Word & Image

A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry

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Shaping modernism: Alfred Barr's genealogy of art

Astrit Schmidt Burkhardt

To cite this article: Astrit Schmidt Burkhardt (2000) Shaping modernism: Alfred Barr's genealogy
of art, Word & Image, 16:4, 387-400, DOI: 10.1080/02666286.2000.10435694

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Shaping modernism: Alfred Barr's genealogy
of art
ASTRIT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

Philippe Aries, who often brought his history students to eight American cities and has since become legendary. With
despair with far-reaching genealogies and ramified this exhibition Barr laid the theoretical foundation of the
diagrams, once wrote, 'genealogy, chronology and synopsis museum. For the first time since it.~ opening in 1929 the
were proof of a clumsy eagerness to grasp history in its MoMA presented a retrospective of modernism to the
totality' . I Since the period when comprehensive theories of visitor. Besides 'Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism', also in
history became popular, art history has been especially 1936, 'Cubism and Abstract Art' rates as the most
affected by this common 'eagerness'. After 1800, art histor- important comprehensive exhibition in the career of the
ians made use of supposedly objectifYing models of history museum director. The great impression it left on the intel-
such as family trees, chronologies and diagrams. Although lectual visitor has been repeatedly confirmed. This was due
they claimed historical objectivity, they seemed oblivious to to no small extent to the policy of the Museum of Modem
the politics of drawing pedigrees in the fields of arts and Art, which has attempted to this day to secure its position as
ideas. a world-class collection. The legendary aspect of the show
Whilst nineteenth-century historians predominantly used and Barr's subsequent fame were certainly further
biological organic metaphors to describe hi~tory, in the supported by the first reprint of the catalogue in 1966 and a
twentieth century, when art became increasingly abstract, it
was abstract diagrams that fulfilled this task. Art historians
developed family trees, not so much because of thcir 1890 Sevrot • .1"' 1890
personal ambitions, which was the case with artists, but far NEO·IMPR ESSION 1SM
.....
more in order to shape history. Their models of explanation
1895
were supposed to demonstrate complex modernist develop- 1895

ments. However, the historians' crucial task was to exert

their respective positions. Seemingly neutral family trees
and diagrams were actually used to impose certain historical
interests.
This article presents the concepts behind the art history
that was illustrated with the Diagram of Stylistic Evolutionfrom
I8go until I935 (1936) by Alfred H. Barr,Jr. (figure I). From 1910 1910
differcnt perspectives I will reveal how politics is concealed
in his genealogy of modernism.
19 15 1915

THE COMPLEXITY OF YEAR NAMES

The chronolological codification of art history obscures the 1920 1920
complexity of the years to a very high degree. The mere
dates give little insight into the complexity of a period, no
1925 1925
matter how short it is. As cardinal numbers they may elicit
long chains of association; however, they always appear
'lifeless' compared with the lively historical pictures one gets 1930 1930
by looking behind the fa~ade of the row of figures. As soon
as one does so, it becomes clear that one can neither demon- IUS NON·GEOMETRICAL ASSTRACT ART GEOMETRICAL ABSTRACT ART 1935
strate nor explain anything just with dates.
With this in mind, Barr, the first director of the Museum
Figure I. Alfred H . Barr, Jr, Diagram of Stllistu &olution from 18g0 unJiJ
of Modem Art in New York, organized the extensive exhibi- 1935, in Cubism and Abstract Art (New York: Museum of Modem Art,
tion 'Cubism and Abstract Art' in 1936, which was held in 1936), jacket. Photograph courtesy Museum of Modem Art, New York.

WORD at IMAGE, VOL . 16, N0.4, OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2 0 0 0

ISSN o.~.86 C '000 Taylor &: Francis Ltd

paperback edition in 1974, which were provided with
neither an additional introduction nor afterword.' One
could thus assume that Barr had said all that there was to
say on the subject 'Cubism and Abstract Art' in his publica-
tion of 1936. Robert Rosenblum finally wrote a foreword for
a new paperback issue in 1986.3 Although he questioned
Barr's exhibition concept elsewhere, which we will return to
later, his introductory words are on the whole kind, if not
hymnic. He referred to the catalogue as the 'Bible of
modern art', as 'a kind of talisman' for the budding art
historian.
Thanks to the care which Barr had taken in reconstruct-
ing, on the largest possible scale, the reciprocal spheres of
influence of the various avant-garde currents from 1890 to
1935, he succeeded in presenting 45 years of art history to a
remarkable degree of complexity. Barr's representation of
modernism was almost· epochal in both clarity and complex-
ity. To have succeeded in vividly portraying an extremely
difficult chapter of European art history is the real merit of
his exhibition, which for its part was to go down in history
as a 'Station der Moderne'.

MAPPING MODERNISM
For those with neither time nor interest to take a closer look
at the voluminous 249-page catalogue, which has almost as
many illustrations as pages, Barr had drawn up a diagram.
It is shown on the catalogue jacket and was hung in the Figure 2. Miguel Covarrubias, The Tree of Modern Art - Planted 60 Tears
cilibition rooms in poster form. As a historic guide it made Ago, c. 1933, Vanif~ Fair, 5 (1933), p. 36.
the unmistakable path of art history retraceable for anyone.
By way of supporting evidence, key works of the various In this connection Julius Meier-Graefe had already
periods of this development hung on the walls. The spoken of four 'columns', 'pillars', and 'foundations' at the
diagram's purpose was to convey the facts of art history to turn of the century. These metaphors were intended to
exhibition visitors at a glance, as seen from the perspective express the important role which, in his opinion, Manet,
bf a curator. Barr hoped in this way to explain the relation- Cezanne, Degas and Renoir played in the development of
ship between the approximately twelve isIns by making modern painting. With the exception of Cezanne the
transparent the development or, rather, the developments impressionists were, in the opinion of the German critic, the
from 'synthetism' and 'neo-impressionism' to 'abstract art'. main source of the most recent streams of art. S Thirty years
Whether one is immediately reminded of a 'biblical later Barr moved the neo-impressionists and the expressio-
genealogy' by the red and black rectangles, arrows and nists to the fore. Incidentally, their role as 'ancestors' of
lines, apparently derived from scientific systems of illustra- modernism was emphasized at the opening exhibition of the
tion, as Barr's first biographer, Alice Goldfarb Marquis MoMA in 1929 by the title 'Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, and
believes, or whether one immediately thinks of family trees van Gogh'.6 As a powerful generation of forefathers they
as apparently incontestable such as those depicting the line outshine their spiritual sons, since these appear only collec-
of Windsor or tlIose from which the Bourbon dynasty is tively in different artistic movements. The intellectual
derived, as Rosenblum maintains, is an open question.+ The successors of these initiators of modernism are no longer
plan is inadequately equipped with these historical associa- artistic exponents - with the exception of the two outsiders
tions. It is advisable to adhere to its outer form. Barr Odilon 'Redon' and Henri 'Rousseau' and the loner
designed his diagram by using red and black rectangles, Constantin 'Brancusi' - but art ideologies. Originally the
arrows and lines. It centers around four outstanding artistic impulses for the European isIns associated with art of big
persons: Vincent 'van Gogh', Paul 'Gauguin', Paul cities ('Paris', 'Berlin', 'Moscow') come from the French
'Cezanne' and Georges 'Seurat'. As previously in Miguel provinces ('Pont-Aven' and 'Provence'). The strands which
Covarrubia's caricature The Tree of Modem Art - Planted 60 emerge here become concentrated on the stages of 'fauvism'
Years Ago, published in 1933, these French painters are and 'cubism', 'expressionism', 'futurism', 'orphism', 'supre-
apostrophized as founders of modernism (figure 2). matism' and 'constructivism', 'dadaism', 'purism', 'de Stijl'

388 ASTRIT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

and 'neoplasticism', 'surrealism' and 'Bauhaus' into two 'Dadaism', 'Fauvism'." Now and again Barr wrote
positions, 'non-geometrical abstract art' and 'geometrical reference notes, sometimes names, often not even that. As
abstract art'. Even if this list of isms appears to be complete, can be seen from this list of headings, he did not think in
Barr had certainly not considered all schools of art between traditional categories. If he was at a loss for suitable names
1890 and 1935. For example, symbolism and divisionism or for art trends and cultural phenomena, then he simply
the Spanish movements ultraismo and logicofobismo are created new ones. In other words, long before Barr
missing. The expressions emphasized in red hold a special designed the Diagram oj Stylistic Evolution from I8go until
position, such as 'Japanese prints', 'Near-Eastern art', I935, not artists but isms, whether 'Tatlinism', 'Cezannism'
'negro sculpture' and 'machine esthetic', which to a certain or 'Picassoism', ranked first in his appreciation of modern
extent influenced the development of European modernism. art history. If we understand correctly, Barr's 'Ism Diction-
From a central position the impulses of the 'machine ary', following Lissitzky's and Hans Arp's book on
esthetic' reach far into the pluralistic system of styles. It is 'Kunstismen' (1925), was an improved, never to be fulfilled
even a decisive factor in 'modern architecture'. 7 publication project on this subject, in which Barr added
According to the culturally critical understanding of over 20 more isms to Lissitzky's 16 (figure 5).'"
W.J. T. Mitchell, the main area of influence of the 'machine In his diagram Barr defined the date of change from the
esthetic' is not only the dominance of technology. Rather it genius cult of early modernism to transsubjective collectivity
shows the imperial predOIninance of the industrial states as around 1900.13 This change implied the question, which
compared with their colonies ('negro sculpture'). As far as has been discussed since postmodernism, namely, whether
external influences on European art are concerned in the twentieth century the artist disappears in stylistic
('Japanese prints', 'Near-Eastern art', 'negro sculpture'), factions as social rebel or esthetic revolutionary, and exists
these do not really assert themselves. 8 The West remains, today merely as representative of one or other stylistic
with respect to its esthetic self-revival, to a certain extent faction, or whetller what he creates can still be world-
self-sufficient. shaking or attract attention in a special context. Barr has no
answer to all these questions, as he was just beginning to
FROM ARTISTS TO ISMS OF ART grope his way forward to their formulation. Yet he still
Barr postulated in his diagram, with a certain far-sighted- ranks among the few to comment on this field of problems.
ness, the replacement of the once prevailing individual In the book Das P"ohlem der Generatione1! in der Kunst-
artists by art movements. What Barr diagnosed, El geschichte Europas, dating from 1926, Wilhelm Pinder
Lissitzky, the Russian constructivist, had already demanded a history of art according to generations. '4 By
demanded of his colleagues, at the beginning of the 1920S. that he simply meant artists listed chronologically according
The artist professed that what was needed to found new to dates of birth, in order to be able to make cross-references
forms of art, the so-called 'Prouns', was not more 'puttering to the contemporaries throughout history. With this method
individualists' but a perpetual 'new creative collective'. the frequently recurring discrepancy between 'Gleichzeitig-
The personality of the author disappears in the common keit' (simultaneousness) and 'Gleichaltrigkeit' (equal in
work. The result is the 'birth of a new style', namely of age) could be graphically demonstrated and appropriate
prounism and not of solipsistic artists. 9 Various drafts of comparisons between painters, sculptors and musicians
Barr's diagram have survived in which he repeatedly could be drawn. Applied to Barr's example this means that
identifies the various style trends with artists (figures 3, the four fathers of modernism, although almost simulta-
4).'0 The fact that their names were OInitted in the printed neously causing an innovative impact, actually belonged to
version - they were slid into the chronology of the different generations and therefore also different historical
catalogue - surely did not happen owing to lack of space. contexts. The eldest by far is Cezanne, born in 1839. Then
One may rather assume that Barr anticipated a fundamen- follow Gauguin and van Gogh, born in 1848 and 1853. The
tal shift in recent art history, which he was not able to youngest of them, Seurat, was born in 1859. Let us not
describe or even analyze in words. TIllS theory is once more question the infornlative value of the birth tables Pinder
supported by the so-called 'Ism Dictionary', discovered in had in mind, but recognize in them a tendency toward an
the drawer of Barr's desk after his death. In this glossary environmentalism of artist biography. It is essential to
dating most likely from 1927, when Barr was still teaching remember that there is a very small gap between the genera-
at Wellesley College, each page is devoted to one ism. The tion table and genealogy, yet Pinder did not close this gap.
following is a selection: 'Abstractionism', 'Synchronism', The concept of a family tree as a model for art history was
'Kinetism', 'Minimalism', 'Machinism', 'Contradictionism', as remote to him as was a plan of history according to the
'Neoplasticism', 'Elementarism', 'Futurism', 'Transcendent- years in which the artists died. If Barr had on the contrary
alism, physical', 'Dynamism', 'Automobilism', 'Tactilism', adopted Pinder's ideas in his diagram, it would have been
'Imaginism', 'Suprematism', 'Totalism', 'Cosmism', more obvious that in spite of the difference in age, the four
'Cloisonnisme', 'Symbolism', 'Cubism', 'Lyrism', fathers had a clear influence by the end of the 1880s, while
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Archives, Alfred H. Barr,Jr papers). Photograph courtesy Museum of Modem Art, New York.

390 ASTRIT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

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Art, Archives, Alfred H. Barr,Jr papers) . Photograph courtesy Museum of Modem Art, New York.

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I'art. The Isms of Art (Erlenbach-Ztlrich: Eugen Rentsch, 1925), cover.
Figure 6. Alfred H. Barr, Jr, ltlliion Painting and Sculpture.• 1300-1800, in
the significance of Cezanne was not recognized until the Italian Masters: Lent by The Royal Italian Government (New York: Museum
twentieth century by the cubists. . of Modern Art, 1940), front endpaper. Photograph courtesy Museum
Nevertheless, a theory of the origin of species without of Modem Art, New York.
names of artists, for instance a theory of the origin of styles,
would have been unthinkable for Barr. In the catalogue development of art as a conquest of new stylistic programs in
'Italian Masters' of the e.'Chibition of the same name in the the Diagram of Stylistic Evolution from IB90 until 1935. If one
'MoMA in 1940, he expanded his Diagram of SD'listic Evolution wishes to form an idea of the periodicity of the self-assertive
from IB90 until 1935 by using two further diagraIDS retrospec- strategies of the avant-garde from the late nineteenth
tively to the fourteenth century. In the diagram which is century up to the mid-1930s, it helps to glance at the chrono-
printed on the front flyleaf of the catalogue, Barr developed logical table on both sides of the setting of art history.
a genealogy from 'Giotto' to Giovanni Battista 'Tiepolo' The gravity of the years pulls downwards. Thus for Barr
based strictly on old masters (figure 6). In place of spheres of the 'Abstraktionsdrang' (Wilhelm Worringer) is directed
influence in the sense of a style'S history, guarantors of towards the future. Whoever intends to succeed must win
quality appear, the 'great masters' as they are called, who this over to his side in the struggle for modern forIDS of
became the accepted models in Venice, Florence, Rome and expression. With the aid of the year names one succeeds in
Naples. On the inner back cover of the book, a second chart bringing the activities of the avant-garde, which seem at first
is depicted. This illustrates the different degrees of relation- sight confusing, under control as far as time is concerned.
ship which are supposed to exist between Renaissance This is made easier by the fact that there are caesuras of
painters of Italy and the French artists of the late nineteenth time, therefore factors which bring about distance.
century (figure 7).'5 Here too the links in the line of
ancestors are formed by predominant masters and not by art THE 'Q.UERELLES' OF MODERN ART
movements. Not until shortly before 1900 does the individual According to Barr's diagram various streaIDS of isIDS form a
artistic identity disapJ>f'.ar with the 'impressionists' into a coalition at the beginning of our century, when coalitions
collective designation. Barr thus confirms the terminus a quo had strategic advantage. They went into opposition if it
for the transition to his 'art history without names'. appeared necessary in their own interest. Frequently the
Other than in the diagram Italian Sources of Three Great manifestos of artistic groups were drawn up in the tenor of
Traditions of European Painting, Barr describes the modern battle cries, whereby the most aggressive voices, as we

392 ASTR IT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

 ITALIAN SOURCES OF THREE GREAT
TRADmONS OF EUROPEAN PAINTING as linear models of evolution would have us believe. Barr's
"'4'MfW T ,uiri..u rtdt ( ..... , ,....... ,.... T,./_...: "Cullk" "" T, .. Ji,;" • • , O,IoulItNl,.. , train of modernism does not move on a single track, but on
... 1 """ .. l, ........ ,., •• 1 lI"lI, """'*'''' /.,,,, j"" •.
.... uJ . , ernj " .. 1 . . ...... ",1
.,..i,_I"••,/"..;,•• , '"lffl
several parallel tracks .
""" """ It is remarkable that the most severe confrontations in art
took place during and after the First World War, that is at
more or less the same time as the battles which were then
.<00 .... being fought in world politics. Between roughly 1905 and
1920 cross-references and interactions of isms noticeably
increase. This causes the linear sequence to falter. (See for
example the transverse arrow from 'e."'pressionism' to
,,00 .>00
'Bauhaus'.) Above all, 'cubism' and 'Bauhaus' prove to be
vast containers for very differing currents. As the great
'integrators' of modem art they unite various stylistic
. 600 1600
impulses and, having transformed them, pass them on
again. The turbulent period from 1905 to 1920 is in a
certain sense the 'hot' phase within the chronology of this
century, which, as Claude Levi-Strauss once explained it for
" .. .. ".. anthropology, owing to its numerous events for the
historian, possesses a 'character of differential elements' .
The 'colder' times, those years in which little or sometimes
Gor·
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even nothing at all happened, would consequently lie
between 1895 and IgoO, the actual incubation period of the
avant-garde, and between [928 and 1934. In this third and
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ment of history, the artistic network of European avant-
garde has disintegrated. There is no longer a main strand,
Figure 7. Alfred H. Barr, Jr, Italitm Sources oj Three Great Traditions oj no more ranufication.
European Painting, in Italian Masters: Lent b..~ The Royal Italitm Government Barr diagnosed a rift in the art of his day, according to
(New York: Museum of Modem Art, 1940), back endpaper. which modernism drifts apart in two streams: on the one side
Photograph courtesy Museum of Modem Art, New York. into 'non-geometric abstract art', on the other into
'geometric abstract art' . Antonyms such as this are discern-
know, came from the futurists and dadaists. Compared ible in Wassily Kandinsky's work of contraries 'great
with these, synthetism and neo-impressionism were almost realistic' and 'great abstraction' of 1912, for which he one
silent. Nevertheless, isms try side by side to influence year later created the allegory of a family tree with 'two
'fauvism'. Even if 'dadaism' and 'expressionism' distance main branches', with 'earlier art' and 'non-objective
themselves from each other, both isms finally join together painting' .17 This main differentiation between 'objective'
in 'non-geometrical abstract art'. The confrontations and 'non-objective painting' was determined by Kasimir
implied here are not directly fought out as in the 'querelles' Malevitch in his educational tables of the 1920S as a result of
of past epochs.,6 In this context one should recall Honore stylistic 'blending', using as an example two pictures by
Daumier's caricature Combat des ecoles dating from 1855, in Nathan Altman (figure 8).'8 Without historical perspective
which old and new conceptions of art, the Salon and the Kandinsky drew, even more distinctly than Malevitch or
academy and hence the grandchildren of Jacques-Louis Barr, a dividing line between the two rivaling artistic objec-
David and the supporters of Gustave Courbet's realism, tives and treated them as two sides of one and the same
fight a duel for esthetic positions. By the way of compari- subject. Therefore it would not be paradoxical for him to
son, Barr does justice to the original meaning of avant- place a naive painter such as the customs officer Rousseau in
garde as the advanced guard of any army: it repeatedly the wing of 'geometrical abstract art'. According to Barr, the
forces its way forward in his diagram like raiding parties stylistic opposites are 'outcome', the result of historical devel-
who advance into new territories of art. They are fighting opment. Art undergoes a polarization into two opposing
for their place in the history of art. Thc arrows coming camps, parallel to which a polarization on the political plane
from different stylistic camps mark the impact with which also started to become apparent with the formation of totali-
they make a breach in convention. If one pursues the tarian regimes in contrast with the so-called free world.
direction of these vectors, it becomes obvious that the The historical significance of the individual isms is
individual schools did not supersede or follow one another, completely lost in Barr's S~listic Evolutionfrom lOgo until 1936

393
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Amsterdam.

as is clearly shown by a comparison with the graphic ofJose long period. Whether Barr also considered it still as a 'central
Pierre in his book Le Futurisme et ie dadafsme (Lausanne, issue' of modernism in 1936, as is sometimes maintained,'9
1966). By means ofa bar chart Pierre chronologically shows appears questionable. Upon close e..'Camination of his
the Most Significant Trends in Modern Painting from 'impres- diagram one can certainly draw other conclusions: despite
sionism' up to 'surrealism' between 1860 and 1960 (figure the utter clarity of his plan, a quality fully appreciated by
9). The complexly woven relationship within modern art, the crities,"· one must consider whether the various 'pressure
which in Barr's deductive representation with its zigzag groups' for new forms and contents should not be assessed
connections bears almost genial traits, is soberly relativized according to their respective areas of influence instead of by
here. What is important to Pierre is solely the objective their innovative power. Although Barr placed 'cubism' on
positioning of the 14 - described as autonomous - isIllS over the edge of events in the final version of the diagram dating
a period of 100 years. Compared, however, with the persis- from 1936 compared with earlier drafts (figures 3, 10), it
tent schools such as 'expressionism' (1885-1933), 'abstract transmitted far more impulses than for example 'futurism' or
art' (after 1910) or 'surrealism' (after 1924), 'fauvism' 'orphism', two art movements which are given central
(1905-07) and 'Der Blaue Reiter' (1911-13) in particular positions, but which had little authority. There is indeed a
represent short-term currents. On the other hand, they were certain amount of paradox in this fact. One must actually
represented by a disproportionately large number of artists, read the catalogue in order to be able to throw light on this
as can be seen from the list of names at the lower edge of the inner contradiction between the marginality of cubism on
picture. the one hand and its considerable influence on the other."'
Only then does Barr's value judgement, which is in
EVALUATING CUBISM substance unfounded, become comprehensible: while he
Among the trend-setting styles since the closing years of the interprets modernism formally and thus forms the sequence
nineteenth century, cubism played a dominant role for a of the various styles, he represents the isIllS inspired by

394 ASTRIT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

 -
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,
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8«:knunn

Figure g. Jose Pierre, The Most Important Currellts of Modem Painting, Ig66, in Futurismus UIld Dadaismus (Lausanne: Editions Rencontre, 1967), pp. 138-9.

cubism as a stylistic cul-de-sac. Objective description and tions of 1936, which made a considerable contribution to
subjective opinion become entangled here in an inherent the canonical formation of art since the late nineteenth
contradiction, which can also be detected in his diagram. century. In this way, key works of the early twentieth
The reason may be Barr's decreasing interest in cubism after century, for example Pablo Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avigllon
1927, a development connected with his first trip to Europe dating from 1907, came to New York. Through his activities
and the subsequent encounters with representatives of as art intermediary, Barr formed the appreciation of the
Bauhaus, new functionalism, or the Russian avant-garde in European avant-garde at the beginning of the twentieth
Dessau, Berlin, Moscow and elsewhere. 22 Discussions held century, not only for American visitors but also for the
there caused a shift in the scientific focus point of the following generation of art historians. 2s The success of hi~
American art historian. For Barr, as can be perceived from informative work with respect to art history can be seen
other remarks, cubism was a historically significant yet at the clearly from the fact that the United States acted as a
same time outdated expression of style. Trend-setting protecting force for a modernism faced with the 'Degenerate
perspectives were no longer to be expected from it. Art' campaign initiated by the German National Socialist
Therefore, he relied entirely on surrealism and its impulses. party in 1937."+
The exhibition 'Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism', which
opened eight months after 'Cubism and Abstract Art', was CRITICAL RECEPTION
an attempt to provide a stimulus in this situation. Barr's reconstructed pre-history of 'abstract art', as used in
In his capacity as the first Director of the Museum of modified forms by critics such as Clement Greenberg or
Modern Art, Barr determined the collecting policy of the Harold Rosenberg, was repeatedly accused of formalism. 25
institute in its most important phase of development in Contextual systems of clarification, preferred by younger art
accord with his concept of modernism. The acquisition of historians, were far from Barr's intention. In a certain sense
abstract and surrealistic works for the MoMA's collection the art historical concept ofJohann Joachim Winckelmann,
was directly connected with his two comprehensive exhibi- who counts as the 'father of modern art history', survived in

395
 Kandinsky, strongly protested the positions they had been
allocated within the genealogy. Others such as Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy accused Barr of having inadequately consid-

/ .1
(;-~q
~-I
T I
ered the simultaneousness of events in his realization. Barr
reacted to these and similar accusations with indifference.
The proposals of his correspondents seem to have motivated
him to revise the book at a later date, but nothing came of
this plan. All that remains are corrections of the printed
II- <-~- catalogue and also of the plan, written by hand, and a letter
dated 13 March 1941, in which Barr elaborates on recent
1
..)..-- °rf - - - desired corrections concerning the diagram (figures II,
:I.. L .~ "''''' T-~ ..
I ~ I·--~ ·..{ <"' J 1 12).29 From the beginning, Barr looked upon his diagram as
~.....,
'U
.(.,.....--
._ ~ ~
~ .... _ .t:.
....::t-_
a kind of work in progress. Revised versions of his 'map of

I I.~
• 'r___ t_1
(, .t,} .........
"'-
modern art', as this was called in the contemporary press,
were therefore essential. It remains questionable whether in
view of the urgency with which this catalogue and also the
plan were accomplished within six weeks, Barr had any
other choice than to supplement his theses in retrospect and
c. reconsider thoroughly once again at a later date. Consid-
0
1 ').1
I ered positively, Barr left the way open for the admission of
new opinions and the revision of outdated points ofview. 30
In this respect he was a good example for his critics.
Probably the most fundamental criticism of 'Cubism and
Abstract Art' came from Meyer Schapiro in 1937; in the
essay 'Nature of Abstract Art' he questions the exclusivity of
Barr's curves of modernism from which it was possible to
Figure IO. Alfred H. Barr, Jr, handwritten diagram, c. I927, pen on
paper (Museum of Modern Art, Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr papers).
'90 S.... 'OI . . .... . f ;.171'"
Photography courtesy Museum of Modern Art, New York. NEO·IMPRESSIONISM
....
him.2s In the same way as Winckelmann argued in Geschichte 1895
189 5
I .......
der Kunst des Alterthums (Dresden, 1764) for a 'system of t_

theories' of style history, Barr always reasoned immanently

for art: every new stream arose as a result of 'logical
outgrowth', as a consequent result of the esthetic basis of
preceding art trends. In his view stylistic changes always
occurred when increased signs of exhaustion were noted in
an art movement, when formal signs of wear and tear
became noticeable and consequently new ideas were
increasingly sought. Behind these ideas the biological system
of growth, blossom and decay is hidden, which Barr
adopted from his teacher, the medievalist Charles Rufus
Morey. For this reason there was no room in Barr's evolu-
tionary diagram for social changes, for spiritual, literary or
other sources of inspiration besides art for the abstract
painters from Kandinsky to Jackson Pollock - as presented
by art historians since the late 1960s.27
Many artists represented in the exhibition 'Cubism and
Abstract Art' did not miss the opportunity to take a critical
position, especially as Barr had in effect asked for their 19)5 NON·GEOMETRICAl ASSTRIICT ART GEOMETR ICAl IISSTRACT ART 19) S
comment by sending them a free copy of the catalogue. The
written replies ranged from correction of individual data to
Figure I I. Alfred H. Barr, Jr, Corrected Diagram of S~~list~ Evolution from
changes in the chronology; they also referred to the I8go until I935, after I936 (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
method. 28 Some artists, the most polished of them Photograph courtesy Museum of Modern Art, New York.

396 ASTRIT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

Figure 12. Alfred H . Barr, Jr, TIu Developmmt of Abstract Art, 1936, poster, II5.6 x 80 em (Museum of Modern Art, New York). Photograph courtesy
Museum of Modem Art, New York.

397
trace the emergence of art from year to yearY In spite of and Seurat always served as a model for later art historians.
the historical developments shown, Barr's definition of Thus, by way of example, Werner Hofmann made no
abstract art remains mainly ahistoric. What does an art changes whatsoever to Barr's personal selection. 33 He intro-
historian of the American school such as Schapiro mean by duced the same painters, only in a different order, as the
that? It seems to him prejudiced and misleading to demon- 'four patres of the 20th century' in his historiomorphological
strate the history of modernism as an internal, immanent examination Grundlagen der modernen Kunst (Stuttgart, 1978).
process among artists. Therefore Schapiro'S criticism is As a result of the artistic approach of those painters it was
aimed mainly at the methodology of his colleague. Barr is possible to overcome the illusionist attempts of the impres-
accused of having excluded from his considerations the sionists. With the vibrant paintbrush rhythIns of van Gogh,
social conditions for art, that is, its social framing conditions. with the 'cloisonne' of Gauguin, the color forms of Cezanne
Schapiro finds it improbable that the exhaustion of a style is and the pointillism of Seurat, so Hofmann argued, the
the trigger, or in other words the driving power for new impressionist world-view would be corrected and at the
esthetic impulses. He explains the· reasons for this himself in same time the formal and spiritual foundations of our
a brilliant interpretation of impressionism, a convincing century created. Formalism, of which previous art historians
counter-draft to Barr's concept. For if one were to lose sight have accused Barr, applies also to Hofmann. Despite philo-
of the social environment of art, then its history would be sophical underpinning of his analysis, stylistic features also
reduced to 'a myth of the perpctual alternating motion of constitute his main criterion.
generations', in which each link in the line of succession Barr's genealogical tree of the avant-garde is oriented - as
rebels against the previous one and thus repeats the steps of we have seen - according to art immanent features, or to be
the grandparents. Accordingly, esthetic progress turns into a precise on its formal aspects. For exactly this reason the
step backwards. German critic, Laslo Glozer, doubted that the inner change
In 1975 Robert Rosenblum took offence not so much at in art could be incorporated at all in rational tables of
the problems of method as at Barr's genealogical concept. derivation. He questioned whether something in them could
Nor did he think very much of Barr's formalistic deductions be expressed that was similar to the breakdown of our
of modern art. Rosenblum perceived the spiritual roots of cultural system of values by the two great wars of the
'abstract expressionism' not in the cultural achievements of twentietll century.34 In fact, Barr alludes only indirectly to a
the metropolis of the late nineteenth century as such, namely social crisis situation on account of the 'unsettled' stylistic
Paris, but far more in the artistic attempts beyond the movements before 1914. Conscqucntly, Glozer questioned
French borders, that is in Northern Europe and America. the schematization of manifold changes within a complex
Rosenblum's attention was drawn above all to Romanticism. culture. As he insisted on historical connections far beyond
From there he newly arranged modern art and drew lines of the isms, schematized models of explanation are of little use
development between the religious and natural mystic art to him. Nevertheless, he considered them as adequate for an
streaIns around 1800 up to abstract art after 1945, which are epoch in which a series of artistic innovations followed one
very remote from Barr's genealogies of artists: another. The two-dimensional diagram then become
obsolete with their stagnation by the 1930S. In no way could
The genealogical table that can be constructed for the erratic
configurations and gigantic scale of [Clyfford] Still's paintings
it continue to accommodate the complex art scene after
would seem to lead back through the history of Romantic 1945·
landscape painting. The situation is also the same for much of In spite of the objections, with his Diagram of Stylistic
the work by Jackson Pollock, whose images, like Still's, may Developmentjrom I8go until 1935 Barr provided the plan of an
be abstract but nevertheless elicit metaphors within a range of art history of the avant-garde as spheres of stylistic
natural, organic phenomena rather than evoking the rational influence. Scientists and artists have reverted to it as they
constructions of the intcllcct. S' recognized the scope and the range of his historical concep-
Instead of considering the purely esthetic deliberations of tion. It was neither Barr's first nor last, but certainly his
French painting as the actual impulses of abstract modern most portentous illustration, as it formed something like a
art, Rosenblum reminds us of the spiritual sources in prototype for analytical genealogical trees in the twentieth
Romanticism, the transcendental concepts of C. D. century. It should be mentioned that not so much the direct
Friedrich, Ph. O. Runge, William Blake and Samuel adoption of his plan but far more the complexity of the later
Palmer. The painters of the late nineteenth and twentieth diagraIns speaks for the tradition which the American art
centuries could have referred to these. historian established.

NOTES
This article is based on my paper 'Genealogical Concepts of Art
THE DIAGRAM AS ANALYTICAL MODEL
History', which I gave at the 24th Annual Conference of the
Despite the criticism of Schapiro or Rosenblum, Barr's Association of Art Historians in Exeter, 5 April 1998. I pursue this topic
quadriga of modernism with van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne in my book entitled Stammbiiume der Kunst: Zur Genealogie der Avantgarde,

398 ASTR IT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT

forthcoming in 200r. For inspiring me from thc very beginning of this to itself a growing num ber of non-conformist artists and avant-garde
project, I would like to express my considerable gratitudc to Franz circles. Each of these contributed an individual note, even a new trend,
Reitinger. I thank him and Rona Roob for their encouragement and but, at dIe end of thirty years, and despite individual, regional and
for providing me with material. national differences, there emerged two powerful international styles
which constitute Modem Art and, by the inevitable process of
I - Philippe Aries, 'Un Enfant decouvre l'histoire' (1946), in Le Temps evolution, led to the abstract arts of the present day'. Jean Cassou, Emil
de l'kistoire (Paris: Editions Du Seuil, 1986), p. 42. Langui and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Sources of Modern Art, trans.
2 - Thc first Barr biography, researched by Alicc Goldfarb Marquis, is Katherine M. Delavenay and H. Leigh Farnell (London: Thames &
full of errors, as the book review in the Art Journal showed. Helen M. Hudson, 1962), p. 125.
Franc, 'Alfred Barr at the Modcm', Art Joumal, 49/3 (1990), pp. 325-9. 14- Wilhelm Pinder, Das Problem der Generatwnen in der Kunstgescllichte
To the existing long list of errors we need to add a further point: the Europas (MUnchen: F. Brockmann, 1961),58-97.
statcment that a second edition of tile catalogue appeared in Junc 1937 15 - The degree of relationship is elaborated on in numerous points in
is incorrect. See Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Alfred H. Barr, Jr: Missionary the catalogue.
for the Modern (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1989), p. 154; Alfred H. 16 - Petra Kuhlmann-Hodick, Das Kunstgeschichtsbild: Zur Darstellutlg
Barr,Jr., Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., eds von Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttheorie in der deu/schen Kunst des 19.
Irving Sandler and Amy Newman (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Jahrhunderts, vol. 1 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1993),
1986), p. 277- PP·554-80.
3 - Robert Rosenblum, 'Foreword', in Alfred H. Barr, Cubism and 17 - Wassily Kandinsky, Riickblick, with an introduction by Ludwig
Abstract Art, 3rd edn (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1986), pp. 1-4. Grote (Baden-Baden: Klein, 1955), p. 31.
4 - Using Barr's plan, Wolfgang Drechsel and Peter Weibel attempt to 18 - Kasimir S. Malevitch, 'Painting and the problem of architecture',
illustrate the theses of the Amcrican semiologist Nelson Goodman. How in Essl!)Is on Art (192~1933), ed. Troels Andersen, vol. 2 (Copenhagen:
successful they were is a matter of opinion. Wolfgang Drechsel and Borgen, 1968), p. 7.
Peter Weibel, Bildlicht: Malerei ;;wischen Material und ImmalerialitiJt 19 - See for e.xample Susan Noyes Platt, 'Modernisme, formalism, and
(Wien: Europaverlag, 1991), pp. 124-5. politics: the "Cubism and Abstract Art" Exhibition of 1936 at the
5 - Julius Meier-Graefe, Modem Art.. Being a Contribution to a New System Museum of Modem Art', Art Journal, 47/4 (1988), p. 284.
of Aesthetics, trans. 1<10rence Simmonds and George W. Chrystal, vol. I 20 - See Henry McBride, 'Exhibition of abstract art at the Museum
(London: W. Heinemann; New York: Putnam, 1968), originally of Modem Art (1936)', in The Flow of Art: Essf1:.'Vs and Criticisms of
published as Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst: Vergleichende Henry McBride, ed. Danicl Catton Rich (New York: Atheneum, 1975),
Betrachtung der bildenden K finste als Beitrag zu eUl8r modernen Astheti/r;, vol. I P·334·
(Stuttgart:Joll.Joffmann, 1904), pp. 139-40. The works of Pierre 21 - See Alfred H. Barr,Jr, Cubisul and Abstract Art (New York: Museum
Puvis de Chavannes,Johann BartholdJongkind and Andrea Tavernier of Modem Art, 1936), pp. 19,200.
were commended as 'ancestral pictures ofimpressionism'. See also 22 - SeeAlfredH. Barr,Jr, 'Russian Diary 1927-28', in October, 7
Patricia G. Berman, 'The invention of history: Julius Meier-Graefe, (1978), pp. 7-56; Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, 'From faktura to
German modernism, and the genealogy of genius' in lmaginiag Modern factography', in October: The First Decade, I9J6-I!)86, eds Annette
German Culture, I88!}-19IO, ed Fran~oise Forster-Hahn (Washington: Michelson et al., 2nd edn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988), pp. 77-8.
National Gallery of Art, 1996), pp. 91-3 (Studies in the History of Art, 23 - Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet
vol. 53, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Janis Collection of the Museum of Modem Art, foreword Alfred H. Barr, Jr.;
papers X.XXI). intro. William Rubin (New York: Museum of Modem Art, 1972).
6 - In 1963 the Kunstverein in Hamburg dedicated an exhibition to 24 - It would be advantageous to pursue this aspect more thoroughly.
Wegbereiter der modernen Malerei: Ce~anne, GauguUI, van Gogh, Seurat. See Andreas Huneke, 'On the trail of missing ma.~terpieces: modem art
However, no reference was made to Barr's prototype concept. from German galleries', in 'Degenerate Art': The Fate of the Avant-Garde ill
7 - Barr had already recognized the significance of the machine Na..--i Germany, ed. Stephanie Barron (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
esthetics for art in the 1920S. Alfred H. Barr,Jr., 'Foreword', in Machine 1991), p. 12 9.
Art (New York: Museum of Modem Art, 1934), n.p. 25 - For Greenberg primarily the impressionists, namely Manet, Monet,
8 - W.J. T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essf1:.YS 011 Verbal and Visual Pissarro and Sisley, represent the driving power in the evolution of
Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 235-6. modem painting. Clement Greenberg, 'The crisis of dIe easel picture'
9 - El Lissitzky, 'Proun' (1920-21), in Proun und Wolkenbiigel: Schriflen, (1948) and 'On the role of nature in modernist painting' (1949), in Art
Briefe, Dokumente (Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1977), p. 32. andCulture: CriticaIEssf1:.'Vs (New York: Beacon Press, 1961), pp. 154-7,
10 - Compare also with other examples, which were filmed for the 171-4; Harold Rosenberg, 'The American action painters', in The
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Tradition ofthe New (New York: Horizon Press, 1959), pp. 23-4.
See Museum of Modem Art Archives: Alfred H. Barr,Jr Papers [AAA: 26 - The fatherhood of the history of art was naturally not attributed
3263; 1364-6]. solely to Winckelmann. Apart from him, Vasari, Hegel and Carl
I I - The Museum of Modem Art Archives: Alfred H. Barr, Jr Papers Friedrich von Rumohr were seen in this role. See Robert S. Nelson,
[AAA3 26 3J. 'The map of art history', The Art Bulletin, 79/1 (1997), p. 35, 11. 6r.
12 - From the 2 I main streams of art which Meier-Graefe recognized 27 - See Maurice Tuchman, 'Hidden meanings in abstract art', in The
in the nineteenth century, approximately twice as many isms came into Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting I/Jf}IrI!J85 (New York: Abbeville Press,
existence in the period between 1890 and 1935. See Meier-Graefe 1986), pp. 18-g; Okkultismus und Avantgarde: Von Munch bis Mondrian
(1904), p. r. I!}OO-I9I5, ed. Veit Loers (Ostfildem: edition terium, 1995).
13 - Later, Emil Langui took up Barr's analysis again in this article 28 - Platt (1988), p. 292.
'The visual arts from 1884 to 1914': 'This tremendous efflux of ideas, 29 - The MoMA archives these documents. The decisive passage from
feelings and forms, thought up by men like Seurat, Cezanne, van Gogh. the letter mentioned, which is directed to a certain Monroe, reads:
Munch, Ensor, Gauguin, Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian and other 'Omit the arrow from "Negro Sculpture" to "Fauvism". Add a red
independents, was to crystallise in "isms", whose apparent arrow from "Machine Esthetic" to "Futurism". The three dotted
contradictions only betokened an e.'Ctraordinary wealth.... Set in arrows leading from "Purism", "de Stijl" and "Neo-Plasticism" and
motion by a few isolated giants, this double stream gradually attracted "Bauhaus" to "Modem Architecture" should be solid, not dotted.

399
There should be a black arrow from "Abstract Expressionism" to Art: I9th & 20th Century. Selected Papers, vol. 2 (New York: George
"Abstract Dadaism" and another black arrow from "Abstract Braziller, 1978), p. 189.
Expressionism" to "Abstract Surrealism". The dotted arrow from 32 - Robert Rosenblum, Modern Painting and the Northern Tradition:
"Redon" to "Abstract Surrealism" should be omitted'. Friedrich to Rothko (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), p. 203.
30 - The art historian, Dorothy Miller, member of staff at the 33 - Even later the four 'fathers of modernism' remained historical
MoMA, recalls the intensive preparatory period before the prototypes. Monika Wagner objected strongly to widening their circle
exhibition: Barr 'thought it was a hasty job, though, of course, it was with Goya, David, Turner or !<'riedrich. Monika Wagner, 'Vorwort', in
the only thing of its kind then'. Russell Lynes, Good Old Modern: An Modeme Kunst: Das Funkkolleg zum Verstiindnis der Gegenwartskunst, vol. I
Intimate Portrait of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: Atheneum, (Reinbek, Rowohlt, 1991), p. 12.
1973), p. 138. 34 - Laszlo Glozer, Westkunst: 2.;eitgeniissische Kunst seit I939 (Cologne:
31 - See Meyer Schapiro, 'Nature of abstract art' (1937), in Modern DuMont, 1981), pp. 19-20.

400 ASTRIT SCHMIDT BURKHARDT