Jacqueline Moss

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 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.

Jacqueline E. Moss
Jacqueline Moss publicity photo
Jacqueline Moss, ca. 1980
Alma materCooper Union, Queens College
OccupationArt historian
Parent(s)Ruth Brewer Eisenberg
Jacob Eisenberg

Career

Moss was associated with the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut for fifteen years. Larry Aldrich founded the museum to house his art collection of contemporary art.[1] Moss gave seminars, lectured and later became curator of education.[2][3] 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 in Otterlo,[4][5] known for its extensive collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh. In Norway, they visited a stave church in Borgund.[6]

She taught at the University of Bridgeport and Housatonic Community College in Connecticut[7] and lectured at the Kansas City Art Institute, The New School, Bard College and the Smithsonian Institution.[3] Prior to teaching on the university level, she taught at the Daycroft School in Greenwich, Connecticut.[8] She lectured on the art collection owned by Joseph Hirshhorn at his Greenwich estate and led tours of the sculpture garden before it was sent to Washington, D.C. to the Hirshhorn Museum,[8] built to house his art collection.[9] Moss was also the art critic at The Advocate[10] and a contributor to The Christian Science Monitor[7] and Arts Magazine, a monthly arts journal. Her article on Gertrude Greene was the cover story for the April 1981 issue of Arts.[11] 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 and May Stevens.[2] At the Aldrich Museum, she curated a series on "Art by Contemporary Women Artists".[12]

Jacqueline Moss with Joseph Hirshhorn at his Greenwich sculpture garden, 1970

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,[13] and Germany.[14] She first went to China in 1982[15] 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.[16] By the time Moss returned just three years later, in 1985, tourism had grown from 230,000 in 1978[16] 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 and visited the Mogao Caves.[17] She also took groups to Egypt,[3] Japan,[18] Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Soviet Union,[6] Brazil,[19] and other countries. In 1989, political unrest in China caused her to reschedule a return there.[20]

Moss held a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cooper Union[7] and received a Master's degree in art history from Queens College in 1980. Her thesis was on the art of Gertrude Greene and is archived at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian.[11]

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.[21] Her mother was Ruth Brewer Eisenberg, "Ivory" of Ebony and Ivory, a piano duo of two grandmothers, one white and one black, who had had strokes and played together, one hand each.[22]

Selected publications

Catalogs

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)

See also

References

  1. "Oral history interview with Larry Aldrich, 1972 Apr. 25 – June 10" Archives of American Art. Retrieved November 4, 2011
  2. "Art History Seminars" The Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut (November 4, 1977), p. 39. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  3. "Lunch and Art Tour to Feature Jacqueline Moss" The Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut (May 29, 1984), p. 14. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  4. "Aldrich Planning Second European Art Tour" The Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut (February 15, 1978), p. 46. Retrieved November 6, 2011
  5. Stanley Carr, "English beer drinkers toast successful revolt" Wilmington Star News, New York Times News Service (July 24, 1977), p. 3B. Retrieved November 6, 2011
  6. "Art, architecture tour to Sandinavia, Leningrad" The Hour (February 25, 1986), p. 9. Retrieved November 18, 2011
  7. "Jacqueline Moss on Hirshhorn Art" The Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut (March 30, 1977), p. 14. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  8. "Brandeis Women Lunch October 27" The Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut (October 24, 1977), p. 15. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  9. Hirshhorn, Olga The Frick Collection. Retrieved November 13, 2011
  10. Two reviews Juliet Holland Art. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  11. "Jacqueline Moss papers relating to painter Gertrude Greene, 1980–1981" Archives of American Art. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  12. Judy Seigel (1992). Mutiny and the mainstream: Talk that changed art, 1975–1990. Midmarch Arts Press. ISBN 1-877675-05-9. Page 74.
  13. "Architecture, Art To Be Focus of Spanish Tour" Palm Beach Daily News (February 26, 1981), p. A6. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  14. "Moss Sets Tour of Germany in Late Summer" The Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut (June 29, 1982), p. 13. Retrieved November 3, 2011
  15. Lawrence Van Gelder, "Tahitian Canoes, Orient Expresses; Keeping Track Of Two Trains In Europe" The New York Times (June 27, 1982). Retrieved November 18, 2011
  16. George Zhibin Gu, "The China tourism explosion" Asia Times (March 7, 2006). Retrieved November 22, 2011
  17. "China tour visits the Magao Caves" The Hour (July 23, 1985), p. 18. Retrieved November 18, 2011
  18. Diane Doe, "Japan's creative richness, plus a big splash of scuba" Chicago Sun-Times (August 24, 1986). Retrieved November 3, 2011
  19. "Trips & Travel" (PDF) The Wilton Bulletin, The Ridgefield Press, The Redding Pilot, Bethel Home News, The Ledger (January 21–22, 1987), p. C7. Retrieved November 18, 2011
  20. "Karnak on fall tour" The Hour (August 1, 1989). Retrieved November 18, 2011
  21. 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.)
  22. Georgia Dullea, "Ebony and Ivory: 1 Keyboard, 2 Good Hands" The New York Times (September 28, 1987), p. C13. Retrieved November 3, 2011
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