The Night Watch at the Museum of American Art in Prishtina

Lecture by Alfred Barr: The Unmaking of Art

Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and Museum of American Art in Prishtina are pleased to introduce The Night Watch at the Museum of American Art in Prishtina, with the lecture by Alfred Barr, the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, titled “Abstract Cabinet and the Modern Narrative.” A second lecture by writer and collector Gertrude Stein, titled “The Making of Americans,” will follow.

In the lecture, Alfred Barr will relay a story about Alexander Dorner, an innovative director of the Landesmuseum Hannover. In particular, the talk tells of Dorner’s collaboration with El Lissitzky, which materialized in 1928 in one of the most important installations of the twentieth century, known as the Abstract Cabinet. The lecture follows the development of the modern art narrative based on the history of exhibitions. Special attention is placed on the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since its opening in 1929, the museum’s narrative was entirely based on European modern art, with a focus on avant-garde movements. Instead of “National Schools,” its 1936 exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art introduced “International Movements” as a key tool and concept for telling the story known as the History of Modern Art. This story represented the reinterpretation of modern art, was later adopted by Europeans, and became the foundation of the art scene as we know it today.

Lecturers by Gertrude Stein and Alfred Barr were recorded in 2015 at the e-flux on the occasion of the exhibition The Un-making of Art which was based on the lecture by Walter Benjamin, and associates of MoAA.

The Night Watch at the Museum of American Art in Prishtina is a series of events designed as part of Rilindja Rilindja Rilindja Program by Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina when the Museum of American Art in Prishtina opens after visiting hours. These events aim for a direct approach and unparalleled access to the works and stories of the permanent exhibition and the collection of the Museum of American Art in Prishtina through discussions, performances, workshops, and readings within the museum space.

The American Museum of Art in Prishtina is an educational institution dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting memories primarily of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the International Circular Exhibitions of American Art program. It is precisely these MoMA exhibitions, some of which were curated by Dorothy Miller, that helped create the first common post-war cultural identity in Western Europe, an identity based on internationalism, modernism and individualism.

Each event in this series is a research and learning exercise on a single work or series of works from the Museum of American Art collection in Prishtina. An essay, documentary or discussion illuminates the subject in detail and places that work within the life and career of the artist or visitors and the broader historical contexts. This series is a valuable guide to exploring and interpreting some of the most beloved works of art in the Museum of American Art collection in Prishtina.

Rilindja Rilindja Rilindja is supported by The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Kosovo Office, Trembelat and DZG.