A Short Life of Trouble Forty Years in the Ne York Art World [Hardcover]

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 movement and the excitement of the New York art world during that time. Her own new ways of thinking led her to take principled stands that have changed the way art museums consider contemporary art. As curator of painting and sculpture at the Whitney, she organized major exhibitions of the work of Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, and Richard Tuttle, among others. As founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, she organized and curated groundbreaking exhibitions that often focused on the nexus of art and politics. The book highlights Tucker's commitment to forging a new system when the prevailing one proved too narrow for her expansive vision.

Marcia Tucker,who died in 2006, was a curator of contemporary art and the founder and director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.Liza Louis an artist.

Marcia was instrumental in introducing so many artists throughout her career, and I was one of them. Bruce Nauman

I know of no other curator who has left a major museum and said, 'I'll start a new museum.' Marcia was for me a mentor, then a beacon, and later a role model. I consider myself fortunate. John Baldessari

Marcia was a rebel with a cause: shaking up the staid world of art museums. She did it with vision, guts, and humor. We are forever indebted to her example. Guerrilla Girls

A Short Life Of Troublegossipy and delicious, smart and often deeply movingtakes us through Marcia Tucker's tough but fascinating days as a young, adventurous curator at the Whitney Museum to her amblcÀ