Collecting as Modernist Practice

334 Pages·2012·4.571 MB·English

by  Braddock, Jeremy

Collecting
as Modernist
Practice
Hopkins Studies in Modernism
Douglas Mao , S eries Editor
Collecting
as Modernist
Practice
Jeremy Braddock
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2012
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
B raddock, Jeremy.
Collecting as modernist practice / Jeremy Braddock.
p. cm. — (Hopkins studies in modernism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-0364-9 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-0364-1 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
1. Modernism (Literature) 2. Collectors and collecting.
3. Anthologies—History and criticism. I. Title.
PN56.M54B746 2012
069'.409—dc23 2011019906
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For Rayna
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Collections Mediation Modernism 1
1 After I magisme 29
The Lyric Year and the Crisis in Cultural Valuation 29
The Anthology as Weapon 39
The Others Formation 50
Reprisal Anthologies 64
2 The Domestication of Modernism: The Phillips
Memorial Gallery in the 1920s 71
Pictorial Publicity 71
Subconscious Stimulation, a Professional Public
Sphere 77
Problems in Collecting Pictures 87
Akhenaten, Patron of Modernism 93
3 The Barnes Foundation, Institution of the New
Psychologies 106
Against Dilettantism 106
A System for the New Spirit 111
Collection and Institution 125
The Art of Memory in the Age of the
Unconscious 137
viii Contents
4 T he New Negro in the Field of Collections 156
Sage Homme Noir 156
Precursor Anthologies 159
Coterie, Movement, Race 173
The Heritage of T he New Negro 185
Downstairs from the Harlem Museum 194
5 Modernism’s Archives: Afterlives of the Modernist
Collection 209
Two Termini 209
Two Consecrations 212
Two Archives 214
Notes 229
Bibliography 279
Index 301
Acknowledgments
The earliest thinking for this project began with the inspiration of two re-
markable teachers, Phil Harper and Tim Morton. The work took shape under
the brilliant guidance of Jean-Michel Rabaté, who fi rst listened to my incho-
ate eff usions about the Barnes Foundation and T he New Negro (responding
with “collecting!”) and then spent many hours in conversation with me as
the project evolved. I am equally indebted to Susan Stewart, who has been
an assiduous respondent and inspiring mentor from almost the beginning; it
is impossible to think of a better reader for these pages. Jim English encour-
aged me to pursue questions of institutionality more thoroughly, advice that
proved to be decisive as I revised and rewrote the manuscript. Michael Awk-
ward, too, was a smart, perceptive reader. Many other teachers, colleagues,
and friends in Philadelphia contributed to the intellectual life of this book:
Bob Perelman, Margreta de Grazia, Michèle Richman, Vicki Mahaff ey, Craig
Saper, Ilan Sandler, Ben Austen, Kathy Lou Schultz, Tyler Smith, Gabriela
Zoller, Hester Blum, and Martha Schoolman.
My research was greatly aided by many archivists and librarians. I am
happy to acknowledge the expertise of John Pollack and Dan Traister of
the Rare Books and Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania,
Nancy Kuhl at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, James May-
nard of the Poetry Collection at the University at Buff alo, Karen Schneider
of the Phillips Collection, Katy Rawdon and Deborah Lenert of the Barnes
Foundation, and Joellen El Bashir of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Cen-
ter at Howard University. In a similar spirit I thank Bruce Kellner, who pro-
vided guidance concerning the collection of Carl Van Vechten, and Suzanne
Churchill, who helpfully answered questions about Alfred Kreymborg and
Others .