Modernism and Memory: Rhoda Pritzker and the Art of Collecting (Icons of the Luso-Hispanic World) - Hardcover

This book is a glorious celebration of Rhoda Pritzker’s collection of 20th-century British art, much of which has been donated to the Yale Center for British Art. Pritzker was an avid and daring collector of paintings, sculptures, and drawings. Keen to support artists whose reputations were still emerging, and loyal to no single school or style, she developed a unique and impressively diverse collection. Pritzker most actively purchased pieces in the mid-1950s, and her collection offers a fascinating window onto postwar artistic production. Beautifully illustrated, this catalogue features a number of unpublished works and archival materials. Among the artists discussed are key figures, including Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, and Henry Moore, as well as lesser-known artists. The texts elucidate the factors that made Pritzker’s method of collecting so singular—namely her relationship to an evolving transatlantic artistic community and the deeply personal nature of the works she procured.