Appearances Mattered

THE NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER COLLECTION: Masterpieces of Modern Art Edited by Dorothy Canning Miller Hudson Hills Press, 1981. 256 pp. Illustrated. $45

At the time of his death in 1979, Nelson A. Rockefeller '30 had formed what is generally acknowledged as the preeminent private collection of 20th-century art in the world. His vast financial resources obviously facilitated the assemblage of his holdings of painting and sculpture, but it would be a considerable error to negate the importance of Rockefeller's inherent sense of taste and quality, a discernment fostered by his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, principal founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and by his involvement in the visual arts during his years as an undergraduate at Dartmouth. (Although an economics major, he devoted his senior year to art in one of the first independent study programs at the College.)

This extraordinarily handsome and profusely illustrated volume is a fitting tribute to a great collector, a man who despite his deep involvement in government and politics retained a lifelong love for the art and artists of his era. There are 255 color illustrations, many full page, predominantly by Lee Bolton, an outstanding photographer of art works. It is a stunning presentation, clearly sparing no expense, which is certainly the route Nelson Rockefeller would have chosen.

The brief but informative introduction by William S. Lieberman, chairman of the department of 20th-century art at the Metropolitan Museum, follows closely his essay in the catalogue Twentieth Century Artfrom the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection, published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1969.'Lieberman's succinct biographical sketches of the major artists represented in Rockefeller's collection — Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro — will be of interest to the casual reader. For those seeking further background, a five-page bibliography is appended.

The greatest strength of Rockefeller's collection is the work of Pablo Picasso. In all, 33 works are illustrated; they range from a 1904 pencil drawing of an actor to a 1953 painted ceramic bird and three drawings of the artist's studio executed in 1954. Several of the major Picasso paintings of the Cubist period were bequeathed to the Museum of Modern Art, of which Nelson Rockefeller became a trustee in 1932 and second president in 1939. Another fine work of this early period was a gift to Dartmouth, "Guitar on a Table" (1912-13). (Sadly, it is the only work from Rockefeller's collection to be given to his alma mater.)

Although Rockefeller began to collect modern sculpture as early as 1935, it was this medium that increasingly drew his interest in later years, when he commissioned and purchased major pieces by Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi, David Smith, and Louise Nevelson. Many of these works were placed on the grounds of his Pocantino Hills, New York, home, since bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In Rockefeller's late sculpture collection, one notes an eclecticism, and, from this reviewer's eye, a less discerning sense of connoisseurship than that in evidence in the purchases of the 1940s and 19505. Further, in several cases casts were executed posthumously without the control or direction of the artists.

One might take exception to a few individual selections, but seen as a whole, Nelson Rockefeller's collection was broad, visionary, and fascinating. As Lieberman notes, "He was a champion of his own time and of the future. As a collector, he was determined and audacious. He was interested in what a work looked like, not what it represented."

Since the collection was dispersed after his death by auction, private sale, and specific bequests, we will never experience such a comprehensive assembly of major works of 20th-century art, and thus we must be particularly grateful to Hudson Hills Press and its collaborators for seeing this publication to fruition.

Richard Teitz is professor of art history anddirector of Dartmouth's new Hood Museum ofArt, which will open in 1984.