stamford, Connecticut) was an American sculptor and teacher of Armenian extraction. His works' recurring themes are from Greek and Roman mythology. Noted works inc ...

Richard Fleischner Richard Fleischner is a Providence, RI–based environmental artist. Born in New York in 1944, he received a BFA and MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and ...

Lila Katzen Lila Katzen (30 December 1925, in Brooklyn, NY – 20 September 1998, in New York, NY), born Lila Pell, was an American sculptor of fluid, large-scale metal abstractions. Education and early work Katzen was born and raised in Brooklyn. She atten ...

, Tony Smith,

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

Athena Tacha Athena Tacha ( el, Αθηνά Τάχα; born in Larissa, Greece, 1936-), is a multimedia visual artist. She is best known for her work in the fields of environmental public sculpture and conceptual art. She also worked in a wide array of materials ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...

George Segal George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as ''Ship o ...

Charles Ginnever Charles Albert Ginnever (August 28, 1931 – June 16, 2019), was an American sculptor known primarily for large-scale abstract steel sculptures that defy simple understanding, as the works seem to constantly change form as one moves around them in ...

, Kuehn'' (1976). Greenwich Arts Council, Greenwich, Connecticut * "Women Artists and Their Place in Modern Art History" in: ''American Art: American Women 1965 through 1985'', introduction by Dorothy Mayhall (December 15, 1984 – February 23, 1985).

Stamford Museum Stamford Museum was located in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in Great Britain. It was housed in a Victorian building in Broad Street, Stamford, and was run by the museum services of Lincolnshire County Council from 1980 to 2011. The building and are ...

, Stamford, Connecticut

Articles

* "Gertrude Greene: Constructions of the 1930s and 1940s", ''Arts Magazine'', Vol. 55, No. 8 (April 1981), pp. 120–127 * "Alberta Cifolelli", ''Arts Magazine'', (April 1982) * "Nancy Ketchman" ''Arts Magazine'', (April 1984) * "Juliet Holland", ''Arts Magazine'', (April 1984) * "Rebecca Welz", ''Arts Magazine'', Vol. 60 (January 1985) * "Linda Nisselson", ''Arts Magazine'', (October 1987)

References