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A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World
This engrossing memoir brings to vivid life the behind-the-scenes struggles of Marcia Tucker, the first woman to be hired as a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. Tucker came of age in the 1960s, and this spirited account of her life draws the reader directly into the burgeoning feminist move...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
October 22nd 2008
by University of California Press
(first published September 22nd 2008)
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Aug 18, 2012
Jacob Wren
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Marcia Tucker writes:
As a novice academician, I was assigned to the introductory classes, but I felt that I had leeway to be inventive, since the department head wasn’t paying much attention to the basic courses. My favorite was art appreciation, the class no one really wanted to teach because, unlike, say, “Sixteenth-Century Folio Editions in the Flemish Lowlands,” it did little for a résumé. I threw everything I knew, and much I didn’t, into the mix, hoping my students – many of them only a fe...more
As a novice academician, I was assigned to the introductory classes, but I felt that I had leeway to be inventive, since the department head wasn’t paying much attention to the basic courses. My favorite was art appreciation, the class no one really wanted to teach because, unlike, say, “Sixteenth-Century Folio Editions in the Flemish Lowlands,” it did little for a résumé. I threw everything I knew, and much I didn’t, into the mix, hoping my students – many of them only a fe...more
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Good, but it could have used a thorough edit. Unfortunately, Tucker died while writing it. Tucker is one of the first female art historians who reached important management level in the museum world in the late 60s. But even after becoming one of the curators at the Whitney, her approach and tastes were a little too radical for that institution. She was fired but instantly founded her own museum, The New Museum. Perhaps the best part of the book is her describing her strategy in founding the mus...more
I'm not a person who does beach reads. Case in point: the other reading I brought on vacation with me was about female infanticide and sex-selective abortion. Yeah, I know how to party.
So, a book about feminism and the art world from the sixties until the early aughties, told in a punchy way, is about as close as I get to a real beach read. Marcia Tucker's story was well told, lively, and thoroughly engaging. Well worth a read if you're interested in contemporary art, feminism and art, and the N...more
So, a book about feminism and the art world from the sixties until the early aughties, told in a punchy way, is about as close as I get to a real beach read. Marcia Tucker's story was well told, lively, and thoroughly engaging. Well worth a read if you're interested in contemporary art, feminism and art, and the N...more
I don't know her but I love her. The writing in this book is at times abrupt, but the story fascinates nonetheless.
I'm so glad there was such a person as Marcia Tucker. And I'm even more glad that she has written a book about herself. Is it possible in this world of chasing after status and money to live deliberately? Yes. She did. And maybe we can learn how from her story.
Kudos to Liza Lou for putting in the hard work to bring us this story. Kudos to Marcia Tucker for living it.
I'm so glad there was such a person as Marcia Tucker. And I'm even more glad that she has written a book about herself. Is it possible in this world of chasing after status and money to live deliberately? Yes. She did. And maybe we can learn how from her story.
Kudos to Liza Lou for putting in the hard work to bring us this story. Kudos to Marcia Tucker for living it.
Marcia Tucker was the founder of the New Museum in NYC. This autobiography takes you through the shaky times and the near-radical brilliance of her life. At times gossipy, bitchy and blunt, her anecdotes paint a not-too-pretty picture of life in the NYC museum world back in the day, but put in perspective a lot of what we do and see in museums today.
I met Marcia Tucker aka Miss Mannerist during or just after grad school and I knew she was amazing but this book reminded me how much she rocked! Amazing woman, great read, new hero!
We need more Marcia Tuckers in this world. She had a beautiful vision and was able to see it through with The New Museum. She is my heroine.
And what an odd thing to read after hearing about synesthesia in Bitter in the Mouth, that Marcia had it as well.
And what an odd thing to read after hearing about synesthesia in Bitter in the Mouth, that Marcia had it as well.
Depressingly tough life story, but also an admirable story in how she founded the New Museum of Contemporary Art
I pretty much devoured this book. Marcia Tucker's memoir is fascinating, especially to this aspiring curator.
A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World by Marcia Tucker (2008)
best book ever. she gave me courage and inspiration to
continue on. what an amazing life!
continue on. what an amazing life!
Watch Marcia Tucker kick an art world's ass.
perhaps a 'niche' read (i.e. if you're not super interested in the minutaie of the life and history of a museum curator, maybe it's not for you), but this is certainly a very satisfying and reasonably well-written autobiography. the inside scoop on the nyc art world 1960s onward at the whitney and the new museum!
This is a powerful memoir by Marcia Tucker, who founded the New Museum. Much of the book is about her struggle to promote avant-garde art, but my favorite parts are more personal, particularly the second chapter--a tragic love story between Marcia and a French count, who dies in the Algerian war. Marcia took my memoir writing workshop. It was a joy to read the finished book. She was an inspiration, to me.
I'm not done yet and I refuse to look up anything else about her until I finish but I got to say this is probably one of the better books I've ever read. Coming from a recent BFA graduate she is truly an inspiring person and such a go getter, if only everyone had the motivation that she had..
if you are interested in working in the museum world, especially in contemporary art or in nyc you MUST read this book. and revel in what a bad ass human being & curator marcia tucker was.
Engaging and sympathetic, although not the best written memoir. Really needed more art world gossip.
Jun 13, 2013
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“First you are young, then you are middle aged; then you are old; then you are wonderful." Lady Diana Cooper”
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