The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (330 page)
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Authors: Ian Chilvers
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Musée du Luxembourg
, Paris.
, Paris.
Musée National d'Art Moderne
, Paris.
, Paris.
Musée d'Orsay
, Paris.
, Paris.
Museum of Modern Art
, New York.
, New York.
The world's pre-eminent collection of art from the late 19th cent. to the present day, privately founded in 1929 by a group of collectors. It operated first in rented premises, holding loan shows, but the nucleus of the permanent collection was established with the bequests of Lillie P. Bliss (including nine
Cézannes
) and other founders. The present building, in 53rd Street, was opened in 1939 and there have been several major extensions (in 1966 it took over the adjacent premises vacated by the
Whitney
Museum when it moved to its new home). Apart from painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts, the museum has collections of photographs, films, and architectural documentation, and a large library. Through its permanent collections, exhibitions, and many other activities it exercises a strong influence both on taste and on artistic production. The many publications it has produced include some of the standard works on modern art, several of them written by Alfred H.
Barr
, jun., the first director of the museum.
Cézannes
) and other founders. The present building, in 53rd Street, was opened in 1939 and there have been several major extensions (in 1966 it took over the adjacent premises vacated by the
Whitney
Museum when it moved to its new home). Apart from painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts, the museum has collections of photographs, films, and architectural documentation, and a large library. Through its permanent collections, exhibitions, and many other activities it exercises a strong influence both on taste and on artistic production. The many publications it has produced include some of the standard works on modern art, several of them written by Alfred H.
Barr
, jun., the first director of the museum.
Muybridge , Eadweard
(1830–1904)
. British-born photographer and pioneer of motion photography who emigrated to the USA as a young man. Muybridge became Director of Photographic Surveys to the US Government, and while surveying the Pacific coast in 1872, he was asked by the railroad magnate Leland Stanford, then Governor of California, to photograph a horse in motion, evidently to settle a bet as to whether a horse ever had all four legs off the ground simultaneously. Muybridge experimented with a battery of cameras with high-speed shutters operated by the horse itself passing across trip threads (he worked at Stanford's stud farm, and at his expense), and succeeded in proving that all four legs of a horse are indeed at times in the air simultaneously. He published his photographs in
The Horse in Motion
(1878), and then went on to study the movement of other animals, including humans, publishing his results in volumes such as
Animal Locomotion
(1887). In 1880 he invented the zoopraxiscope to project the pictures and recreate the movements he had photographed, and this he showed to scientific bodies all over Europe and America. This predecessor of the modern cinema caused a sensation. Muybridge's photographs were much used as a source by artists, among them
Eakins
and the
Futurists
.
. British-born photographer and pioneer of motion photography who emigrated to the USA as a young man. Muybridge became Director of Photographic Surveys to the US Government, and while surveying the Pacific coast in 1872, he was asked by the railroad magnate Leland Stanford, then Governor of California, to photograph a horse in motion, evidently to settle a bet as to whether a horse ever had all four legs off the ground simultaneously. Muybridge experimented with a battery of cameras with high-speed shutters operated by the horse itself passing across trip threads (he worked at Stanford's stud farm, and at his expense), and succeeded in proving that all four legs of a horse are indeed at times in the air simultaneously. He published his photographs in
The Horse in Motion
(1878), and then went on to study the movement of other animals, including humans, publishing his results in volumes such as
Animal Locomotion
(1887). In 1880 he invented the zoopraxiscope to project the pictures and recreate the movements he had photographed, and this he showed to scientific bodies all over Europe and America. This predecessor of the modern cinema caused a sensation. Muybridge's photographs were much used as a source by artists, among them
Eakins
and the
Futurists
.
Mylsbek , Josef
(1848–1922)
. The leading Czech sculptor of the late 19th and early 20th cents. He created numerous statues of national heroes in Prague, most notably the famous St Wenceslas Monument in Wenceslas Square, which was conceived in 1887 but not completed until 1923, the year after Mylsbek's death. His work is in the Renaissance tradition but has a suitably Romantic Slavonic ardour;
Rodin
admired his richly worked bronze surfaces.
. The leading Czech sculptor of the late 19th and early 20th cents. He created numerous statues of national heroes in Prague, most notably the famous St Wenceslas Monument in Wenceslas Square, which was conceived in 1887 but not completed until 1923, the year after Mylsbek's death. His work is in the Renaissance tradition but has a suitably Romantic Slavonic ardour;
Rodin
admired his richly worked bronze surfaces.
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