Masterpieces. The William Rubin Collection

His unprecedented acquisitions for MoMA’s collection and the groundbreaking exhibitions that showcased them were accompanied by monographs that have become essential reading to the history of art.
These include: Picasso and Portraiture (1996), Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism (1989), and perhaps most importantly “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern (1984).
In contrast to previous volumes, this publication focuses on Rubin’s private collection— providing rare introspections on how he lived, what he wrote and the objects with which he surrounded himself.
Portrayals of his personal relationships written by artists artists Frank Stella and Richard Serra, art historians Francis Naumann, Fred Lamp, Bernard de Grunne, and Ulf Ku¨ster, writer Adam Gopnik, and fellow collector Ronald Lauder all contribute to our understanding of his vision.
Phyllis Hattis Rubin, art historian and wife of William Rubin, contributes the principal the essay: “Living with Bill: an Artful and Art-filled Life”.
This 400-page book accompanies a traveling international exhibition of the collection, and is sumptuously illustrated with fullpage plates and details.
These images illuminate a dialogue between tribal and modern masterpieces, beginning with the Cubist movement that invigorated the art of Cézanne for the early modernists as Picasso, Dubuffet, Giacometti, and Matisse by absorbing the power and innovation of tribal sculpture.