Women Art Collectors and the Museums they started

September 6, 2024 3:51 PM

Did you realize that some of the most famous Modern Art Museums were either started by women or run by them? In the current exhibition Brilliant Exiles at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery(previously ), one portrait's information made the comment that many Modern Art Museums in America had their origin in collections started by women during this time. Here are a few articles about them and other museums started by women

Women at the Museum of Modern Art

6 Women Collectors

American Women's Roles as collectors

The National Museum for Women in the Arts

Museums founded by women

Art Museums created by Women

Women Collectors and the Museums they made

Peggy Guggenheim

posted by Art_Pot (2 comments total)

Interesting, thanks for posting. I was especially interested in the Guggenheim link. That's a great photograph of her arranging an artwork. I saw an exhibition about her recently in Petersfield, where she lived for a while in the 1930s. There's a Guardian article referencing the exhibition here: Interview
‘She was trying to find herself’: the untold story of Peggy Guggenheim, Hampshire homemaker. It has another good photograph of Guggenheim, caped and in front of a Picasso. The Guardian article left a slightly odd impression with me - it's an interview with Karole Vail, who is the director of the Venice Guggenheim, and also PG's granddaughter, and it focusses on PG's failings as a grandparent: "while Peggy was a superlative art collector, she left much to be desired as a mother and grandmother". Really unsure you'd get that coverage of a male art collector.
posted by paduasoy at 6:57 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]

Outside of the US, the Kröller-Müller Museum in the southeast of the Netherlands was founded by Helene Kröller-Müller (from her personal art collection) and has the second largest set of Van Goghs after the official museum in Amsterdam. It's located on the grounds of her estate which is now entirely enclosed in a park. Visitors have to bike from the park entrance to the museum on the free white bikes that work on a no reservation leave a bike, take a bike system.
posted by autopilot at 11:35 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]