Dreier the PainterKatherine Dreier is best known as a patron and promoter ofearty modernism,
but she was also an artist in her own right
BY JOHN ANGELINE
It is a measure of the importance ofKatherine Dreier to the development
of modernism in America that, in a let-ter to her dated 1936, Alfred Barr, Jr.,wrote: "No one has done more for theadvancement of the more experimentalmovements in modern art than you, sofar as New York and the country at largeis concerned [sic]."' For the first half ofthe 20th century, Dreier—artist, patron,curator, educator and political activist-^strove to put ber social and philosophicalideals into practice in order to change theway Americans regarded contemporaryart. On many levels, her efforts were suc-cessful. Yet far too often, when the histo-ries of modernism are written, her nameis nowhere to be found, and in the rareinstances when she is mentioned, it is inan incomplete manner.
The current exhibition and catalogueon Dreier and the collection of the itiner-ant museum called the Soci6t6 Anonyme[see article this issue] that she co-found-ed with Marcel Duchamp should go a longway to restoring Dreier's reputation as apioneer of modernism, However, even this effort com-mits one of the common and consistent omissions instudies on Dreier, giving relatively little considerationto her work as an artist.- Dreier was one of the fewAmerican women modernists of the early 20th centu-
ry, as well as one of tbe first American abstractionistsof either gender. Unfortunately, as Nancy J. Siegel haswritten, "The more aggressive act of being . , , anabstract painter within an essentially male dominatedterritory has been subverted and [Dreier] has been
relegated to the role of mother or caretaker of themodernists."^ She began painting abstractly in 1918,and although she was not a prolific artist, the factremains that she managed to find her own voicethrough her knowledge of the most challenging formsof modem painting of the early 20th century. In herworks, she attempted to reconcile the art and theoriesof her friends Kandinsky and Duchamp, to combinethe earnestness of Expressionism with the iconoclasmof Dada.
Katherine Sophie Dreier was bom into a prominentBrooklyn family in 1877. Her father, Theodor, hadamassed a modest fortune in an iron importing busi-ness. Years later Katberine would thank him for "thevision he firmly held to, ahead of his time, of givingthe same privilege to his daughters as he gave to Msson."^ The Dreiers conferred on their five children asolid education and instilled in them an unshakablesense of civic commitment. All of the siblings wereactively involved in public causes, Katherine (theyoungest) no less than the others. At age 21, shebecame treasurer of tbe German Home for Recreationof Women and Children, which catered to young and/or unwed mothers. At ^ e 26 she became the directorof the Manhattan TVade School for Girls and foundedthe Little Italy Neighborhood Association, a settle-ment house in Brooklyn.
Living in London from 1909 to 1911, she associatedwith John Singer Sargent and Henry James, amongothers, During this period abroad she met and mar-ried the painter Edward Thimball, but the marriagewas annulled when she leamed that he was alreadymarried. Returning to the States, Dreier devoted
Art in America 101
Unknown Forces^ 1926, oil on canvas, ^4 by 40 inches. Brooklyn Museum.
herself more firmly to social reform through art, andin 1914 she founded an orgaiiization called the Coop-erative Mural Workshops. Though short-lived, thecombination workshop and art school dealt in all thedecorative arts, as well as murals, and promoted thevirtues of handicraft over prefabrication. The projecthelped introduce to the American public the idea ofarts organizations as business collectives—and it vrasrun exclusively by women.
Dreier's personality was shaped by spiritual beliefsthat she maintained throughout her life. Ardentlysubscribing to the esthetic-socialist positions of JohnRuskin and William Morris, she was also an adherentof Theosophy. As presented by Madame Helena Bla-vatsl^ in the last quarter of the 19th century in NewYork and by Rudolph Steiner in Germany and Switz-erland, Theosophy was a polyglot mystical ^ t e m . Itincluded the belief that certain colors, shapes andlevels of spiritual development were equivalents, aposition that lent iteelf quite nicely to the esthetics ofabstractionists such as Kandinsky and Mondrian. Inan essay she wrote for a book published by the Dreiersiblings to commemorate their mother, Katherinerecalled sitting at the dinner table as a child whilemembers of her family discussed Theosophy, 'Svhichwas then much talked about."^ She followed The-osophy throughout her years, but if was just one facetof her devotion to spiritual and esoteric research.Propelled by all her various interests and beliefs,Dreier inevitably forged an alliance between artisticand spiritual endeavors and social involvement, Likemany idealists of the early modern movement, sheequated the initiation of the masses into the ways ofthe modem spirit with improving the quality of life forWestem humanity.
In her youth Dreier undertook arf training, enroll-ing in tbe Brooklyn Art School in 1895, studying in
Europe in 1902-03, and returning to Brooklyn to studyviith Walter Shirlaw at the Pratt Institute. Shirlaw wasone of the rare American painters of the time whose
European training bad been centered in Germany,not Paris. Dreier proved very open to modem sen-sibilities, In her early paintings, one sees a stylisticvacillation between van Gogh and Whistler, the latterof whom she probably saw to best advantage duringber time in England. Dreier's paintings soon eameda certain degree of critical respect. Sbe had her firstsolo exhibition of Whistler-inspired works in Londonin 1911, which garnered generally warm reviews,and back in America she was asked to include twopaintings in the International Exhibition of ModemArt, better known as the Armoiy Show, of 1913: Th^,Avenue, Holland and The Blue Bowl. She also lent acanvas by van Gogh, Mademoiselle Ravoux (1890),which she had purchased at the 1912 Sonderbundexhibition in Cologne. Tbe latter cutting-edge event,on which the Armory Sbow was to be modeled thefollowing year, included works by the German Expres-sionists, tbe Fauves and the Cubists, as well as vanGogh, Cezanne and Gauguin. Dreier was the firstAmerican to own a van Gogh.
Dreier immersed herself in the efforts to establishmodernism in America. As Aline Saarinen has written;"In the strategic period between the Armory Showof 1913 and the founding of the Museum of ModemArt in 1929, [Dreier] performed almost single-hand-edly a courageous service for modem art."^ Apart fromher involvement in the Armory Sbow, in 1916 Dreierbecame a founding member of tbe fward of trustees forthe Society of Independent Artists and helped organizeits massive 1917 exhibition, sometimes called "TheBig Show," at Grand Central Palace on Lexington at43rd Street. Though she had met Marcel Duchamp,a fellow board member, in 1916, Dreier began herfriendship with him in the context of tbis exhibi-tion, after Ducbamp became embroiled in bis notori-ous argument witb the board over their reaction toFountain, tbe ceramic urinal dated and signed "R.Mutt," which he had submitted anonymously to theputatively open, unjuried exhibition. When tbe boardoverwhelmingly voted against including the work in
the exhibition, Duchamp confessedto being tbe art,ist and resigned fromthe Society for its failure to live up toits own stated principles. AlthoughDreier was among those who initiallyopposed the inclusion of Fountain.,she immediately sought Duchampout in an attempt to understandwhat he meant to accomplish vrithtbis piece. After discussing the workwitb him, she came to appreciate hisintentions; in feet, Dreier is creditedwith coining the term "r^adymade,"of which Fountain is perhaps tbemost famous example. Ducbamp andDreier remained close friends untilber death in 1952.
In 1920, Dreier and Duchampdecided to form a new organization—an experimental museum and looseaffiliation of artists—for the supportof modem art and tbe education oftlie general public. Ducbamp invitedMan Ray to help in tbeir efforts, andit is Man Ray who is said to haveinvented tbe name Soci6t6 Ano-nyme, to which Dreier respondedenthusiastically, relating it to her
focus upon "art, not personalities." Wbat Dreier did notinitially realize was that "Society Anonyme, Inc." is aDada word game, translated from tbe French as "Incor-porated, Inc." She did not always quickly grasp some ofDada's more absurdist gestures, but her reputation inthe literature for being antagonistic to Dada or inca-pable of appreciating its projects is undeserved.'
It is true, however, that when Ducbamp and ManRay left America in 1921, tbe Soci^t^ took a farmore eamest turn. For much of its existence in the1920s and '30s, most of its projects and exhibitionswere undertaken by Dreier almost entirely by her-self, although Duchamp was available to her in anadvisory capacity and often acted as her Europeanagent. Even after the collection was donated to Yalein 1941, Dreier continued to work on its behalf bylending and soliciting works, organizing shows andcompiling a catalogue, wbose publication in 1950marked tbe occasion for Dreier and Duchamp toofficially dissolve the Soci6t6 Anonyme. Its heydaywas during the '20s, when it sponsored exhibi-tions and lectures throughout the city, furtheringthe cause of modernism. Tbe Soci^t^ was respon-sible for introducing 73 artists to America, and itprovided the first solo U.S. shows for AlexanderArchipenko and Jacques Villon (1922), WassilyKandinsky (1923), Paul Klee (1924) and FernandL^ger (1925), among others.
The watershed event in the Soci^f^'s historycame in 1926 with its own Intemational Exhibitionof Modern Art, held at the Brooklyn Museum andcurated by Dreier, who also wrote tbe catalogue.In its scope, the Brooklyn show rivaled the 1917Society of Independent Artists exbibition^though,in addition to being a well attended presentationof European and American modernism during arelatively quiet artistic spell, the Brooklyn effortattempted to affect people in a more lasting man-ner. Beyond her main installation of tbe works,Dreier made up four galleries to resemble rooms ina house, illustrating bow modem art could readily
June/July 2006
integrate into an everyday domestic environment.There was even a prototype of a "tele-museum"room, designed in coi\junction with the maverickarchitect and sculptor Frederick Kiesler, in whichdifferent slides of masterpieces could be illumi-nated with the turn of a knob. Concurrent with theexhibition, the Soei^te sponsored 18 lectures, ofwhich 14 were delivered by Dreier,
Throughout the '30s, Dreier would attempt vari-ous projects—publishing a magazine, staging moreelaborate exhibitions, and creating satellite officeson the West Coast—but these invariably failed. Allalong, the Societe Anonyme's collection continued togrow, as did Dreier's personal collection.^ Periods thatseem to indicate inactivity on Dreier's part merelymeant that she was devoting herself to her own art, orto teaching. Her extensive correspondence with themost influential artists and critics of the period revealthat she never ceased campaigning on the Society'sbehalf and soliciting works of art, even after she gavethe collection to Yale.
In 1952, upon Dreier's death and two yearn afterthe dissolution of the Society Anonyme, Duchampdisbursed her personal collection. Most of it went toYale, 288 works altogether, which, when added to theSociety Anonyme works, combined for a grand total of1,019 pieces emanating from Dreier and her organiza-tion that wound up at the university. Here was a bodyof work that was "outrivaled by no other collection inAmerica, except for those of the Museum of ModemArt and Solomon R. Guggenheim,"" as the authors ofthe 1984 catalogue raLsonne noted.
Dreier was friends with and respected many art-ists, but Wassily Kandinsky occupied a special
niche in her pantheon, one that even ber longtime
friend and collaborator Duchamp could not quiteclaim. Dreier became familiar with Kandinsky's artand theories in 1912, when she studied for a time inMunich. She read his groundbreaking Concerning theSpiritual in Art in the original German and owneda copy of the Blaue Reiter Almanack. Purchasingher first Kandinsky painting in 1920, Dreier met theartist bimself at the Bauhaus in 1922. In 1923 shegave him his first one-man exhibition in America andin 1925 made him an honorary vice president of theSociete Anonyme. She was given the rights to trans-late Kandinsky's second major book. Point and Lineto Plane (1926), into English, although she never real-ized this task.'" She once wrote to the director of tbeBrooklyn Museum, "1 believe you know that I considerKandinsky even more important than Picasso as far asthe ftiture is concemed, for he is less whimsical andmore constructive."" The correspondence betweenDreier and Kandinsky is warm and full of artisticobservations.
In 1918, Dreier demonstrated ber absorption ofKandinsky's ideas in two key oil paintings of her own.One of these, a breakthrough work titled The Garden,is a dizzying array of colors and forms. It evinceswhat was clearly Dreier's own excitement at attempt-ing to put into practice concepts that she had onlybeen studying up until this point. Not only do we seea Kandinsky-like freeing up of color from drawing,but Dreier here layers planes and incomplete forms,opening rectangles one into the next as if tapping intoan unconventional space—something that many for-ward-looking artists were exploring at the time. Herspiraling shell-like forms would resolve themselves insubsequent works as a spinning disc motif, and Dreierlater limited the variety of motifs witbin eacb work.
Tbe same year, sbe painted Abstract Portrait of
Two Worlds (Zwei Welten), 1930, oil on canvas, 38'A by 36'/« inches.Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
In her works, Dreiersought to reconcilethe art and theoriesof Kandinsky andDuchamp, combining theearnestness ofExpressionism withthe iconoclasm of Dada.
Marcel Duchamp, now in the collection of the Muse-um of Modem Art in New York. Dreier was not thefirst artist to work in abstract portraiture; MariusDe Zayas, Francis Picabia, Arthur Dove and CharlesDemuth had already created work in this vein. Yet,in the manner of Kandinsky, Dreier attempted toget at the pure spirit of her subject, without relyingon biographical clues. The horizontal compositioncenters on a disc overlapped to the right and leftby two off-kilter triangles and, across the center, anelongated form tike a trumpet or beam of light thatenters diagonally from the upper left corner. Thisparticular element could have some relation to theraking diagonal color patches similarly situated inDuchamp's painting Thm' of the same year, whichDreier commissioned to hang over her bookcase.It also bears a similarity to some of the trumpetforms that we see in Kandinsky's sketches and pre-abstract paintings. Perhaps Dreier was borrowingthe motif from Kandinsky to signal Duchamp's roleas a herald of a new age. Her choice of triangles isalso of interest in that it might relate to Kandinsky'sdictum, "A triangle.. . is a decided being, possessingits very own spiritual essence." He suggested thatthe triangle can be seen as a schematic diagram rep-resenting the artist advancing ideas and conceptsbefore the masses,'^
The floating, ungrounded triangle, a form thatrecurs in Dreier's work, appears in the Theosophicaltext Thought Forms by Armie Besant and C.W. Lead-better (1905) as the "projectile" of directed thought.The disc is, perhaps, a visual allusion to the wheelsand cycles in Blavatsky's writings, and the spiralingcircle figures in Thought Forms as the "logos" of purethought. Dreier's mystical leanings incline historiansto differentiate her from Duchamp, so it may seemsurprising that, in this work, she creates a portrait ofhim with spiritualist overtones. Observers have oftendebated the extent to which Duchamp personally sub-scribed to esoteric philosophies and even further howmuch these ideas can be seen in his art. In the cor-respondence between Dreier and Duchamp there isnothing that approaches the metaphysics and artisticphilosophizing that one finds in ber correspondencewith Kandinsky. However, Duchamp certainly knewof Dreier's interests and beliefs, and seems to baveexhibited a certain tolerance for them.'^
Susan Grace Galassi has suggested that Dreiermay have had some influence on Ducbamp: "In1918, for example, IDreier] convinced Duchamp toreturn to painting after a six-year hiatus to executea commission for her New York apartment. Theresult was Tu m', his last oil painting and one ofhis masterpieces."'^ John Moffitt makes a compel-ling case that "7k m' represents a synthesis of thefourth dimension, a new pseudoscientific concept,
Artin America 103
Explosion, 1940-47, oil on canvas, 24'/s by 29% inches.Yale University Art Gallery.
and alchemy, an ancient one."'^ If this is so, thendid Dreier's mystical leanings exert any influence?Is the resemblance between Tk m' and her Portraitof Duchamp meaningful here? The sign painter'shand in Ducbamp's painting is signed "A. Klang."Putatively (but improbably) this is the name ofa sign painter; but it could also be a reference toKandinsky, wbose sound poems in the Blaue ReiterAlmanack and their accompanying woodcuts werecollectively titled "Klange" (Noises).
Another painting that links Dreier's work to bothKandinsky and Ducbamp is Unknown Forces, an oilfrom 1926, Purchased by the Brooklyn Museum thesame year, tbis painting features another disc thatlooks as though It is rotating; this time diagonal raysemanate from it. Behind the circle is a pyramidalmountain form, and to the left are four overlapping,vertical planes. The abstract mountain is anothermotif often found in the art. of Kandinsl^, and in addi-tion to tbe rotating disc, one can associate the verticalplanes witb Duchamp, as a reference to his work onglass or to shapes similar to those in his 3 StandardStoppages (1913-14). The cosmic spiral that Dreieroften employs in her paintings is remarkably similar,as well, to the undulating spiral effects produced byDuchamp's Rotary Glass Plates (1920) and his laterRotoreli^s (1935), both of which she owned.
In 1929, Dreier painted an abstract portrait of thedancer Edward (Tted) Myers Shawn, founder in 1930
of Jacob's Pillow. Dreier's involvement with moderndance had begun witb the Cooperative Mural Work-shops, wbicb apparently sponsored Isadora Duncan'scompany for a season. It is not entirely clear underwhat circumstances Shawn and Dreier met. However,they had established a friendship by the time shepainted his portrait and sustained it until Dreier'sdeath. Tbe Abstract Psychological Portrait of TedShawn is a vertical composition completely lackingin any recognizable figuration. At the upper center ofa roughly sectored field of mottled grays and brownsDreier placed a swirling violet-blue circle surroundedby radiating concentric bands of various colors, A darkdiagonal line passes through the disk. In the lowerright comer of tbe composition is a static rectangular
form set in a larger rect-angular field. This paintingwas reproduced once, asthe full-color frontispiecefor a book by Dreier calledShawn the Dancer, wbichwas simultaneously pub-lished in Germany, Eng-land and America in 1933.Dreier's discussion in it ofher friend is quite reveal-ing. "As Pavlova stands forlightness and purenessof motion as sbe floatsthrough the dance," Dreierwrote, "so Shawn stands fora power of rhythm whichrefills one with fi^sh vital-ity.'"^ Solidly planted areasof tbe portrait are con-trasted with others thatseem airborne. Dreier alsowrote: "In expressing thenow and its needs, Sbavm
especially emphasizes [a] spiral form of rhythm,"''Thestatic, posed rectangle seems to move into the sweep-ing circle, whose "spiraling rhythm" could be an abnostexact pictorial transcription of what Dreier later vm)te.
Tbe activities of Dreier andShawn overlapped on a few sig-nificant occasions, when theircompatible philosophies and sup-port for each other found concreteexpression. In 1937, Dreier pub-lisbed a suite of litbograpbs titled40 Variations, consisting of a sin-gle abstract composition of over-lapping circles, dynamically placedtriangles and arrows. Reproducedas 40 single-color lithographs, the"variations" were then made hyapplying colored inks by hand, aupochoir, over the prints, Dreierborrowed her motifs from Kandin-sky, though she said her inspira-tion was watching sailboats on theharbor. After the suite was com-plete, Shawn choreographed a per-formance based on it, witb danc-ers costumed in shapes and colorsderived from the prints. Dreier'sfriendship witb Shawn, amongothers, allowed her to e)q3lore herinterest in synesthesia, a theory (promoted by Kan-dinsky) proposing the interdependence of the varioussenses.
D uring the 1930s, Dreier seemed intent onredirecting her efforts toward her art once
more, and she even considered relocating to Parisso that she could devote herself completely topainting.'^ She proved herself willing to experimentin a variety of styles. In addition to abstract art,Dreier came to be intrigued by the figurative ten-dencies of her day, such as Surrealism. Paintingslike Futile Activity (1932) demonstrate her aware-ness of biomorphism, and in The Cat (1933) sbeplaces an anecdotal representation in an irrationalpictorial space, with effects somewhat reminiscent
of Chagall. She also continued exploring her usualmotifs, as in a stunning untitied abstraction from1930, in which various triangles are suspendedagainst a strong blue background. Blue was longconsidered by tbe Theosophi.sts and Kandinsky asa heavenly color, and the arrows, with their roughsense of geometry and translucency, remind oneof Snprematist compositions. The entire image isdominated and anchored by a large disc that givesthe impression of rotating and is painted in yellowand white, which implied, in Theosophy, spiritualtranscendence. The triangle shape is prominentlyfeatured, as well, in a landscape titled The EternalHills (ca. 1935-36), in which two abstract trianglesfloat before mountains with the same profile. Thepainting was included in the 1936 "Mysticism inArt" exhibition at the George Walter Vincent SmithArt Gallery in Springfield, Mass.
The title of 7^-0 Worlds (Zwei Welten), 1930, apainting that in many ways epitomizes Dreier's prima-ty inspirations, is taken from a letter Kandinsky hadwritten to ber, in wbich he outlined his idea of thedual aspects of reality. A handwritten translation byDreier accompanies the letter, which reads as follows;
There are two worlds in which apparently purpose-less beings exist, secluded beings that in their totalityalways build lai^er groups and finally become s^tems . . .
#8, 1937, from '40 Yariations," colored ink over lithograph,8'/i by lF/s inches. Yale University Art Gallery,
These two worlds are—1st nature 2nd artTo humanity these two worlds are that man is created bythe first and the second is created by man.'"
In ber painting Dreier presents two overlappingconelike shapes that reveal, in their foreground open-ings, interiors containing a sphere and slatted seg-ments. In addition to these "two worlds" Dreier added,in the upper right, a dense spiral form tbat bas beendescribed as an abstracted chess kni^t. Tbe Soci^tfiAnonyme logo, designed by Duchamp, a great enthusi-ast of the game, was a chess knight. Thus in additionto adapting Kandinsky's formal theories, this work alsopays bom^e to Duchamp's unique intellect, and likeUnknoum Forces brings together in one painting thetwo most important artists In Dreier's life.
Art in America 105
In tbis way, Katherine Dreier cast a wide net. Her
own paintings are consistent witb how she collected
and directed her museum: with a respect for plurality
and a willingness to recognize what was intrinsically
important about artists and movements even if they
were obscure or apparently incompatible. By includ-
ing Dreier in a consideration of early modernism we
not only e:q)and the canon of 20th-century American
art, hut we are forced to acknowledge the heterogene-
ity of a movement tba t is still too narrowly under-
stood. D
The author wishes to th^ik FYancis Naumann for his invalu-able advice and input
1. Alfred Barr, Letter to Katherine S. Dreier, Nov. 7, 1936,Beinecke Library, Yale University. Dreier will hereafter bereferred to a.s KSD.2. The exhibition includes only three works by Dreier—thepaintings Tk'o mrUts (1930) and Explosion (1940-47), andthe lithographic suite 40 Vanations (1937). Her work as anartist is treated to some degree in Ruth Boban's catalogueessay, "Joseph Stella and tbe 'Conjunction of WORLDS,"'Jennifer R. Gross, ed.. The. Socieie Anoniftne: ModermsmforAmerica, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, inconjunction with Yale University Art Gallery, 2006, pp. 17-3L
3. Nancy J. Siegel, "An Artist Patronized: The Abstract Paint-ings of Katherine Dreier," ^w^ers-4rt Review, voL 11-12,1991-92, p. 23.4. Quoted in Aline Saarinen, The Proud Possessors, NewYork, Random House, 1958, p. 249.5. KSD, ed. In Memory of the One Hundredth Anniversaryofthe Birth of Dorothea Adelkeid Dreier, Springfield, Mass.,Pond-EkbergCo., 1940,p.75.6. See, for example, Francis Naumann, who wrote tbat Drei-er "never really understood Duchamp's work," in New York
Dada, 1915-1923, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1994, p. 60.7. Saarinen, p. 239.8. Dreier always tried to present the Soci6te as a profes-sional museum and tberefore made every effort, to keep tbeart that she purchased from the artists for ber own privatebome separate from the museum's collection, for wbicb sbeattempted to collect public funds and appealed to artists tomake donations.
9. Robert L. Herbert, Eleanor S. Apter and Elise K. Kenney,eds.. The Sodete Anon/ftne and the Dreier Bequest at YakUniversity: A Catalogue Raisonne, New Haven, Yale Univer-sity Press, 1984, p. 28.10. W^ssLy Kandbisky, Punkt und Linie zu Ftache: Beitra^zur Analyse ziir malerische Elemente, Municb, AlbertLangen, ca. 1926; tbe first tmnslation to appear in Englisbwas Point and Line to Plane: Contribution to the Analysisofthe Pictorial Elements, trans. Howard Dearstyne and HillaRebay, New York, Solomon R. Guggenbeim Foundation fortbe Museum of Non-Objective Paintii^, 1947.11. KSD, letter to William Henry Fox, July 21,1926, BeineckeLibrary, Yale Universi^,12. Wassily Kandinsky, "On the Spiritual in Art," in Kandin-sky: Complete Writijigs on. Art, ed, Kenneth C, Lindsay andPeter Vergo, New York, Da Capo Press, 1994, pp, 181-85,13. In addition, Dreier, Ducbamp and Kandinsky spent timetogetber in Germany in 1929. Dreier later wrote to a friend:"Duchamp came t« Weimar to be tbere at the same time forwe botb were deeply interested in Kandins^s ideas of a newScience of Art." KSD, letter to Howard Dearstyne, Sept. 11,1945, Beinecke Libraiy, Yale University. Of course, tbis was notDuchamp's first visit to Gennany; he bad lived tbere for a briefbut crucial period in 1912, just as he was experimenting witbabstraction in his own art,
14. Susan Grace Galassi, "Crusader for Modem Art," Art-News, September 1984, p, 93.15. Jobn Moffitt, "Marcel Ducbamp: Alchemist of tbeAvant-Garde," The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting
Like many idealistsof her time, Dreierequated the initiationof the masses intothe ways of the spiritwith improving thequality of life forWestern humanity.
1890-19S5, ed. Maurice T\icbman, New York,Press, 1986, p. 269.16. KSD, Shawn the Dajwer, New York, A.S. Barnes and Co.,Inc., 1933, p. 11,17. Ibid., p. 13.18. But even during this time she involved herself in artists'organizations on botb sides of tbe Atlantic, becoming anearly member of Micbel Seupbor's Cercle et Carre (1929)•ARii Abstraction/Creation (1933) groups. In America sbewas one of the organizing members of the Abstract ArtistsAssociation, tbough she found tbeir political tendenciesoppressive.
19. W^ily Kandinsky, letter to KSD, Dec. 13,1922, BeineckeLibraiy, Yale Universi^.
Por itinerary of "The Sodete Anonyme: Modernism forAmerica," see "Chronicles of Modernism I: Mission oftheAvant-Garde" this issue.
Autbor: John Angeline's book Hilla Rebay: Art Patronessand Founder of the Gu^enbetm Museum, co-authored mthThalia Vrachopoulos, was recently published by Edwin RMetten Press.
